Guadalupe Homeless Project
The Guadalupe Homeless Project (GHP) was founded by community residents in 1988, when they decided to open the doors to their most sacred space - Dolores Mission Church - so that unhoused refugee families could sleep there.
To this day, GHP’s men’s shelter continues to operate out of Dolores Mission Church, serving 45 men nightly. In 2014, GHP set up a women’s shelter to serve 15 women over the age of 55 - the only shelter for elderly women in Los Angeles.
GHP provides more than simply shelter, meals and showers - we provide strategic wraparound support with a “whole-person” approach, so that residents can restore their sense of self and dignity. We connect residents to resources and services - including mental health, job-skills, English classes, substance prevention - so that they can become financially and emotionally prepared to transition to housing.
GHP provides a close-knit community where residents are welcomed and enmeshed into the fabric of the Boyle Heights community. While most neighborhoods would resist having a homeless shelter in their neighborhood, the Boyle Heights community embraces our shelters, and play an instrumental role in including shelter residents in community life, such as by cooking meals for the residents each night. This helps to mitigate feelings of isolation that clients often experience, and contributes to the program's high transition rate to housing.
