We know the Grace of God is behind the success of the Metropolitan Fresh Start House program. For over 32-years Fresh Start has reached the right people at the right time who care. Throughout our existence the power of people caring for others has been the driving force behind our success despite all the challenges and hardships. And by God’s Grace its people like you, who care, that will keep us moving forward with the ability to help save people for many more years.
The Fresh Start Mission
To restore Men to Dignity, Productivity and Responsibility; to remove unhoused Veterans from the streets or habitation unfit for humans and unworthy of their sacrificial service; to turn their despair into hope and optimism; to rebuild their self-respect and self-esteem while facilitating improvement of their overall health and housing situation.
The Fresh Start Program
Fresh Start is a community-based transitional living program designed to assist unhoused Veterans and other Men in the San Francisco Bay Area who are suffering from substance use disorder and other self-destructing habits or who simply need a fresh start in life. Fresh Start has helped 100’s of unhoused veterans with emergency housing services to stabilize their health and housing while preparing them for independent living, so they can once again become economically self-sufficient members of the community.Our around-the-clock staff manages the house, including food preparation and cleaning services. The program provides full case management service for each Veteran as they work through a structured regiment including Peer Counseling services, Recovery Education, Relapse Prevention, Applied Recovery, and Processing groups all designed to motivate, build self-worth and instill hope daily.
The program is presently housed in the Sunset District of San Francisco, CA and serves the San Francisco Bay Area community.
Our Accommodations
Our accommodations afford each veteran/client a safe, secure, and caring place to call home - their own bed, laundry facilities, personal space for storage and more than adequate bathroom accommodations, as well as a kitchen providing space for their individual food items and three complete professionally prepared meals daily.
Our Philosophy
Our philosophy is based on the therapeutic relationship between an individual participant and the community group. While specific attention is given to participants according to their individual needs, the emphasis is on group dynamics. The purpose is to prepare men for independent living through an evidence-based social model program where the emphasis is on learning by experiencing, and by providing positive role models through staff and volunteers.
Our Founder
Kinwood H. DeVore, along with the members of the Metropolitan Church of Christ, started the Metropolitan Fresh Start House in 1989, which is now an independent non-profit organization.
Kinwood DeVore served as executive director of the Metropolitan Fresh Start House for over 30 years. Kinwood’s leadership and teaching at the Fresh Start program helped many to find, and later go on to serve Jesus Christ.
He has counseled those with substance use disorders and their families for more than 30 years. He served as Chaplain for the Alameda County Sheriff's Office at Santa Rita Jail for seven years; five of those years as Supervising Chaplain. His position involved managing more than 300 volunteers from many different religious faiths to work together as a team to share a general message with the inmates that might cause them to never again return to custody.
As a Minister and motivational speaker Kinwood DeVore has presented to audiences all over the United States. He has been a gospel minister for over 45 years, including the Metropolitan Church of Christ, a church that has received more than 40 awards for gang diffusion and for curbing the dropout rate among high school and middle school students in San Francisco during the 1990s.
Kinwood H. DeVore started the Fresh Start program in 1989.
Kinwood DeVore grew up in San Francisco where he attended elementary, junior high, and high school, as well as City College of San Francisco where he was a track star. He moved to the East Bay where he graduated from the Bay Area School of Religion in 1974. From there he moved to Southern California, where he worked as Minister of Evangelism for the Inglewood Church of Christ, then as Preacher and Minister for the West Adams Church of Christ in Los Angeles. He returned to his beloved San Francisco in 1988, for one reason: to save lives in the city he loves. He founded the Metropolitan Church of Christ which after 25 years merged with the Bayview Church of Christ in San Francisco.
Kinwood retired from ministry due to his failing health, but his vision of Restoring Men to Dignity, Productivity, and Responsibility lives on. The Metropolitan Fresh Start House is proud to continue the race Kinwood Devore started and lead for over thirty years.
Help us celebrate Kinwood Devore! Click here to share your stories and photos, and invite others who remember Kinwood.
He returned to his beloved San Francisco in 1988, for one reason: to save lives in the city he loves. He founded the Metropolitan Church of Christ which after 25 years merged with the Bayview Church of Christ in San Francisco.
