San Francisco experiences its chilliest summer in 40 years, resulting in a shortage of men's clothing and coats at organizations distributing free or low-priced items. St. Anthony's free clothing program reports bare coat and shoe racks, serving mainly unhoused men. Donations, which have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, are particularly lacking this season. Staff suspect economic concerns may deter donations. Community Thrift notes men often wear clothes until they're unusable, leading to less availability of men's clothing compared to women's.
At St. Anthony's, which hosts San Francisco's largest free clothing program and primarily serves men - many of them unhoused - coat racks are bare, and shoe racks are empty by the time the first few customers of the day go through the organization's Golden Gate Avenue boutique.
Donations to the program, which primarily come through individuals and donation drives, have never recovered to their pre-pandemic levels, but this season seems especially bad, according to staff members.
Men tend to wear their stuff until it's no longer something that someone else would want to wear, said Mocha, who added that it is typical for the store to have much less men's clothing available than women's clothing.
St. Anthony's customers line up at the door beginning at 6 a.m. each day to pick out a designated amount of free clothing.
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