Category: News

Parts of this article were taken from an article written by Emma MacKenzie (Programs Team Member) and Helen He (Programs Team Member and Editor of the Breaktime Blog).

While many of us view the holidays with festive joy, the cold climate and societal traditions make this time of year especially challenging for those experiencing homelessness.

“I can’t wait for Christmas to be over.”

This was the sentiment expressed by 18-year-old Kabrien Johnson — who goes by KJ — when asked how she felt about the holiday season. KJ has experienced homelessness for over two years. While many of us view the holidays as a time filled with family, festivities, and a much-needed break from work, for people like KJ, it isn’t all joy and cheer. Experiencing homelessness is never easy, but the challenges are only amplified during the holiday season.

Winter is one of the deadliest times of the year for people experiencing homelessness, since exposure to the cold can cause life-threatening illnesses like frostbite and hypothermia. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, many emergency winter shelters don’t open until the weather outside is as low as 20 or even 13 degrees Fahrenheit, but hypothermia can set in much sooner than that: at 32 to 50 degrees. This means that people experiencing homelessness are often forced to stay outside on the streets, even at very dangerous temperatures.

Many winter shelters don’t open until temperatures reach levels far colder than life-threatening, leaving people experiencing homelessness outside in dangerous conditions. Image courtesy National Health Care for the Homeless Council.

Every year, at least 700 people in the United States die from hypothermia because they lack access to suitable housing or shelter. These individuals, and more, are recognized on National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day, which was on December 21st this year. Fitting to the elevated risks posed by the colder climate of this season, this Remembrance Day occurs annually on the winter solstice — the longest night of the year.

Even when shelters are open during the winter, they fill up quickly, which means fewer resources — such as food or warm clothing — can be distributed to each individual. Temporary cold-weather shelters have faced many shortages of volunteers, masks, and the sanitation equipment necessary to keep them running safely and effectively.

For those who are homeless and terminally ill, cold and wet weather is more likely to be threatening.

If you’re wondering how to help those experiencing homelessness this holiday season, there are many ways to get involved. Consider donating warm clothes or blankets to your local homeless shelter or other organization; gloves, thick socks, sweaters, boots, sleeping bags, and winter hats and coats are typically most appreciated.

More importantly, though, extend your support beyond this month as well. Consider making recurring donations to Joshua’s House to help its terminally ill, homeless residents be comfortable and feel loved and cared about!

Gracias y felices fiestas!

by Marlene Fitzwater

There is no question that our city is confronted with a homeless crisis. There are several reasons for this crisis – the increasing cost of living in Sacramento versus stagnant wages and salaries; increasing mental health issues partly as the result of a nation-wide COVID pandemic; and a serious addiction problem.

This has resulted in businesses and housed individuals growing more and more frustrated with having to deal with debris, encampments and human waste on sidewalks in front of their dwellings. They are now threatening lawsuits against the city and several businesses have also had to close.

The Health Communication Research Institute, Inc., a local 30-year-old nonprofit with a mission to reduce health disparities, began to study the increasing homeless issue in 2014 by interviewing more than 150 unhoused individuals and conducting five focus groups with unhoused individuals. We asked about their health conditions, medical care and most worrisome fear – all, regardless of age, worried about dying alone on our streets or along our rivers . . . becoming the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor.

My decision to address one segment of the homeless population – those who are terminally ill – was due to the loss of a beloved grandson who was homeless at the time he died in 2014. His stories of those he had met who were homeless and seriously ill moved us both to want to provide hospice and comfort care to those who would otherwise die on the street.

We will also provide educational opportunities for nursing and medical students to enable them to better understand caring for the homeless and for those who are terminally ill – opportunities they do not typically have in their education.

While we have had continuous protests and threatening phone calls from folks who will be neighbors to Joshua’s House, we have also had strong support from soon-to-be neighbors. Here is a sample from one email:

“This is our neighborhood and we welcome the project without hesitation. In fact, we believe it presents an extraordinary opportunity to teach compassion. We propose that class field trips to visit with the (future) residents of the hospice would go a long way toward accomplishing this.

Classes might bring small comforts (like muffin baskets, quilts, warm slippers, and such). Most importantly, they could just go across the street to say “hi”, and in so doing, affirm someone’s humanity. 

It’s tragic that so many assumptions are made about the unsheltered. They are the most fragile people in our society. Instead of fearing them, and judging them, how about doing a better job of including them?”

This is just a sample of the strong support that we are receiving for Joshua’s House. We are so appreciative and grateful! Now our focus is on getting Joshua’s House open!



Chris Erdman, Ph.D., MDiv, manager for the YoloCares Center for Loss & Hope, serves as Director for both the Center that he oversees now and for Joshua’s House. For the past year, he has been doing an excellent job leading the Center for Loss & Hope, and chairing the Ethics Council for the California Hospice Network (CHN). 

He holds a doctorate in organizational and missional transformation from Columbia in Atlanta. Previously a pastor of three large congregations, graduate school faculty member, and a missional consultant, he brings three decades of experience to his role of innovative and compassionate organizational leadership. 

Author of numerous books and articles, Chris also hosts the popular podcasts, Poems to Live By and From the Ground of Grief, both on Spotify. 

He enjoys cooking with family and friends, walks in the woods, dancing with his beloved, shorelines, old gnarled Juniper trees, dogs, yellow-rumped warblers, the scent of fresh lavender, and the wonders of his children, grand-dogs, and granddaughter.

Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater, HCRI’s founder and CEO of the Health Communication Research Institute, Inc. is pleased to announce that they have received a $200,000 grant provided through Sacramento County District 3 ARPA funds.

