Close to Home: Homegrown help for homeless women

For 30 years, the Living Room Center, a homegrown nonprofit, has diligently and quietly eased adversity, promoted stability and supported self-reliance for thousands of women and children experiencing, or at-risk of experiencing, homelessness.

Since its inception, the Living Room has witnessed the effect of skyrocketing housing costs, lack of available housing, limited access to health care and aging. Moreover, the pandemic resulted in a dramatic increase in women and children who have fled their homes due to domestic violence. Many have resorted to living in their cars.

The path from homelessness to permanent housing is not an easy one. Most of our participants have experienced major trauma as a result of not having a safe home. A year ago, we opened the Life Center at 1335 N. Dutton Avenue in Santa Rosa, a walk-in resource center where each woman and her children can access whole-person care meeting their individualized needs for physical, emotional and mental health, along with housing assistance.

When an unhoused woman arrives, she gets much more than a referral to a shelter and a cup of soup; staff help her navigate a system whose barriers might prevent her from living safely and independently. A cross-disciplinary team provides extensive case management and linkages to services through strong partnerships with more than 40 local governmental and private organizations.

Primary case managers and peer-to-peer counseling help participants access services they need, such as legal aid, entitlement help, food, pet care, showers, English as a second language classes, and employment opportunities. This is invaluable and necessary for women to succeed. The Living Room celebrates success when a woman can secure permanent housing through receiving a voucher, earning enough to afford rent or getting into a low-income senior housing complex. The support is ongoing, and the success rate is high.

In 2017, the Living Room purchased a home to provide transitional housing for six senior women. Today, the Living Room has five houses, two accessory dwelling units, one tiny home and an RV to offer unsheltered women and children transitional housing. Importantly, dedicated staff oversees the regular maintenance and safety of the properties.

There are currently 21 residents in Living Room housing. A woman and her children may stay for up to two years, but most are able to move to permanent homes in less than a year because of the support they receive. If we cannot shelter a woman and her children, they are guided to safe parking or helped to navigate shelter programs at partner organizations while continuing to work with them to ensure permanent security.

While 21 residents may sound like a small number, the Living Room has created a replicable model that does much more than provide roofs over heads. And we intend to increase housing capacity over time.

An average of 250 women who need housing or other services visit the Life Center every month. The many on-site services mean women do not get bounced from service provider to service provider. Additionally, a commercial kitchen on Cleveland Avenue provides 1,000 meals a week for the center, residents and seniors throughout the community. The Living Room has 21 employees and more than 30 volunteers.

In 2023, the Living Room is mounting a capital campaign to raise funds to purchase the building that houses the Life Center and support the services provided there. Purchasing this building will free up thousands of dollars a month. Contact us at 707-579-0138 to schedule a tour and learn more.

We are proud to be on the board of directors and share the 30 years of successes at the Living Room.

Liz Uribe of Santa Rosa and Martha Saly of Rohnert Park are board members of the Living Room.

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