Stefan Kaiter-Snyder (right) sits with his friend Tom inside the mobile warming hut he designed and built. Credit: Nathan Dalton for Berkeleyside

In late November of 2024, when an atmospheric river drenched the Bay Area, a local welder and artist named Stefan Kaiter-Snyder began handing out tarps to unhoused residents throughout Berkeley.

“ I lived in my car for a long time while I was going to school,” said Kaiter-Snyder, 32, who has a degree in sculpture from the California College of the Arts and currently lives in a school bus in Berkeley. “So seeing people uncomfortable in the winter months sort of affects me.”

But he wanted to do something more than just distribute tarps. And then an idea came to mind: What if he made a mobile shelter, like a covered bus stop on wheels, that he could take to encampments across the city?

“So I made this sort of bus stop on a trailer and was like, Oh shoot! I should serve coffee out of it, I should run a space heater in it, I should keep it stocked with socks and blankets and stuff like that,” he said.

Kaiter-Snyder set to work inside his friend’s workshop, and over the course of two days created what he calls a warming hut. The hut is made of two-by-fours — purchased for him by the homeless advocacy organization Where Do We Go Berkeley — covered with white landscaping fabric and two layers of painter’s plastic, providing shelter from the rain but also allowing plenty of natural light to enter the hut.

“It was important for it to be light and airy, so it doesn’t feel like you’re in a cave when you’re inside of it,” he said. 

He mounted the hut atop an 8-foot utility trailer, which he purchased for $200. 

On the inside, he made a bench in a circular pattern so people can face each other when they are inside the hut, which can fit up to seven people. He outfitted it with a propane space heater and laid in plenty of supplies, like snacks, warm clothes, dry socks, a first aid kit, hand sanitizer, and lots and lots of coffee.

Residents of the 8th and Harrison encampment relax in the the warming hut. Credit: Nathan Dalton for Berkeleyside

The first day he took it out last winter he parked the hut near the encampment on the lawn of the Old City Hall. The first person who used it was a woman whose tent had collapsed in the middle of the night because of a deluge of rain. She was nonverbal and showed signs of hypothermia, according to Kaiter-Snyder. He and his partner set her up near the space heater, covered her in two blankets, and gave her a cup of tea.

“She was in there for probably three hours,” he said. “And by the time she had left, she was actually able to talk to us and describe what she needed. That was the very first person who I feel like we helped.”

Kaiter-Snyder says he has plans beyond warming huts

In December Kaiter-Snyder was awarded the Chris Kindness Award, which honors extraordinarily kind people in Berkeley and comes with a $1,000 prize, which Kaiter-Snyder plans to use to build another warming hut. The award was founded in 2022 by Alan Ross, a professor at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and has been given to 30 people; community members are invited to make nominations and also vote for nominees.

“Helping people who are really having a tough time, and whatever he can do to make their lives better, is what he’s all about,” Ross said, calling him “totally selfless.”.

 Kaiter-Snyder said his ambitions go beyond warming huts.

“The idea is that I’ll build a second one for Berkeley, but I also want to come out with a zine or some literature on how other cities can start their own projects like this,” he said. “So I’m hoping that it can be like an open source propagating project.”

This winter, the warming hut can be found each Friday, and most every other rainy day, at the homeless encampment around Eighth and Harrison streets, where residents have recently been facing a leptospirosis outbreak. 

The hut operates like any other cafe you’d find across the town. Some people drop by, grab a cup of coffee, and head back to their tents, while others linger awhile and sit and talk with their friends. 

A wide-angle view inside the hut’. Credit: Stefan Kaiter-Synder

The hut has been a godsend to many of the residents, including one woman, who asked her name not be used because she didn’t want people she grew up with locally to know she was homeless.

“It’s really nice because it gives us a chance to warm up in the morning and have compassion,” she said. “The homeless don’t usually have the option to go to coffee shops and drink coffee and sit somewhere and stay warm because we tend to get pushed out because of our hygiene or our lifestyles or maybe we have too much gear.”

The city, responding to complaints of health and safety hazards, has been trying to clear the encampment for more than a year, but it is prevented by a lawsuit from ousting all of its residents until at least March. 

Yesica Prado, a resident of the encampment and leader of the Berkeley Homeless Union, which helped write court filings for the lawsuit, said Kaiter-Snyder has been helping out at the encampment in ways beyond the warming hut. After the city removed a dumpster at the encampment in June, Kaiter-Snyder has helped haul trash during community clean-up days. 

“He’ll bring his pickup truck and then we’ll load it up and then take it to the corporation yard,” Prado said. “And then he will pay the fees out of his own pocket, too.”

Prado said that around 40 people currently live at the encampment, and the warming hut has been a way to bring these residents together. 

“It provides us a safe space where we can all talk with each other, check in, have warm coffee, and just warm up,” she said. “Stefan coming here to the community brings hope.”

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