Maryvale is honored to announce Seton House, a new program that provides vital services, including housing, counseling, childcare, and employment readiness training. This new temporary housing program is specifically designed to serve mothers and their young children who are facing homelessness. Maryvale is Los Angeles County’s oldest continuously operating children’s charity. Since our founding in 1856, we have been committed to providing housing and essential services to people in critical need beginning with serving orphaned and abandoned children. As a multi-pronged agency, we have evolved alongside our community’s shifting needs and now provide a range of mental health services. With the addition of Seton House, we are able to return to our organization’s roots in providing housing while broadening our local impact, where housing inequality is soaring.
The Need For Housing Services Is Great
Homelessness is one of Los Angeles’ most pressing issues, with over 66,000 unhoused people in our county. The pandemic has escalated this crisis through business closures, ongoing job insecurity, and the lack of a social safety net. When economic stability is unreachable, families face problems more complex than homelessness alone. Lack of housing has acute mental health effects and is particularly damaging for young children, who can suffer long-term damage when their foundational experience is unsafe. Unhoused adults are more likely to face addiction issues, abuse, and violence. According to the Los Angeles Mission, women constitute as much as 50% of our county’s homeless population, and many are single mothers. The community need is recognized by Maryvale and its generous partners at Health Net, the Carrie Estelle Doheny Foundation, The Rose Hills Foundation, and The Los Angeles Orphanage Guild; all of whose donations and support helped to bring Seton House into existence.
“The opening of Seton House not only represents a new chapter for Maryvale, but more importantly, a safe and supportive home for young single mothers to focus on building a positive and healthy future for themselves and their children. We know the need is great and Seton House allows us to lift up one individual, one family, and one community at a time,” said Steve Gunther, MSW, Maryvale’s President & Chief Executive Officer.
Seton House is a Crucible for Holistic Support
At its core, Seton House provides safe, transitional housing and life skills training for mothers to help end the negative cycles homelessness creates for a mother and her children. Mothers with up to two children, each under the age of 10, who face homelessness are eligible for housing. Eligible families receive up to six months of housing and mental health services, including weekly group therapy sessions, weekly individual counseling, and mentorship to help develop the necessary life skills to achieve long-term employment and permanent housing.
We provide Seton House residents with private rooms, and families have access to a computer room, kitchen, multipurpose room, outdoor play yard, TV room, and children’s playroom. Seton House establishes a compassionate environment where mothers can focus on personal development while learning life skills to sustain a positive and productive lifestyle for themselves and their children. During their stay at Seton House, mothers will participate in an individualized program that, in collaboration with counselors, and mental health experts, will help them achieve a sense of empowerment. We view women’s empowerment as the keystone for developing self-sufficiency and long-term resilience.
Our goal is to offer unhoused mothers a positive environment that provides support, safety, and resources to assist in developing the skills necessary to become self-sufficient before entering permanent housing. Now that our doors are open, the benefits of a stable, compassionate environment are already taking root. As one of Seton House’s residents put it, “I am so excited to be a resident at Seton House, where I am able to have safe childcare for my son, while I work to find employment and finish my education.”
Learn more about Maryvale and Seton House at https://www.maryvale.org/seton-house.
