Why We Care
Services provided during a 12-month period to unduplicated women suggests that there are over 600 women who are homeless on the Monterey Peninsula on any given day. This assumption is supported by health care statistics and by data collected in both Peninsula and County surveys on the Status of Homeless Women. Publications from both surveys are available here and on the Community Foundation website. As women become more comfortable with becoming visible, more are being counted.
To update these numbers and to establish an ongoing reliable means of data collection and analysis related to the status of women living without adequate shelter in local communities, we have established a collaboration that includes Gathering for Women and the Monterey Institute for International Studies – whose faculty and students will serve as lead researchers.
- The Fund for Homeless Women has three co-founders who continue to work as co-organizers as full-time volunteers.
- The Fund for Homeless Women was officially established in 2012 by an anonymous donor with a check for $5,000.
- One of the co-organizers of the Fund for Homeless Women is a member of the Community Foundation Board of Directors.
- The Fund for Homeless Women co-organizers represent three faith traditions. Michael is an Ordained Episcopal Priest. Kathy is an Ordained Buddhist Priest, and Marian is a member of the Jewish faith.
- The Fund for Homeless Women started unofficially with a letter sent to Michael in 2011 by a homeless woman when he was a priest serving at St. Mary’s by the Sea Episcopal Church in Pacific Grove.
- Michael and Kathy are writers. That’s how they met – in a writing circle at CSUMB they attended in 2010.
- Fund co-organizers are volunteers and unpaid. 100% of the money raised by the Fund goes into the Fund to support community programs and services for women who are homeless.