{"id":80182,"date":"2026-04-22T00:51:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=80182"},"modified":"2026-04-22T00:51:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:51:02","slug":"in-californias-central-valley-salt-light-keeps-the-unhoused-housed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=80182","title":{"rendered":"In California\u2019s Central Valley, Salt + Light Keeps the Unhoused Housed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_author tdi_65 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_65\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-author-name-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-author-by\">By<\/span><a class=\"tdb-author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/author\/selen-ozturk\/\">Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_date tdi_66 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_66\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><i class=\"tdb-date-icon tdc-font-fa tdc-font-fa-calendar\"><\/i><time class=\"entry-date updated td-module-date\" datetime=\"2026-04-20T12:19:10-07:00\">Apr 20, 2026<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_subtitle tdi_67 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_67\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>Everyone Salt + Light works with \u2014 whether living on the streets or in one of the organization&#8217;s 53 permanent supportive homes \u2014 is referred to as a neighbor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_featured_image tdi_68 tdb-content-horiz-left td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_68\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"wpb_video_wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"widget2\" class=\"td-youtube-player\" title=\"Adrianne Hillman and Erin Garner-Ford, 2026 Leadership Award Recipients\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/psdft7D6QcM?enablejsapi=1&amp;feature=oembed&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;vq=hd720&amp;&amp;&amp;\" width=\"100%\" height=\"560\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-18=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_69 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_69\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>Everyone Salt + Light works with \u2014 whether living on the streets or in one of the organization\u2019s 53 permanent supportive homes \u2014 is referred to as a neighbor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think of you as my neighbor too,\u201d said its founder Adrianne Hillman to this reporter. Hillman started the nonprofit in late 2019 in Tulare County, a Central Valley, a region she described as \u201cthe heartland of the state,\u201d but one that gets \u201coften passed over for funding and attention.\u201d Her family has been in the county for roughly 120 years, going back to great-grandparents who came from the Azores. She\u2019s never left.<\/p>\n<p>What drove her to found Salt + Light was a board seat at a local faith-based homeless aid nonprofit where she found the approach overly transactional and conditional \u2014 \u201cPeople weren\u2019t getting services if they weren\u2019t following particular rules or believing particular things\u201d \u2014 and a trip to Austin, Texas where she saw the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mlf.org\/community-first-model\/\">Community First! Village<\/a>, a 51-acre master-planned permanent supportive housing model.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/16x9-Hillman-Fin-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-47142\" src=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/16x9-Hillman-Fin-1-1024x576.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/16x9-Hillman-Fin-1-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/16x9-Hillman-Fin-1-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/16x9-Hillman-Fin-1-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/16x9-Hillman-Fin-1-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/16x9-Hillman-Fin-1-150x84.png 150w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/16x9-Hillman-Fin-1-696x392.png 696w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/16x9-Hillman-Fin-1-1068x601.png 1068w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/16x9-Hillman-Fin-1.png 1920w\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Adrianne Hillman (L) and Erin Garner-Ford (R), respectively the chief exective officer and chief strategy officer of Salt + Light, are the winners of a 2026 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award. (Courtesy of The James Irvine Foundation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt was so intoxicating to watch people really live in community with one another,\u201d she said. \u201cI was like, we\u2019re made for this. It just felt like home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She brought the model back to the organization she\u2019d been advising in Tulare County. They declined, but\u00a0 \u201cit really wouldn\u2019t let me go,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Salt + Light and its Neighborhood Village \u2014 California\u2019s first master-planned permanent supportive housing community, opened in 2024 \u2014 are recipients of this year\u2019s James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award, which carries a $350,000 grant. Hillman leads alongside Erin Garner-Ford, a fellow century-long Tulare County native with 20 years of nonprofit lead experience who became chief strategy officer in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Their first major test came almost immediately. Garner-Ford first joined as a consultant in February 2020, a month before the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>With almost no staff, Hillman went to Oregon and bought a used food truck for $10,000, and the two drove it to serve people living on the streets in Tulare, where visible encampments along the rail lines were causing public frustration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNaysayers were saying we were keeping people homeless by feeding them,\u201d Hillman said. \u201cA peanut butter and jelly sandwich does not a home make. We were just meeting an immediate suffering need.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Bonfire.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-47141\" src=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Bonfire-1024x576.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Bonfire-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Bonfire-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Bonfire-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Bonfire-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Bonfire-150x84.png 150w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Bonfire-696x392.png 696w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Bonfire-1068x601.png 1068w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Bonfire.png 1920w\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Salt + Light\u2019s Neighborhood Village residents hold a bonfire outside their community hall. (Courtesy of The James Irvine Foundation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When a state Encampment Resolution Funding grant soon opened, Garner-Ford wrote the application with the city of Tulare.<\/p>\n<p>Seeking nearly $1.6 million, they got under $200,000, but it was enough to stabilize the encampments, service them with case managers and move residents to a safer site, she explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were the boots on the ground for that effort, from helping the city get that money to implementing that care,\u201d Hillman said. \u201cBy the time we built the village, people were cheering for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Between these case services and the village, Salt + Light has housed more than 250 people \u2014 roughly 20% of Tulare County\u2019s unhoused population.