Introducing the Blue Light Safety Project

The Blue Light Safety Project is a Santa Cruz local community effort to provide temporary safe spaces for people who are feeling unsafe. Community members who want to provide a safe space to those in need simply put a blue light on their house.

People in our communities, especially those in vulnerable populations, sometimes need a place where they can stop for a brief time to seek help or safety, make a phone call, wait for a ride, or rest for a moment. For example, female-bodied people or youth walking alone at night, people escaping intimate violence, queer or trans people who've been threatened, or elderly people who need a brief rest might feel supported to have a house in their neighborhood where they know they can find a temporary safe space.

The project is an attempt to provide safety in our community outside of institutional solutions such as police.

You may see signs at houses around town:

This is the Blue Light Safety Project.

A blue light signifies that this house is a temporary safe space,
open to anyone that feels in danger or threatened.

Knock on the door and the residents will provide support
until you feel safer or can make other arrangements.
If no one is home, you are welcome to sit on the porch
for a short time until you feel safe to continue on your way.

There are several ways to support the project:

• The simplest way is to become a Blue Light House.  Put a blue light on your home and become a temporary safe space in your neighborhood.
• Talk to your neighbors about the project
• Put a sign up to explain why you are a Blue Light House.
• Donate to the project.
• Come to a Community Safety Workgroup

Download the Guide

 Download the Guide for Blue Light Houses here.

Your House

If you would like to offer a temporary safe space in your home, you can easily become a blue light house.  On a practical level, it could not be simpler:

1. Acquire a blue light bulb (from this project, hardware store, etc)
2. Display it prominently at your house
3. Optionally, put up a sign so people understand why you are participating in the project

There are also some more complicated things to consider:

• Are other people in your house comfortable with this idea?  Have you talked to them about it?
• Are you comfortable setting boundaries and limits with people who use your space?
• How do you interpret "temporary safe space"?  How do you communicate that to potential uses of the space?
• Many of the people who are most vulnerable to violence come from a very different socio-economic place than our housed selves; are you comfortable with that?
• Have you decided what you are comfortable offering at your house?  A momentary refuge?  A phone call?  A ride?  A place to sleep?  
• Have you thought about what you will say when someone comes to your door?  Thinking that through will reduce any awkwardness.

Here is our suggestion for a sign you might consider posting at your house.  This is as much for your curious neighbors as for people who need  a temporary safe space.

This is the Blue Light Safety Project.
A blue light signifies that this house is a temporary safe space,
open to anyone that feels in danger or threatened.
Knock on the door and the residents will provide support
until you feel safer or can make other arrangements.
If no one is home, you are welcome to sit on the porch
for a short time until you feel safe to continue on your way.

The project is an attempt to provide safety in our community
outside of institutional solutions such as police.