The Sundari Foundation Inc., dba Lotus House

The mission of Sundari Foundation, dba Lotus House Women’s Shelter, is to nourish and uplift women, youth, and children experiencing homelessness by providing healing sanctuary, support, education, tools, and resources that empower them to improve the quality of their lives on every level, achieve greater self-sufficiency, and build brighter futures. In their dreams come true, we enrich our community with the fruit of their potential realized. To support our mission, we advocate on behalf of homeless women, youth, and children to raise awareness of their special needs; inspire innovative, holistic solutions that break the cycle of childhood abuse, domestic violence, and homelessness; and advance research and enlightened social policies to end homelessness. Our vision is that every woman, youth and child experiencing homelessness will have the opportunity to heal, learn, and grow, build the foundation for the future, and to blossom into who they are truly meant to be. Read More

• About Us
  In Lotus Village, we created all new, state of the art facilities sheltering women, youth, and children who are amongst the most fragile and needy in our community. The Village offers space for expanded shelter capacity and support services, including an intake sanctuary, computer library, healing salon, art and activities lab, yoga, exercise and meditation room, specialized support service nodes embedded within our residential programs, a working classroom kitchen, community pavilion, children’s play room and kids’ corners, a hydroponic farm, recording studio and a therapeutic children’s wellness center. Lotus Village includes a child-care center and a women’s and children’s health clinic. Community and corporate partners are working with us in our shared vision and mission to uplift women and children in need in our community.
• Our Impact
  Lotus House has successfully operated innovative emergency shelter and supportive services programming for women, youth and children experiencing homelessness for over 16 years, serving over 9,000 guests.
  
  Of those we served, approximately 17% have been chronically homeless, 66% have unmet health needs, 35% have unmet mental health needs, and 95% have histories of trauma/crime (including 36% having experienced childhood physical abuse and neglect, 23% childhood sexual abuse; 77% violent crime/assault; and 62% adult domestic violence). 84% have a mental health diagnosis at intake. Approximately 49% of the children have one or more problems such as mental health issues (39%), developmental delays (18%), physical disabilities, vision, or hearing problems (7%), and chronic health issues (14%). To break the cycle of homelessness they need supportive, affirming shelter, services, employment supports, life skills education, and housing assistance that address their specific needs. (Data collected 2016-2021).
  
  Previously, Lotus House had to turn away countless women and children in need every year. To address this gap, Lotus Village opened in 2018 and dramatically increased capacity to 500+ per day or more than 1,545 annually.