<\/p>\n<p>Of those, Garner-Ford estimates only three households have returned to homelessness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t even know the exact number, because it\u2019s so rare that it sends waves across the agency each time, the loss when someone goes back to the streets, the trauma of starting again from day one,\u201d Hillman said.<\/p>\n<p>Nationally, an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.urban.org\/sites\/default\/files\/publication\/104501\/breaking-the-homelessness-jail-cycle-with-housing-first_1.pdf\">estimated 14%<\/a>\u00a0of people in permanent supportive housing return to homelessness within a year.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Food-Truck.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-47140\" src=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Food-Truck-1024x576.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Food-Truck-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Food-Truck-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Food-Truck-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Food-Truck-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Food-Truck-150x84.png 150w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Food-Truck-696x392.png 696w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Food-Truck-1068x601.png 1068w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Food-Truck.png 1920w\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A Salt + Light worker distributes food from a food truck. (Courtesy of The James Irvine Foundation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Neighborhood Village has 53 furnished modular homes on six-and-a-half acres in Goshen, an unincorporated, impoverished part of Tulare County. The village includes a community center, dog park, central park, memorial garden and a market where residents can use currency earned through community work for goods or experiences including trips to Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park and the beach \u2014 for some, for the first time in their lives.<\/p>\n<p>Hillman designed every house with a front porch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey say what killed community in the United States was air conditioning,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause before that, we\u2019d sit on the front porch with our neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Each house comes with job training, financial literacy classes, income opportunities, addiction meetings, weekly free medical care provided by Fresno State\u2019s family nurse practitioner program and transit service from a grant-funded van that takes residents to grocery stores and appointments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought the Everest I had to climb was to build this village,\u201d said Hillman. \u201cI had no idea that the harder thing was to build a nonprofit, sustain it and create a culture within it where people wanted to live and love and stay. Our insides should match our outsides as an organization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Building trust with the surrounding community has required negotiating one institution in particular.<\/p>\n<p>In Tulare County, law enforcement has historically been the default response to mental health crises. When Salt + Light first moved into Goshen under the jurisdiction of the county sheriff\u2019s department, early encounters were difficult.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Support-Group.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-47139\" src=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Support-Group-1024x576.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Support-Group-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Support-Group-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Support-Group-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Support-Group-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Support-Group-150x84.png 150w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Support-Group-696x392.png 696w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Support-Group-1068x601.png 1068w, https:\/\/americancommunitymedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Support-Group.png 1920w\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Salt + Light community members hold a support group at the Neighborhood Village community hall. (Courtesy of The James Irvine Foundation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not going to candy-coat it,\u201d Hillman said. \u201cThe only time I\u2019ve ever felt any kind of threat when working on the streets was never from our neighbors, was always from the predators, the pimps and drug dealers that were preying upon our neighbors \u2026 but we\u2019ve moved the needle, and I\u2019m proud of that. It has been a very good partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Garner-Ford described an attitudinal shift with the Sheriff\u2019s Department too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey know we\u2019re human-to-human here. They know how much we care, and that\u2019s bridging a really big gap,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of times, why individuals get into law enforcement in the beginning is to help people. When they come to the village, they see we\u2019re helping people too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Visalia police department, though not in is even closer: Chief Jason Salazar is an original Salt + Light board member still serving today. Salazar has since established one of the state\u2019s first homeless task forces within his department.<\/p>\n<p>He was also the organization\u2019s \u201cpublic validator\u201d explaining the nonprofit\u2019s work in its Irvine Foundation grantee video, a pairing that Hillman said surprised people: \u201cYou don\u2019t always connect humanitarian work and law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Irvine grant will fund staff training, leadership development and operational costs that are hardest to fundraise for.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFood\u2019s easy to fund,\u201d Hillman said. \u201cFunding the people to make the food is difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She plans to invest in programs fortifying her longer-term goal: demonstrating to state and federal funders that human-relational care can stabilize long-term housing, and that affordable housing dollars for the chronically homeless should include wraparound services like health care and food aid.<\/p>\n<p>She also has village expansion planned; future buildings may go multi-story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe set out to prove it, and the only way to do that is to fundraise the heck out of it, collect the data, and then go back and say \u2018See: front-end money, long-term gain,\u2019\u201d Hillman explained. \u201cTeaching people about how homelessness at all really works, involves convincing them why they should even care about their neighbors experiencing homelessness, rehumanizing people experiencing homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur passion is our heartbreak,\u201d she added. \u201cBelonging is my heartbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>More information about the James Irvine Awards is available<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/irvineawards.org\/\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>here<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This year\u2019s other five grantees are Celina Alvarez of Housing Works of California; Chris Chatmon of Kingmakers of Oakland; Lian Cheun of Khmer Girls in Action; Darla M. Cooper of the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges; and Virgil Moorehead and Amy Mathieson of Two Feathers Native American Family Services.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BySelen Ozturk Apr 20, 2026 Everyone&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80183,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80182\/revisions\/80183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}