From 1983-2011, the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter (HSHS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the only student-run homeless shelter in the United States. However, college students at Villanova, Temple, Drexel, the University of Pennsylvania, and Swarthmore drew upon the HSHS model to open their own student-run homeless shelter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in January 2012. This article describes the process by which the Student-Run Emergency Housing Unit of Philadelphia opened its doors, as well as the successes and challenges encountered in its first year of operation. The feasibility of this student-run model expanding to other American cities is also considered.