Friends in Deed: Hope for Pasadena’s homeless since 1894

Photos by Terry Miller

By Jennifer Schlueter
In preparation of their upcoming anniversary, I was invited to visit Friends In Deed in Pasadena. For 120 years, the organization has helped the low-income and homeless population of the city. Started by pastors who recognized the needs of the less fortunate, Friends In Deed has made it its mission to work together on what they can’t do alone, and to keep as many people as possible off the streets, as Director Donna Byrns explained.
Friends In Deed offers a food pantry, a bad-weather shelter during cold winter months, and a women’s room, where all women can come and find a homelike atmosphere. Additionally, the organization provides a laundry facility, showers, and homeless prevention.
“When you’re homeless, you’re invisible,” explains Juliana, a regular guest at The Women’s Room, “but not here. Here you become visible.” She became homeless in 2011, because everyone in her housing situation was evicted, she told me. Juliana feels at home at The Women’s Room; it keeps her sane, and the camaraderie she experiences here makes her not give up her life. On the streets, she started to write poems, which help her to “keep in touch with humanity.”
Jackie Knowles, founding coordinator of The Women’s Room, proudly told me that it has existed for seven years, and started off with eight women. Juliana is one of 25-35 ladies who are homeless or at-risk, who come to the Women’s Room to either get help, take one of the many classes and services offered from a weekly writing class, to “Ask a Nurse,” to take computer lessons, or just to socialize and connect with others who face a similar destiny. The women here feel comfortable because they are not being judged and are free to come and go whenever they please with signing in as the only required paperwork. Theresa is one of the lucky women who found housing, but still returns to The Women’s Room because she loves the people and the activities. She also participates in the writing group.
Jackie was inspired to found The Women’s Room after reading a ten-year strategy to end homelessness and finding out that out of the 1,200 homeless in the city, one-third were women. However, for homeless women without a verifiable drug or mental problem, there were no services offered. Therefore, she decided that homeless women with or without these problems needed a place where they could feel whole, lift each other up, and get treated with dignity and respect, and so Jackie created the Women’s Room after the model of the women’s shelter in Downtown Los Angeles. Friends In Deed works closely together with the Pasadena Housing Department and other organizations to end homelessness and to prevent it. They offer financial and employment counseling.
The Food Pantry of Friends In Deed serves an estimated 4,000 people monthly, and is the only one that lets people shop according to their needs rather than getting a pre-prepared bag full of groceries they might not like or need. When 40 years ago a Pasadena homeless man froze to death, Friends In Deed established The Bad Weather shelter for the weeks between Thanksgiving and March 15, which served nearly 1,000 homeless men, women and children in the 2012-2013 season. During holidays, Friends in Deed plans special events, or, just recently, had a Back To School backpack drive, thanks to which 180 kids received backpacks with school supplies.
The organization prides itself on minimal staff and bureaucracy, and on a wide range of volunteers. Without them, the organization simply wouldn’t exist. Jackie and Tara Hull, The Women’s Room’s program director, and many other employees agree on that. Local supermarkets, parents, students, retired professionals, and others all help by donating their time, food, clothes, and money to people in need. If you would like to contribute as well, please visit http://www.ecpac.net/how_youCan_hep.html and find out how you can help.
Hosted by Fritz Coleman, stand-up comic and KNBC weatherman, the 120th anniversary of Friends in Deed will take place on November 5, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., at Castle Green, 99 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. Tickets are $120. Valet parking will be available. For the event, Friends in Deed is planning “A Walk Through History” paired with food, music and auctions, honor contributors, but also three former homeless women, who are now, thanks to Friends In Deed, self-sustaining.
The success story of Evelyn provides strong proof of how Friends In Deed helps the less fortunate: seven years ago, Evelyn told me, she lost her administrative assistant job because her company went bankrupt. Without any family close, she landed on the streets. With finding The Women’s Room, Evelyn also found new hope, and a job. “If it wasn’t for this place, I wouldn’t know what my life would have been,” Evelyn said. Even though she isn’t homeless anymore, she still comes back to The Women’s Room and gives back to others, saying that there she has family fellowship and everyone looking out for each other.

More from News