Help Yolanda reach her new home

Our dear friend Yolanda has been unhoused and struggling to survive in LA since we met her two years ago at Mar Vista Park. She finally scraped together enough money to buy a plane ticket to live with her sister, and she is excited to start fresh in a new home. But Yolanda has no money left to ship any of her belongings or buy food and supplies for this journey. We are helping her raise $750 to cover expenses, and appreciate your support!

Yolanda's experience is like so many other unhoused neighbors in LA. She experienced homelessness for the first time after being twice evicted from apartments that were torn down and converted to luxury housing in gentrifying Westside neighborhoods. She lived with other elderly residents at Mar Vista Park for months before moving to the Grand Hotel under former Councilmember Mike Bonin's "encampment to home" program. The Grand is notorious for its strict and arbitrarily enforced rules, and Yolanda was evicted from the hotel for spending two nights with her daughter after she gave birth to Yolanda's grandbaby.

She found herself on the streets again, living precariously on a narrow median on Culver Blvd. with a handful of other unhoused neighbors. In early 2023, Yolanda was swept up in Mayor Karen Bass' troubled "Inside Safe " program. The program displaces people far from their communities in hotels with poor conditions, shuffles people from hotel to hotel without notice and fails to connect them to permanent housing. Yolanda was moved multiple times without notice and now finds herself in a "no man's land," an apartment shared with strangers with zero support, housing navigation or wrap-around services. Every month, she buys what little food she can afford on food stamps, and every month she is left with far too little to eat because the co-living arrangement means she cannot keep what is hers.

Yolanda cannot go on living in this state of scarcity and limbo, and she wants to seize this opportunity to find stability with her family. Any amount you can contribute to this fund is so appreciated.