Irene Basdakis

Before Luis Jimenez managed four homes and a team of housing navigators, he was living on the streets himself, caught in the grip of alcohol and substance use, watching his life come apart. "Life was going upside down," he says. Sobriety, family, and a second chance came slowly, through what he calls the grace of God. He got sober. He found his way back to his wife and kids. And then, when he wanted to give back, Grandma's House of Hope found him.

This isn't Vanessa’s first time without a place to call home. The second time she found herself homeless, she also found Grandma's House of Hope, and she says the difference wasn't just getting housed. It was everything around it. "They've been there for me," she says. She lives with mental health challenges, and at her last shelter, that meant managing it alone. At Grandma's House of Hope, staff made sure she stayed on top of her medication, her psychiatrist appointments, her therapy.

It started with a Mother's Day brunch. Back in 2021, as the world was still finding its footing after COVID, Kim saw a call for volunteers: Grandma's House of Hope needed people to provide brunch for the women in its care. She thought of her friends, a dozen women from different backgrounds with nothing in common except their friendship with Kim. They gathered in her backyard, put together food trays, and delivered brunch to two Grandma’s House of Hope homes.