The volunteers brought blankets in case the new families needed to stay the night. It’s not the first time this week volunteers haven’t known where they were going to put everyone, said Kevin Malone, executive director of the San Diego Organizing Project.

“Every day it looks like we may have to leave people on the street,” Malone said. “We’ve been patching this thing together minute by minute. Everyone is really stretched.”

The second bus with another 23 people pulled in after 8 p.m. As volunteers worked to organize both groups, a call came in that changed everything.

The families would have a place to stay that night, announced a visibly relieved Kathy Stadler, a volunteer coordinator for the effort. A church had offered to take them until space could be made at the temporary shelter the next day. It was midnight before all of the families had been transported.