LIVE
·
2025 Grants Challenge

Relational Advocacy in Action

Idea by SOFESA

Relational Advocacy in Action: Housing, Healing, and Hope for Homeless Familieswill strengthen SOFESA’s efforts to help unhoused families in Los Angeles transition from crisis to stability. Through one-on-one support, leadership development, and community collaboration, we equip families to reclaim their lives, restore their dignity, and shape long-term housing solutions rooted in lived experience.

Donate

What is the primary issue area that your application will impact?

Affordable housing and homelessness

In which areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?

South LA

In what stage of innovation is this project, program, or initiative?

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

What is your understanding of the issue that you are seeking to address?

Family homelessness in Los Angeles isn’t just a statistic—it’s something we see every day in the faces of mothers and children who are doing their best to survive in impossible situations. Behind the crisis are deep-rooted challenges: high housing costs, generational poverty, domestic violence, and systems that often overlook the humanity of the people they’re meant to help. Too many families are offered fragmented, one-size-fits-all services that don’t truly meet their needs. At SOFESA, we believe real change begins with relationship—with meeting families where they are, listening to their stories, and walking alongside them. This work isn’t just about shelter—it’s about restoring dignity, building trust, and creating lasting solutions shaped by the families themselves.

Describe the project, program, or initiative this grant will support to address the issue.

SOFESA’s Emergency Outreach Program and Hope House Project work together to address the layered crisis of family homelessness in Los Angeles by offering immediate support and long-term healing rooted in relationship.
Our Emergency Outreach Program provides rapid-response support to families in crisis—those fleeing domestic violence, living in vehicles, or facing sudden eviction. We offer short-term motel stays, food, gas, clothing, and essentials to stabilize families and help them exit survival mode.
From there, families are connected with SOFESA Family Advocates—many with lived experience of homelessness—who offer emotional support and help navigating systems. These trusting, one-on-one relationships are key to long-term healing, and help families take steps toward employment, reunification, and housing.
For families ready for deeper transformation, our Hope House Project offers permanent homes in residential neighborhoods—safe, dignified spaces where healing can unfold over time. Each household is supported by a nearby advocate, and there is no fixed end date, allowing families to grow and recover at their own pace.
What sets SOFESA apart is our commitment to healing homelessness, not just solving it. We believe trust, proximity, and human dignity are essential to lasting change. Together, our programs create a pathway out of crisis and into community—restoring hope, rebuilding lives, and honoring every family’s story.

Describe how Los Angeles County will be different if your work is successful.

If SOFESA’s work succeeds, Los Angeles County will be a place where families facing homelessness are seen not as problems to manage, but as neighbors to support. Emergency aid will lead to deep, relational care that fosters healing and long-term stability. Parents will regain custody of their children, access housing, and grow into community leaders. Formerly unhoused families will thrive in neighborhoods where they’re welcomed and supported. Over time, this approach will help break cycles of generational poverty. Children raised in safe, stable homes will grow up with dignity, hope, and a sense of belonging—reshaping LA’s future through compassion, equity, and community-led transformation.

Approximately how many people will be impacted by this project, program, or initiative?

Direct Impact: 75

Indirect Impact: 300