An organization that provides prayer, conversation, and other help to struggling LGBTs and other people late at night is marking its 50th anniversary this year.
San Francisco Night Ministry, founded in 1964, continues to provide a variety of services.
The Reverend Lyle Beckman, a gay man who serves as the night minister and the nonprofit's director, said the organization is there "to talk to people who really want to receive a kind word, some encouragement, a blessing, a prayer, spiritual support," or information to help them get through a crisis "even without a religious conversation."
The group, which has recently been dealing with its own problems related to filing nonprofit tax documents, also provides referrals for housing, health care, job search, legal assistance, and other help.
Through its night ministers – ordained clergy who "walk the streets" – and its volunteer-staffed crisis line, Night Ministry serves about 10,000 different people a year, Beckman, who's 62 and lives in South San Francisco, said.
"We'll talk with anybody about anything, really," he said. That includes people who are homeless and those "just hanging out because they don't have much to do."
The Night Ministry gets an average of 15 to 20 calls a night on the crisis line, which operates from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. About half of the calls come from people in the city, while most of the other inquiries are from other Bay Area cities. The organization works with every age group, income level, and circumstance imaginable, Beckman, who's been with the nonprofit since 2004, said.
Homeless people aren't the only ones seeking help from the Night Ministry. Beckman said the group gets calls from single-room occupancy hotel residents, college students, nursing home residents, people who are "fairly well off" but "lonely," and those dealing with grief or suicidal thoughts.
About 40 percent of the people his group works with are LGBT, Beckman estimated based in part on the people ministers reach out to and the places they go, including the Castro and gay bars in the Tenderloin.
"Historically that was an important reason why our ministry was founded," he said of the organization's work with the gay community.
Five decades ago, many LGBTs came to the city and faced "a lot of discrimination, and really on every level," Beckman said. That included violence and the danger "of being charged with lewd and lascivious behavior," he said. When it was founded, the group committed "to walk with the LGBT community," and others, he said.
Although the crisis line operates until 4 a.m., Beckman said, "sometimes we don't get off the phone until 6 or 7 in the morning" when they're helping someone who's in crisis.
Recently, Beckman spoke with a gay man who's been "living on the streets off and on for 20 years," and was considering suicide as he struggled with issues related to his family, a recent relationship, addiction, and other problems.
Beckman helped the man develop a plan to make his life "a little safer" and gave him several referrals, he said, and the man eventually got into a drug treatment program.
Evolution
The organization has evolved over the years.
Six years ago, the ministry started holding outdoor worship services after people said "they were uncomfortable going into some of the established churches," Beckman said. Each week, open cathedral sessions in the Civic Center and Mission areas draw a total of about 150 people. After the services, the group feeds approximately 250 people.
The Night Ministry would like to add staff in order to serve more people, said Beckman, who estimated more than half of the staff are LGBTQ-identified. There are 16 paid staff and 70 volunteers.
Beckman, whose salary is about $70,000, said a primary challenge the ministry faces is sustaining donations.
"We don't have a huge overhead, but the more money we can raise, the more people we can have on the streets," he said. "It is as simple as that."
The budget is about $400,000, Beckman said. A nonprofit that he declined to name provides office space, and the ministry also receives "a lot of in-kind donations."
The Night Ministry doesn't get public funding. About 70 percent of its income is from individuals, 15 percent is from congregations and organizations, and the other 15 percent is fundraisers.
Beckman said groups like the Imperial Council of San Francisco have been "very supportive of the Night Ministry over the years."
John Weber, the council's board chair, said his organization, which is marking its 50th anniversary next year, has been working with the ministry "probably since its inception." That includes years where AIDS was decimating the city's gay population.
"Night Ministry is out in the street administering to the most vulnerable and disenfranchised members of our society," Weber said. He said it "speaks volumes" that for the last 20 years, each of the court's emperors and empresses has picked the ministry "as one of their charity funds."
There have been people who haven't been sure what to make of the Night Ministry.
"Sometimes," Beckman said, people "might think we represent a more right wing section in the Christian church, that we're out there to change people, or to judge people and to make their lives difficult, and that's not what we do at all."
Sustaining the ministry
As it works to help other people who are struggling, the Night Ministry has recently been dealing with some paperwork issues itself.
Online records from organizations that track nonprofits indicate the ministry hasn't filed tax documents with the IRS since 2010. As of Tuesday, the government agency's website says the nonprofit's tax-exempt status was automatically revoked effective May 15.
"The federal tax exemption of this organization was automatically revoked for its failure to file a Form 990-series return or notice for three consecutive years," the site says. "The information ... is historical; it is current as of the organization's effective date of automatic revocation" and the data isn't necessarily "current as of today's date. Nor does this automatic revocation necessarily reflect the organization's tax-exempt or non-exempt status."
A recording at an IRS number Tuesday said the agency was closed for Veterans Day.
Beckman said, "We are in the process of working with the IRS, so technically" it's not accurate to say the group's lost its tax-exempt status. "We've filed all of our paperwork with them," and the agency has said the Night Ministry is still tax-exempt and donations are tax-deductible, he said.
The problem is that the Night Ministry has not being able to reach its previous accountants. Beckman declined to name the people, because there may be "some litigation that comes up with them."
"We have new accountants, and we're putting ourselves through some rigorous scrutiny right now," Beckman said. The audit report "should be ready" in a week, he said.
The Night Ministry is on the California Secretary of State's list of tax-exempt entities in the state. The secretary of state's data shows the nonprofit is "active" with that agency.
The nonprofit will hold a banquet Sunday, November 16 at Delancey Street Foundation, 600 The Embarcadero, San Francisco. The event is sold out.
For more information about the Night Ministry, visit www.sfnightministry.org. The crisis line, which operates every night of the year, is 415-441-0123.