Share the Spirit: Finding shelter, and a community, when she needed it most
Judith Gonzalez had a young family to take care of and didn’t know where to go.
Gonzalez was 33 and living with her mother while raising two children, ages 3 and 1, alongside her husband in Pittsburg. Tension in the household was rising. Gonzalez knew that they needed to find a place of their own, but her and her husband’s credit problems made finding an apartment nearly impossible. Other family members couldn’t take them in.
Out of options, Gonzalez dialed 411, the county’s resource hotline. A few days later, they got word that they’d been accepted into the Winter Nights Family Shelter. The family packed up their belongings into their car, and drove to the church that would serve as their temporary home.
Inside a large conference room, they were given a tent to pitch among half a dozen other families. At first, Gonzalez’s children stayed close to her, nervous and quiet. But within days, both children warmed up to the volunteers, who read them library books or helped with homework. Her eldest daughter began running around the church with the other kids.
“They went from both clinging to my side when we came in, and then they grew to play and run around,” Gonzalez said. “I saw how they transformed.”
Founded in 2004, Winter Nights relies on a network of faith communities throughout Contra Costa County, each hosting families for two- or three-week stretches. The nonprofit has 13 paid staff and hundreds of volunteers, many of whom have experienced homelessness themselves, who help connect clients to resources, get them financial education, and provide tutoring to children.
Last year, its shelters served 22 families — 10 of whom secured stable housing, with another five receiving housing referrals. Its two safe parking sites in Antioch and Pittsburg provided a lifeline to 146 people living in 111 cars, including nine families with 15 children.
For Gonzalez’s family, Winter Nights offered more than shelter — it offered the tools they needed to move forward. When her husband’s truck broke down, the organization paid for repairs so he could continue taking their kids to school. That support came from Winter Nights’ financial assistance program, which last year distributed $28,000 to 24 households, mostly for car repairs and rental deposits.
Along the way, Gonzalez found community. On Christmas, Gonzalez’s family attended an extravagant Christmas dinner the volunteers had put on for the families — which included presents for the kids. Staff also checked in regularly and encouraged her to keep moving toward a more stable situation.
After six months with Winter Nights, the Gonzalezes moved into a rental, then another, and eventually bought a mobile home in Pittsburg. Today, Gonzalez works as a pharmacy technician at UCSF’s outpatient cancer center, preparing chemotherapy treatments for patients. She still keeps in touch with Winter Nights staff, including Teri Lundvall, who was a client of the shelter herself in 2004 before joining the staff five years later.
“There’s a bond there that’s created not only between the clients, but also the staff, when you’re working with someone at such a vulnerable point in their life,” Lundvall said.
Now 43, Gonzalez reflects on her time in the shelter as a period of unexpected compassion.
“As a mother, I felt like I failed my kids,” she said. “I carried that guilt for a long time.”
Last year, Gonzalez asked her daughter what she remembered from their time in the shelter.
“It was fun,” she recalls her daughter telling her. “We were living in a tent, we did lots of activities, and I got presents.”
“Everything she was telling me was positive … it took a weight off of my heart,” Gonzalez said. “At least she didn’t see it that way, that she was homeless.”
ABOUT SHARE THE SPIRITShare the Spirit is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operated by the East Bay Times/Bay Area News Group. Since 1989, Share the Spirit has been producing series of stories during the holiday season that highlight the wishes of those in need and invite readers to help fulfill them.
HOW TO HELPDonations to Winter Nights Family Shelter will enable the nonprofit to provide financial assistance to around 10 homeless households for urgent needs, like car repairs, past-due rent or utilities and other essential expenses alongside deposits needed to secure leases — small, timely investments of an average of $1,167 per household. Goal: $12,000
HOW TO GIVEDonate at sharethespiriteastbay.org/donate or by mail using this form. Donations are tax deductible.
ONLINE EXTRARead other Share the Spirit stories, view photos and video at sharethespiriteastbay.org.