This project was a full circle moment for the Inspired Spaces Team and our client. V, a single mother of an active toddler son, and his older sister, was our very first client. We worked with our partner non-profit, The Living Room, to furnish their new ADU unit, back in October 2021, in which V was their first resident. We waited for more than a year for the privilege of furnishing her permanent home. V's first priority was making sure there were either bunk beds or a trundle bed so her daughter had a place to sleep when she was with them. Her second priority was asking for either a sleeper sofa or futon so her extended family could sleep over. She then [...]

S is a loving, compassionate single father of two kids, a son and a daughter. After 2 years of being homeless, he connected with Catholic Charities, and after working hard for 5 months, found his permanent home. S credits his spirituality and relationship with God as the reason why he was able to persevere and reach his goal. S became homeless after separating from his fiancee of 10 years. His children remained with her because he wasn’t in the financial place to support and take care of them. After leaving, he was couch surfing and spending time at other people’s homes. His fiancee’s mother and S were very close and she was a big help with taking care of the kids. Soon after, [...]

L is vibrant, joyful, and full of life. She has experienced different traumas and hard times in her life, but she hasn’t let them define her nor dampen her positivity. Her story of homelessness began in 2019 when she was involved in an abusive relationship. She describes that she “checked out” and at one point got a gun and shot at her ex boyfriend, thankfully not killing him. She was arrested and went to prison for a couple of years. After 2 years, when she was released, she came “home to nothing” and was homeless. However, she did her due diligence while in a prison program and was able to transition into a homeless shelter. This shelter was a 6 month program where [...]

A is a strong and independent woman who was homeless, living in her truck, for almost 4 years. She is a mother of an adult son and teenage daughter; her ability to spend quality time with her daughter hampered due to not having a home. In 2016, A had knee surgery, but wasn’t given referrals for physical therapy or any follow up and thus, never properly healed. To this day, she experiences pain especially if sitting too long or walking up stairs. At the time of the surgery, she was working for a school bus company in Santa Rosa. Coincidentally, around the time of the surgery, they lost their contract and moved headquarters to San Rafael, and A lost her job. She would [...]

P is a single mother of 2 adult daughters and one teenage daughter. She found herself homeless after the 2017 Sonoma County fires, not because she lost her home in the fire, but because her place of employment had to shut down for a couple of weeks due to poor air quality, and she got behind in her rent. P also had substance abuse issues which caused Child Protective Services to become involved, and lost her right to have her, then, 2 teenage daughters live with her. P has suffered from substance abuse for many years, before becoming clean and sober over 2 years ago. She wonders if part of why she began using drugs was due to the fact that both her [...]