LuAnn Briggs peered over her left shoulder at one of two visitors she escorted into her studio apartment above Open Heart Kitchen in Livermore and whispered: “It’s small.”
The apartment, adjacent to and across from a dozen other rooms in a long second-floor hallway, is similar to a college dormitory room, about 16 feet by 16 feet. It’s enough for a single bed, a nightstand, a desk, a long kitchen counter, a microwave oven, a sink and a refrigerator. Also in the space is a TV, a laptop, pictures galore of Briggs’ family, bookshelves that hint at a strong faith, and a bathroom with a tub.
For Briggs, 70, it might as well be the executive suite. A year ago at this time, she called her car home.
“It’s really a miracle,” Briggs said of the change in her circumstances. “This place and these people saved my life. They really did.”
Briggs’ road to a new life is one of many success stories to have emerged from Open Heart Kitchen, a nonprofit that provides food and shelter for those experiencing life without a home. In 2023, it served more than 418,000 meals to those in need. In 2024, it will surpass 400,000 meals again and may reach 450,000.
This holiday season, Open Heart Kitchen is hoping to raise $10,000 through the East Bay Times’ annual Share the Spirit campaign, which provides relief, hope and opportunities for East Bay residents by helping raise money for nonprofit programs in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The money will allow the Open Heart Refuge program to provide 40 nights of shelter for 20 individuals.
The nonprofit operates its kitchen and works with other organizations to steer unhoused people into the apartments at the Vineyard Resource Center — where Briggs lives — as well as onto the 20 cots that are available in the dining area after the kitchen closes each night.
It’s a source of hope, according to John Bost, the executive director of Open Heart Kitchen.
“We don’t consider these people homeless, we consider them unhoused, and that’s an important distinction,” Bost said. “To be called ‘homeless’ is to give a person that sense of being invisible and un-noticed. We don’t feel anyone is invisible. There are simply too many people and a lack of affordable housing. Period.”
The center is located on North Livermore Avenue and serves meals in its dining room every Monday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. In the evening, the dining room is converted into a bedroom, with 20 cots available.
“The idea in trying to keep them together is that when you’re in a situation where you are unhoused, it’s easy to get into your head that nobody has gone through what you’ve been through,” Bost said. “To hear from others that they’ve been through things that aren’t exactly the same but are pretty darn close is very affirming.”
Said program manager Lilybeth Herrera: “People here are victims of domestic violence. They’re victims of human trafficking. They’re people who had nowhere to go when their landlord decided to kick them out. They’re people who have lost jobs, whose spouses have left. We’re not so concerned with how you ended up here, because anybody can.”
Briggs is one of the success stories. She said an issue with a family member created her unhoused situation. At first, she thought she would be able to work through her problem.
“I thought I would be fine in my car. I really did. I had it planned out how it would work, how I could do it, and I was confident,” she said. “But the diminishment of hope was so rapid. It was gone almost in a blink of the eye.”
She got sick late in the fall, and CityServe of the Tri-Valley, another non-profit that works closely with Open Heart Kitchen, put her in a hotel for 30 days in Pleasanton. Then, she said, “without me realizing, some people recommended me” for Open Heart’s repair work.
That was at the end of January. On Feb. 16, she moved into the apartment.
“One of the main challenges here is maintaining hope,” Bost said. “I like to think that’s what our business is. But there’s no quick fix. It’s a long, arduous journey.”
For that odyssey from unhoused to secure and looking ahead, Open Heart provides a map. Guests at the shelter can receive free showers, laundry services and clothing. The friendship with CityServe — “I can’t say enough about the collaboration we have with other non-profits,” Bost said — has allowed unhoused clients to find documents, fill out paperwork and do myriad other tasks needed to re-enter society as a housed person.
In doing so, Briggs said they do more than restore hope. They restore life.
“I didn’t realize how cold and dangerous the car was until I got into (Open Heart),” she said. “I don’t know if I can put it into words. I keep saying it, but it’s true. Truly a miracle. They saved me.”
