Why We Give

Food insecurity and access to basic needs

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Hygiene Insecurity, also widely known as “hygiene poverty”, is the inability to afford everyday hygiene products, such as shampoo, toilet paper, grooming products, soap, and more. Accessing hygiene products for families living with limited income can be surprisingly difficult. And even more so for those who are homeless as most shelters provide food ONLY and don't have the budget for hygiene products. Nearly 25% of families have trouble affording essential things like food, bills, and healthcare, which is considered the “heat, eat, or health” dilemma. This leads making tough choices each day. Having a low income and struggling to afford basic needs increases the risk of anxiety by 275% and depression by 253%. Reduced hygiene-access among people experiencing homelessness has been associated with a variety of communicable & non-communicable disease outcomes, many are life threatening. Over 60K people are homeless in Los Angeles County according to reports by the LA Homeless Authority.

The project this grant will support is in providing hygiene kits to as many people as possible who are unhoused in Los Angeles. Los Angeles has one of the highest percentages of homelessness in America with over 60K people and that number is unfortunately increasing. We are blessed to be able to receive a generous amount of hygiene products from sponsors but the need for hygiene products is increasing especially with more families from our direct street outreach encounters. More hygiene products and essential items (such as menstrual products, blankets, tents, hand warmers, and cooling fans are needed as well) are in desperate need by the unhoused community we serve.

As of now we have supplied 5000 people with hygiene kits and we plan on doubling that number (plus more) with different strategies to maximize our efforts so more people in need are served. Most people think of hygiene as just a soap bar or deodorant; but it is more than that. Hygiene access is a way that humans maintain their dignity and it aids in the prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases. We aim to provide systemic change by combating hygiene poverty by expanding hygiene product access to the most vulnerable community, our unhoused neighbors. Black and Brown communities are most negatively impacted by homelessness due to racism and socio-economic factors. Our impact is making Los Angeles County successful by helping as many people as possible maintain their dignity with clean hygiene, a renewed sense of pride, and improved physical health (including dental, body, and menstrual health).

It is an existing project that is scaling very quickly. We measure it's impact by consistently collecting survey data from the recipients we serve (through direct street outreach, virtual surveys), our operations staff, and the other organizations we work with to determine the number and quality of kits given. We have running this project since 2019 (pre and post pandemic) to determine the best strategy and structure to maximize our reach to our underserved unhoused community. For example, each kit costs $3 on average and from each kit given it last a person for approximately one month. From that data we break it down to men, women, and children to see what best products can be given to last a longer shelf life for those who are unhoused and ensuring the quality of products are prime.