Father Joe’s Villages Thrift Store

One of three charity shops run by Father Joe's Villages, the San Diego organisation that provides emergency and permanent housing for more than 2,000 people each night alongside meals, medical and behavioural healthcare, addiction treatment and job training. Takings from the shops fund those services directly. The Hillcrest branch on University Avenue carries clothing, furniture, books, records and household goods, restocked continually from local donations, and accepts donated items at the same address. It opens seven days a week. Hillcrest is a dense, walkable district north of Balboa Park with a long-established LGBT community, and the quality of donated clothing here tends to be higher than at the organisation's outlying branches. Further shops operate in Chula Vista and Imperial Beach.