A group of volunteers from La Jolla Cosmetic and Las Patronas joined the staff at Humble Design for a day of community service in Lakeside on Feb. 11, to provide Jennifer Fonda, 47, and her 14-year-old son Dominick by fully furnishing her new home after recently emerging from five years of homelessness.
Humble Design City Director Laura Lavoie said Fonda was referred to them by the East County Transitional Living Center.
“All our clients are referred to us by case managers and partnering social services agencies around the county,” she said. “Jennifer was referred to us by the East County Transitional Living Center. They had been experiencing homelessness for several years predicated by some traumatic life experiences. Jennifer went through unspeakable heartache. She started the 12-month program at ECTLC and finished it in six months because she was so determined that the hardships in life were not going to define her and continue to hold her back.”
A single mother and hairdresser by trade, Fonda said she had her life together for so long until her 21-year-old son passed away.
“Then everything just kept hitting me. I lost my best friend. I had an injury to my eye, so I had to stop working,” she said. “During all of that I became addicted. I was an alcoholic and a drug addict. I lost everything. COVID hit and I just kept spinning out of control.”
Without shelter, Fonda said she was everywhere around the county, lived in her car, and couch surfed from friend to friend.
She said that she went to her aunt’s home where her son was staying at the time, and they told her that she was a wreck and that they were not comfortable to have him see her that way.
“I am being brutally honest, but I looked like hell,” she said. “I thought I was okay, but they said that it was not okay for my son which I accepted, because I saw the look in my son’s eyes seeing me the way I was, knowing he was staying at his dad’s because I had nowhere to go. That look in his face just killed me. Something triggered in me that day. I got off the exit two exits after to stop by a liquor store, then I saw the Christian Fellowship sign and drove there instead. I do not know why. I do not know how I got there. I say it is by God because I would not have gotten very much farther with how I was living. I had pretty much given up all hope.”
“The troubles of getting back on my feet I just could not do,” she said. “I could not get out of the wrath of what I destroyed my life with. I smoke cigarettes, I drank every day, I used drugs, so I pulled up there and asked if they had any help for me. They said yes and I went into their program the very next day.”
Fonda said with the help of her counselor Claudia, she was able to start working right away. She started in the women’s dorms, then moved into the family dorms with her son.
“We both got grounded in God, and he opened every door for me,” she said. “I never smoked a cigarette again, I never craved alcohol again. It was an amazing thing that I went through because I gave everything over to him. I knew I was going to die. The way I was living was destroying everything. I got hustling, working three jobs. I was trying to get more hours. Due to COVID, everything in my industry was not full time. I worked salons, slinged pizza every night, delivering, doing everything that I possibly could to save up and get back up on my feet. I am now in a full time job.”
Lavoie said Humble Design is a nonprofit interior design company that serves families, veterans, and individuals leaving homelessness. She said when they got to Fonda’s new home, it was almost completely empty, but what takes other people days, weeks, or months, they were able to do in one day.
“We took her empty house and transformed it into a personally designed, fully furnished beautiful home,” she said. “We have professional interior designers on staff, and at the beginning of the week met with her, learned what she had been through, then went into a design consult like you would have with any interior designer client, and talked about what they like, the colors they like, what they are in to.”
Lavoie said Humble lives in a 9,000 square foot warehouse in Logan Heights full of furniture, home goods, and artwork, 100% donated by the community. She said after the designer met with Fonda, they went to the warehouse and pulled pieces that were reflective of her style and what she was hoping for the space. She said when they were done, Fonda and her son came home, knocked on the door, and all the volunteers said,” Welcome home!” Then the designer gave them a personal tour.
“We call it Humble Magic when we take an empty space and turn it into this beautiful, perfectly appointed personalized home,” she said. “It changes lives. It is not just a cosmetic change. It is truly changing the way our clients experience their environment. They are being treated with love, dignity and respect, and seen as the beautiful human beings that they are instead of being treated as a statistic or a problem to be solved. It is profound.”
Fonda said Humble was amazing throughout the entire process, and that they bonded with her son. Because she never has anyone over, she gave the largest room in the house to her son.
“They took every aspect of how we like to camp, how we used to go outdoors, and then they came in and gave us every possible thing they could. They did his room big enough with bunkbeds, sitting areas,” she said. “I told Laura that my son has already had so many memories here. Having friends over, staying the night, having a Super Bowl party with 12 kids barbecuing. Using his room and having a place where he is comfortable and safe. We have that now.”
Fonda said that they did not know what to expect, but that Humble went above and beyond their greatest expectations, down to every small detail that fit in with their lives.
Lavoie said the family’s reaction was touching.
“You could see the relief on her face when she walked in the door. And then the joy,” she said. “What stuck with all of us is that you could tell that she has been fighting for her kiddo and that he was the motivating factor for her to get herself up and out of her situation and into a better place. Their love for each other was palpable. To see him light up when he got to his room, he said, “Woah, this is actually dope!” When you have a 14-year-old say something is dope, I think that is a marker of success.”
Lavoie said that people who are not familiar with the phenomenon of homelessness think that once you have a roof over your head, that is the end of the story. But it is not.
“That is why what we do is so important,” she said. “Nationwide, 50% of people that experience homelessness are back in the system within a year. Back in a shelter or back in the streets. Our retention rate for all our clients in San Diego is 97%. It is not just because you gave them beautiful things. That is part of it, but it is truly the restoration of dignity, security, and removing that layer of anxiety and stress where you must choose between furniture and food. All the things they need to work on, once they have Humble Design, it changes their ability to be successful in all other aspects of their lives.”
Lavoie said it has partnered with La Jolla Cosmetic CEO Marie Oleson, a member of its advisory committee for years, with them sponsoring several homes every year. She said this year they brought volunteers from Las Patronas with them to share in the day of giving.
“It was a lovely way to extend the hands of opportunity of service with Humble to another organization that does good work for the community,” she said. “It was a really nice way to bring that whole community together. Our tagline at Humble Design is, Togetherness to End Homelessness. We are always looking for ways to partner with people with great big hearts and the willingness and heart to help others.”
Fonda said she is telling everyone that she knows to donate to Humble Design now, and that she would like to stay in touch, even volunteer.
“For what they did was such a blessing. I once had a furnished home,” she said. “I had my life together and had all those things. For me not to have had to struggle to get all of it, especially the little things, like a toaster. It is like a dream come true, but when I wake up every morning, I am always staring at everything they have done for us.”
“Do not be embarrassed. Do not be uncomfortable going to get help to get off the streets. Do not fear asking for help,” she said. “You just must give in, let go, and get the help to get off the streets because it is hard. It is a struggle out there. And it is everywhere.”
To learn more about Humble Design San Diego, visit humbledesign.org/sandiego.
