Turner Foundation opens Santa Barbara home to 5 young adults struggling with housing insecurity

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—A home on the corner of De La Guerra and Marilla Street is about to transform the lives of 5 young adults all with their own unique set of hardships.

A non-profit called the Turner Foundation has secured the home as part of their hopeful housing initiative.

“We're providing housing, but we're doing it in a kind of a special way. We call it hopeful housing, where we're providing services support here. They'll be caseworkers, they'll be raised. There's lots of kind of support. So it's not just housing by itself,” said Turner Foundation President and CEO Dean Wilson.

Apart from giving these young adults a safe space to stay, Turner Foundation will also be providing a sense of structure and a sense of community where basic needs and mental health needs will be tackled head on.

“I’ll be doing the case management onsite. So doing goal oriented and strength based case management, supporting them in goals like education, career building, and then eventually we will get them independent housing with our housing navigator who will support them in building connections in the community and getting independent housing,” said Turner Foundation Transitional Aged Youth Program Coordinator Abby Lindros.

The young adults who will be living here range in age from 18 to 24 years old-- a critical life stage.

“Between 18 to 24, that's kind of when you're launched out into the world theoretically. And so a lot of these participants may not have had that support system, that family support system, kind of bolstering their launch into the world,” said Lindros.

This is the 5th house in the Foundation House Program since its inception 2 years ago.

The Turner Foundation named this house the “Dunamis” house— a Greek concept that translates to “power and potential.”

The non-profit is confident to see these young adults thrive and become self sufficient.