About Delancey Street and our holiday tree lots

Delancey Street is the country's leading residential self-help organization for former substance abusers, ex-convicts, homeless and others who have hit bottom. Started in 1971 with 4 people in a San Francisco apartment, Delancey Street has served many thousands of residents in five locations throughout the United States. Residents at Delancey Street range from teenagers to senior citizens, and include men and women and all races and ethnicities. The average resident has been a hard-core drug and alcohol abuser, has been in prison, is unskilled, functionally illiterate, and has a personal history of violence and generations of poverty.

The minimum stay at Delancey Street is 2 years while the average resident remains for almost 4 years—drug, alcohol and crime-free. During their time at Delancey Street, residents receive a high school equivalency degree (GED) and are trained in 3 different marketable skills. Beyond academic and vocational training, residents learn important values, and the social and interpersonal skills that allow them to live successfully in the mainstream of society.

Delancey Street has several different enterprises, including our restaurant and cafe, catering services, moving services, and our holiday tradition, the tree lots. In all our locations around the country Delancey Street maintains Christmas tree lots. Conducted each year only between Thanksgiving and Christmas, this brief holiday promotion is an important training school in the basics of sales, particularly for new residents.

Our tree lots have been community favorites for over 30 years. Here are some of the things that have been written (and broadcast) about them:

Thank you for supporting our important mission! We look forward to serving you this holiday season.