Guided by its motto, “Strengthening Families Protects Children,” Home Start has provided safe housing and wraparound support services to hundreds of pregnant women and mothers with young children through its Maternity Housing Program since 2009. But this vital program has been impacted by changes and delays in funding federal programs. Its primary source of support today is a $125,000 grant from the San Diego Unity Fund—a San Diego Foundation-led initiative that helps ensure residents facing the greatest barriers remain housed, fed, and healthy amid dwindling public safety-net funds.
“Because of current changes in federal support, we are losing the ability to sustain some of our most critical programs,” said Rorie Pealer, Home Start’s Central Housing Program Manager. “You can’t overestimate how much this Unity Fund and San Diego Foundation investment means.”
Those who understand the impact are single mothers who would otherwise be sleeping in their cars, survivors of domestic violence who have fled their abusers, and women with children learning to live with a disability.
Moms such as Alexis Leftridge.
Life-Changing Services
When Alexis, a single mother of a toddler, first connected with Home Start, she was without a job and bouncing from shelter to shelter. Through the Maternity Housing Program, she and her son moved into a Home Start-owned apartment, gaining a sense of stability and hope.
She found more than a home. Living with anxiety, depression, and PTSD, Alexis was connected with a therapist. Her son began working with a child development specialist who noticed signs of ADHD and helped guide next steps. Alexis also received job training and began working at the Home Start Thrift Boutique, which sells gently used and vintage items to benefit San Diego families. She was promoted to assistant manager before being hired as a Peer Support Specialist with Housing Our Youth, a program operated by the YMCA and six partners—including Home Start—focused on addressing youth homelessness.
She works full time, raising her son, and lives independently.
Participants in the Maternity Housing Program like Alexis contribute 30% of their income toward their rent, with Home Start setting aside half of that amount in a savings account to help families build and maintain financial independence. Alexis can remain in her apartment until her son turns 18, providing the long-term stability essential to a healthy future.
But stories like Alexis’ depend on funding that remains inconsistent at best.
“Unless you’ve lived on the street—without access to food, a hot shower, or clean clothes—you can’t fully understand how vital a program like this is,” Alexis said. “For someone living with PTSD, anxiety, and depression, this program is truly a lifesaver.”
More than Housing
In addition to its Maternity Housing Program, Home Start has served San Diego County communities with limited access to resources for 55 years through efforts such as:
- First 5 First Steps Family Support program, which partners with First 5 San Diego to serve approximately 250 families each year. The program helps caregivers build strong parent-child relationships through community referrals, mindfulness and stress-reduction support, and positive parenting practices.
- Behavioral Health Service teams that support more than 180 children and families with specially trained therapists coaching parents and caregivers in real time as they interact with their child.
- A Communities in Action program that annually provides nearly 800 clients with comprehensive assessments, purchases diapers for more than 260 families each year, and prepares some 1,250 tax returns annually. It also offers job readiness classes and resource referrals.
Alexis’ story illustrates how Home Start offers women more than a roof over their heads. It also provides evidence-based parental education, child development specialists, counseling, financial literacy lessons, higher education opportunities, employment resources, and renewed confidence. The program not only helps young mothers provide a better future for their families but also helps create a generation of residents growing up in secure, stable and loving homes.
Under terms of the SDF grant, 80% of Maternity Housing Program participants will retain their housing or find other suitable places to live, be connected to at least one type of non-cash benefit, such as SNAP/Cal-Fresh, and maintain or increase their total income.
Right now, however, everything is in flux; a federal contract supporting the program expired Jan. 31, 2026. Even with HUD being directed to make good on outstanding contract renewals in early April, funding remains unpredictable and sustainability is still uncertain.
A Unified Effort
“Without the Unity Fund, we’d be out of luck,” said Carlos Gomez, Home Start’s Director of Grants Strategy and Management. “Without San Diego Foundation, we would lose our primary source of income.”
“We’re hopeful about recent developments, but we’re still preparing for the reality that funding delays and uncertainty could impact the families we serve,” said Ashley Frez-Clark, Home Start’s Vice President of Programs.
You can help support this work. To learn more about the San Diego Unity Fund and its impact on nonprofits and underserved communities across the region, visit SDFoundation.org/Unity.
