Salt + Light’s mission is to cultivate community by providing food, dignified homes, jobs and healing for our neighbors experiencing chronic homelessness in Tulare County. We cultivate community through various forms of outreach including partnerships with local agencies and our own Food Truck Outreach program. Additionally, we are ultimately building a community of our own, The Neighborhood Village, that will provide permanent homes, purposeful work, and wrap-around health and healing services to help our neighbors experiencing chronic homelessness return to themselves.

Salt + Light’s mission is to cultivate community by providing food, dignified homes, jobs and healing for our neighbors experiencing chronic homelessness in Tulare County. We cultivate community through various forms of outreach including partnerships with local agencies and our own Food Truck Outreach program. Additionally, we are ultimately building a community of our own, The Neighborhood Village, that will provide permanent homes, purposeful work, and wrap-around health and healing services to help our neighbors experiencing chronic homelessness return to themselves.

Salt + Light is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization founded by Adrianne Hillman. While S+L is not a religious organization, she is deeply inspired by the teachings of Jesus Christ and the teachings from his Sermon on the Mount, where he introduces the idea of being salt and light on Earth. We recognize the simultaneous grittiness and beauty in our work of addressing the complex homelessness crisis, so we believe our name suits us well!

The team at Salt + Light is committed to being an organization that is inclusive of everybody, always. No one is ever excluded due to their faith traditions (or lack thereof), gender, sexuality, disability, or race. We actively seek out and embrace diverse perspectives, valuing individuals from different backgrounds, experiences, ages, religions, ethnicities, races, sexual orientations, and genders. This inclusivity extends to our employment practices, volunteer engagement, and collaborative efforts. We intentionally serve all populations, removing barriers that may hinder access to our organization. We firmly believe in providing equal opportunities for everyone to engage with our organization. 

The Neighborhood Village is inspired by the Community First! Village in Austin, Texas. We believe the number one cause of homelessness is a profound, catastrophic loss of family. This is why we firmly believe that housing alone will never solve homelessness, but community will. The longer our neighbors are on the streets, the more traumatized they become and the more difficult they are to reach. We believe that the only way to create true and lasting restoration for folks who have experienced the trauma of chronic homelessness is through a relational community model.

There are 50 homes for neighbors experiencing chronic homelessness and 3 mission resident homes. We plan to continue to build homes if we can obtain more land.

A person who is “chronically homeless” is someone who has been without shelter for one year or more or the aggregate of a year or more over a three-year period.

The government model for addressing homelessness is a “one size fits all” and housing-first approach that historically doesn’t provide the highly staffed, robust services, monitoring care, and assistance our community will provide. We were able to secure some government funding for the construction of the project. However, those funds did not fully cover the build, nor will they cover the wrap-around services/staffing that Salt + Light will provide to facilitate the intensive care necessary to create lasting healing with our neighbors.

No. The Neighborhood Village is not a tiny home village. The houses in TNV are manufactured mobile homes secured to a permanent foundation. Tiny homes typically lack plumbing and other amenities, and our homes include a bathroom and kitchen. While tiny home village concepts are gaining popularity and can be useful in helping neighbors to settle and heal, we believe that it is not the housing type that matters (as long as it is a dignified living space) nearly as much as the community built within it. Helping people who have been extremely traumatized to heal happens through relationships, community, dignified income through purposeful work, and wraparound services. We may have tiny homes in future phases, however we do not have tiny homes for housing at this time.

Our village provides PERMANENT homes for our neighbors. They are never expected to leave, unless they choose to or are evicted because of a violation of their lease agreement. Our neighbors must follow three rules to maintain residency in our community: 1. Pay Rent 2. Obey Civil Law 3. Obey Community Rules.

We will utilize Coordinated Entry in partnership with our local Continuum of Care, Kings Tulare Homeless Alliance and Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency. There is a list that is shared between agencies that is housed in HMIS (Homeless Management Information System) which gives us a complete history of each person, including their intensity of need.

Because we are utilizing HMIS, we can track whether or not people are from Tulare County. We prioritize people who have the greatest needs, are chronically homeless (a year or more of homelessness or the aggregate of 1 year over a three-year period), and have been so within the continuum of care for over a year. In addition, ~85% of people experiencing homelessness in Tulare County are native to or have next of kin in Tulare County.*

 A person must…

• Pay rent and adhere to their lease agreement

• Follow civil law (just like your neighborhood

• Follow community rules (no overnight guests, two cars per home, two animals per home, all animals are required to be on leash unless in dog park, etc.—Like HOA rules)

After three occurrences, they will be evicted and asked to leave.

No. Just like someone cannot knock on your door to ask for a random drug test because of the neighborhood you live in, neither can we. If it spills outside the person’s front door and becomes a civil law issue (drunk and disorderly conduct, public assault, dealing drugs or indecency, for example), then we will contact law enforcement when necessary and issue a written warning. After three, they will be evicted.

Yes. We have a robust Neighbor Care Department designed specifically with the mental health needs of our neighbors in mind. Additionally, we have a LMFT on site for neighbors.

Our village is unique because we have missional residents–people from the community at large who chose to live at TNV as a calling. These folks purposefully provide the relational needs that our neighbors will have after hours and will also act as our liaison with law enforcement and first responders.

HMIS provides us with history on clients, and we will go on a case-by-case basis to determine whether or not a neighbor’s criminal history (should there be one; homelessness is not a crime) would preclude them from residency at TNV. There will be children and families living in TNV, therefore people who are registered sex offenders will not be eligible for residency. 

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