“It was really dangerous there.” Delores and her family were living in fear—even in a gated community. Her daughter had witnessed a drive-by shooting. Another daughter went missing for a week, found later in Stockton with no recollection of how she got there. “It had gotten profoundly worse and worse and worse, and we could not deal with it.”
Even simple routines became risky. “My husband was walking to work, and you know, stray bullets were flying.” They needed peace. They needed calm. So they left.
Then came the pandemic. “I remember we were packing, and they were talking about, ‘Oh no, it’s fine, it’s fine,’ and it was a lot worse than I thought it was.” Everything shut down. The resources they were counting on disappeared. Her husband couldn’t find work, and their funds ran out quickly.
“At that point, when things got really bad, we reached out to Catholic Charities.”
Catholic Charities didn’t just provide one kind of help. “They cover a diverse base of needs that a lot of other charities don’t—utility assistance, hot water heaters, appliances, bus tickets home. Things I just don’t know of a lot of other sources for.”
Delores and her family needed hope. They needed housing, food support, and healthcare. “We needed assistance getting on food stamps. I didn’t even know how that process would work.”
She needed therapy—and Catholic Charities helped her stabilize, access care, and start taking steps toward recovery. “So we could get kids into the doctor to make sure they were okay.”
And when they needed housing again, the answer came through a connection at Catholic Charities. A local real estate agent had a rental available—and offered it to them. “That was unbelievably nice. And everybody’s okay. And nothing’s gonna happen.”
She’s still learning how to adjust to safety and quiet, but now there’s space to breathe.
“Ultimately, I think the hope is self-sufficiency—to help them through a rough patch and to see them through a tough spot in their lives.”
Catholic Charities gave her more than survival. “They gave me that sense of there is something beyond survival.”
Without them? Delores is candid: “If Catholic Charities were not here, I think there would be a great deal more what we refer to as street homelessness. We see these tent cities—and they really do exist, not very far from here. There are real risks regarding safety and disease and hunger.”
The difference, for her, was hope.
“Like… they give you hope. And that’s something I don’t know that a lot of people realize they don’t have. And that… is everything.”