A day in the life of a shelter resident :: A thank you letter from a former shelter resident
Homelessness Knows No Boundaries

Women are sad and fearful when they first come to The Shade Tree. Family and friends sometimes bring women and children to the shelter when they can no longer care for them. Some women and children are brought to the shelter by our Metro Police. Local doctors, nurses, and hospitals refer people to The Shade Tree. Other social service agencies and churches refer women and children to us. Sometimes they just come in off the streets.

It doesn't matter how they come to us; we care for them all. We provide services for homeless and abused women and children, victims of domestic violence, victims of street violence or gang violence, victims of elder abuse, the physically and mentally disabled, female veterans, the working poor and homeless youth.

Our residents represent all ages, races and ethnic groups and educational levels. Last year we provided shelter and services for 17 women who had graduate degrees and 91 who had undergraduate college degrees. No one is immune.

Our youngest residents last year were the new born babies that came to The Shade Tree directly from the hospital. Our oldest resident was the 1 woman who was over 85 and the 10 who were between 75 and 85.

During our last fiscal year we sheltered 2,566 individual women and 1,421 individual children for a total of  80,791 nights of safe nurturing shelter.


Page updated December 4, 2008