Lavender Courtyard, Sacramento

We have heard a lot lately at Advent about the work of Lutheran Social Services (LSS). The bold mission of LSS NorCal is to end homelessness for good. The organization seeks to do this by providing safe, stable housing for individuals and families of all ages and backgrounds who have experienced homelessness throughout Northern California. LSS provides compassionate, caring, nonsectarian services that assist individuals in getting their lives back on track. This article was occasioned by the recent opening of a innovative project LSS NorCal is involved with - Lavender Courtyard in Sacramento.

Why Should We Support the Work of LSS?

The reasons for homelessness are varied and often complex: unemployment, chronic illness, lack of education, generational or long-term poverty, mental illness, substance use, lack of affordable housing and surviving a disaster, such as the wildfires that have devastated large regions of Northern California. This is why it can take months, even years, to regain one’s confidence and dignity after becoming homeless, even for a short time. 



LSS of Northern California is part of the solution to end homelessness in our region. The organization currently assists nearly 4,000 individuals – from birth to 102 years old – in staying safely housed while they address the reasons for their past homelessness. This means 4,000 fewer people are not living on the streets or in shelters and are not forced to use expensive emergency services.

What specifically does LSS do?

LSS guides individuals in rebuilding their lives after they have experienced homelessness. They serve formerly homeless adults, seniors, former foster youth and families living in seven Northern California counties. First they ensure that each person entrusted to our care has a safe place to call home, then they connect them with relevant services, such as health care, food, counseling, financial management, transportation, childcare, and education. LSS partners with many nonprofits, community colleges and universities throughout its large service region, which stretches from San Luis Obispo to Oregon.

How will this make a difference?

Safe, stable housing is an important aspect of one’s health. That’s why LSS considers stable housing the blueprint for success. Having a place to call home makes it easier for a formerly homeless individual or family to focus on other aspects of their life. Many people the organization serves also need assistance in navigating the bureaucracies of our healthcare and social services organizations, so they assist each person in accessing the care and support needed to get their life on track.

How is LSS different from other charities?

LSS of Northern California is not a homeless shelter. The organization seeks to be part of the critical next step when a person or family leaves a shelter or temporary housing program. On average, year over year, 97% of those served by LSS remain in stable housing, even if they leave the program. 

Accomplishments

Thanks to the organization’s strong management and client outcomes, LSS has grown to oversee 30 supportive housing programs that assist nearly 4,000 individuals and families in Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Solano, Shasta, and Yolo counties. LSS encourages innovative development of services, including collaboration with property management companies, childcare providers, in-home therapy providers, and other organizations providing important services.

How Donations are Used

The adults and youth in LSS programs have little or nothing in the way of personal belongings when the organizations begins its work with them. Funding that LSS receives from state, county and federal sources support staffing and housing, but no equipment or items to furnish the efficiency apartments in which LSS’s clients live. Your donations make a difference by helping to purchase essential household items and furnishings, as well as clothing. 

Items LSS Accepts

• Cars
• Clothes
• Trucks & Vans
• Dining tables and chairs, side chairs, lamps, end tables
• Bed frames and headboards (twin, double or queen only; must fit in a small apartment
• No mattresses
• New or very gently used linens, kitchen utensils, cookware, dishes
• Unused cleaning and laundry supplies
• Bus or BART passes, taxi or ride sharing vouchers

Lavender Courtyard

The latest project LSS has taken on is to provide case management services for 24 residents who will be living at the new Lavender Courtyard affordable housing project in the Midtown neighborhood of Sacramento, at the corner of 16th and F Streets, smack in the middle of the Lavender Heights neighborhood.

Lavender Courtyard offers affordable 1 and 2 bedroom apartments serving seniors age 62 and over. It includes a spacious community room, onsite laundry facilities, bike storage, and welcoming outdoor courtyard with a relaxing fountain. Construction began October 2020 finished May 2022. Residents started moving into the apartments in May, and organizers say there is already a waitlist.

LGBTQ Senior Housing

Lavender Courtyard is the Central Valley’s first LGBTQ-welcoming affordable senior housing community. Studies have shown that throughout American society, LGBTQ elders have suffered discrimination and abuse, as well as social isolation, when the circumstances of their lives force them into senior living communities. Oftentimes they are forced to (again) hide their sexual orientation when moving into assisted living residences or nursing homes, despite having been the vanguard generation of the international pride movement.

LSS @ Lavender Courtyard 

Lavender Courtyard was conceived by a local non-profit housing developer, Mutual Housing. For over 30 years, Mutual Housing has been developing sustainable housing solutions for low-income renters in the Sacramento Area and beyond. As it typically does, the organization lobbied for the project, acquired the building site, and secured funds form federal, state, county, and city agencies and private foundations. 

in partnership with Sacramento County, 24 of Lavender Courtyards 53 units are reserved for seniors coming out of homelessness. The organization that provides case management services for those 24 units is LSS. 

Unique Circumstances

Having lived on the streets, in their cars, in tents, in temporary situations for so long, most of them are bringing little more than the clothes on their backs into their new apartments. 

LSS is working diligently to fulfill each of these new resident’s basic needs: a new bed, bedding, a new chair and table, towels, cooking and eating utensils, and more. A wish list with items that LSS could use is available on Amazon at https://smile.amazon.com/hz/charitylist/ls/1ISVPEBYUPF7W/ref=smi_cl_ls_lol_ls

Jessie Wagster

One of the first residents whom LSS helped to move into her new apartment was Jessie Wagster. Now 65, Jessie had came out as a transgender woman at the age of 55. Before moving into her apartment at Lavender Courtyard, Jessie was living in her car. For the past five years, Jessie had to hide who she really was. While living in her car, she even gave away all her women’s clothing to feel safe. 

The day Jessie proudly showed her new apartment to a KCRA reporter, she rejoiced, “I get to be me all the time. 24/7 I get to be myself. … I feel very safe. They've made it affordable to people like myself coming off the street, to have a sense of normalcy again. For Jessie, that sense of normalcy involves paying $289 per month for her apartment, wearing clothes that express her gender identity, and getting to know her new neighbors. With the help of LSS, Jessie was able to buy clothes, furnish her apartment, and acquire essential household items. 

Will you be able to help others like Jessie to move into new housing and rebuild their life?