“This will allow us to do the work that the pandemic stopped to ensure that Joshua’s House will open this fall,” said Marlene. “We are so grateful for Supervisor Rich Desmond and his support so that we can provide hospice and comfort care to the terminally ill homeless folks in our community.”

by Marlene M. Fitzwater

California’s sixth-largest metropolitan area – Sacramento – has now been ranked among the worst in the state in homelessness. Sacramento County’s unhoused population soared to a record 9,3000 on 2022 (and could well be above that number if all unhoused individuals were counted), up 67% since 2019.

Sacramento now has a larger unhoused population than San Francisco and the number continues to grow rapidly. California has the worst homelessness problem in the U.S. and its generally mild-to-warm climate may have a lot to do with that, but Florida has a warm climate as well and it is not grappling with nearly the same level of problem, according to Gary Mason, National Affairs Columnist for The Globe and Mail (Canada).

Governor Gavin Newsom has made addressing the state’s homeless population his number one priority. He has tied state funding to homelessness-reduction targets, but was not happy when cities sent in their plans to tackle the issue in the next couple years. Sacramento had the least ambitious target in the state.

The amount of money sent to the Sacramento region to address its homelessness crisis nearly tripled to $191 million between 2019 and 2021, but left many questioning why so little progress as made in bringing numbers down with so much money being spent to address the problem.

It turns out that building new accommodations takes time. Property needs to be acquired, contractors need to be selected from bids made, permits need to be obtained and inspection providers need to be chosen, with sufficient funds needing to be available during the entire process.

Housing advocates, often representing non-profit organizations, report that they can’t build housing without grant money while politicians are demanding to see tangible results before the city or county can provide more homelessness grants. Finding hotels and other facilities to convert into housing doesn’t happen overnight, as cities around the world are discovering, according to Mason.

One approach to help resolve the homeless crisis in Sacramento might be to identify and support non-profit organizations that can provide targeted solutions. During its more than 30 years of experience as a non-profit with a mission to address health disparities in the Sacramento region, The Health Communication Research Institute, Inc. was able to organize its resources, diverse partners and supporters and the results of countless other grants and health disparity programs to identify a major problem – the terminally ill homeless do not have access to on-going hospice care and often end up dying on the street.

The result – the creation of Joshua’s House Volunteer Hospice, which will open this fall in Sacramento. While it is able to serve only 15 to 24 terminally ill, homeless men and women at a time, it is hoped that it will be a model for more such facilities throughout the country!

We are so pleased to share that Joshua’s House Volunteer Hospice received a $5,000 grant from the Lyon Cares Foundation of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation as a Big Day of Giving Match.

The Foundation’s donor-advised funds, like the Lyon Cares Foundation are established by charitable individuals, families, businesses and organizations that week to make positive contributions to their communities.

“You were selected to receive this grant because the fund representatives were impressed by your work and wanted to further to support your efforts,” according to Kerry Wood, Chief Executive Officer, Sacramento Region Community Foundation.

by Marlene M. Fitzwater

HomeAid Sacramento, established in 1996, is a local affiliate of HomeAid America. They are one of 19 local affiliates across 13 states. They work together with the members of the North State Building Industry Association to address the issues of people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

“HomeAid Sacramento is pleased to donate the costs we have incurred as our contribution to help keep the project moving along. We will continue the project coordination and permit processing, which HomeAid is paying our contractor to fulfill, until receipt of the site permit,” Amber Celmer, Executive Director, HomeAid Sacramento, said.

“The total estimated value of HomeAid Sacramento’s contribution to date is $32,370. This includes project coordination and permit processing, electrical engineering and coordination with SMUD, trash enclosure drawings/structural calculations, and landscaping (design review concepts, rendering, construction docs/irrigation plans, etc.,” Amber added.

We are extremely grateful for this significant contribution from HomeAid. We also want to specifically thank and acknowledge the contributions of Patrick McGuirk and the USA Properties Construction Management Team to Joshua’s House.

by Marlene M. Fitzwater

Thomas Sutton, a talented young artist, has created six beautiful handmade macrame pieces that will enhance each of the Joshua’s House manufactured homes.

Macrame is enjoying a resurgence as trends shift toward unconventional and eclectic decor, and innovative artisans and crafters. Thomas continues to turn a fresh eye towards this knotted and woven art to make its muted palette and heavily textured patterns look better than ever in today’s home.

Traditionally associated with the 1960s and 1970s bohemian movement, macramé is a textile art form of knotting and hitching that is thought to have originated in the 13th century, possibly beginning with Arab weavers, says Ancient Earth Designs. This craft has resurfaced, ebbing and flowing in popularity over centuries. It became wildly popular in Victorian times and has again made a fashionable comeback in the 2020s.

“I started doing macrame in 2021. I’ve always been drawn to the bohemian aesthetic. As it often inspired by nature, which is where I enjoy spending my free time. I love the freedom of expression when it comes to the Bohemian aesthetic. Being able to be maximalist, minimalist, or modern. While mixing, matching, and layering,” Tom shared.

He added, “At first, I started doing macrame as a way to release my creativity. There are endless color palettes, textures, and patterns that can be used In the process to create some really beautiful pieces. I also found the process to be meditative. The repetition of knotting and hitching helps quite the noises that life may have.”

Overtime Tom accumulated a lot of macrame pieces. He decided that he would like to sell them so they could be displayed in homes. With the idea that these beautiful pieces could be a finishing touch in a space that someone has already created. He started an Instagram under Tarxan Creation to document his art pieces and he has also sold some of his pieces at MAD Salon and Spa in Natomas.

“I hope that the pieces that I made will bring comfort to those that will be living at Joshua’s House — having a piece of unique art to fill their space,” he said.