About 100 unsheltered individuals receive sleeping bag coats

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — At Third Avenue Charitable Organization Headquarters in downtown San Diego Thursday, on World Homeless Day, there was a long line of people waiting for pizza and a sleeping bag coats being handed out.

Benito Castillo has been homeless for about five years. He said San Diego may be known for its mild weather but during the winter, it can get cold, especially at night.

“You don’t have to have a big old blanket, big old tent thing or whatever,” he said. “Just get in your jacket and lay down and go to sleep.”

About a hundred sleeping bag coats were handed out by the Lucky Duck Foundation Thursday.

It’s an organization that has given out more than 12,000 jackets to unhoused people in the county over the past four years.

“This winter, we will distribute over 4,000, about 4,500 if we get the public to jump in and donate and help us get to that milestone,” said Drew Moser, CEO of the Lucky Duck Foundation.

Each jacket costs about $150 to make. They are manufactured by the Empowerment Plan in Detroit, Mich. which hires people who are unhoused.

So far, more than 85,000 sleeping bag coats have been handed out worldwide. They do not just provide warmth.

“It doesn’t look like a sleeping bag so you blend in, you can just wear a warm coat and you don’t look like a homeless person,” said Lorena Galligan with the Third Avenue Charitable Organization. “A lot of people are homeless for the first time and they don’t want to stand out.”

Castillo said he just wants to stay safe.

“It just means a lot to us because we all need one at some point,” he said.

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