Our Mission
We believe that all human beings deserve to have stable housing and to live full and productive lives. The Women’s Daytime Drop-In Center empowers women and children to move from the streets to a home by providing a safe daytime refuge.
We provide essential services such as hot meals, groceries and provide hygiene supplies, diapers, housing resource counseling, case management and domestic violence services, a variety of referral services, and transitional housing for five single parent families. We are a Housing Resource center for Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville families. We also connect our families and single unhoused women with other local and regional community resources whose services may fall out of our scope.
All of our efforts broaden our client's sense of expanded community support. We are uplifted daily by the many spontaneous conversations among our clients as they wait in line at our hospitality window for our essential services. Community and resource connection is key to emerging from homelessness.
Our Impact
Causes We Support
Countries We Serve
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Chronic shortage of housing, which imposes crushing costs on low-income families, lies at the heart of the homelessness crisis. Poverty and near-poverty also contribute to high rates of homelessness as sudden illness, an accident, a layoff or an unexpected car repair bill can easily lead to unpaid rent, eviction and a lack of shelter. Long-standing racist policies and practices have also concentrated marginalized communities in undervalued occupations, increasing their economic insecurity which is a primary driver of experiencing homelessness. We see this today as people of color are largely pushed into lower-paying occupations, the first to lose their jobs during economic downturns, and experience the highest rates of unemployment. Institutionalized practices have also placed Black and other communities of color at highest risk of justice system-involvement, which can cause and exacerbate the length of homelessness. https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/our-impact/studies/california-statewide-study-people-experiencing-homelessness https://calbudgetcenter.org/resources/who-is-experiencing-homelessness-in-california/
