Our Senior neighbors

Dear Friends of Harbor House, 

Harbor House staff are finding the struggles of the elderly in our community to be heartbreaking. We are working with so many people who have lost a spouse, and with them, their second income. Compounding this loss, many of these people are now struggling with the rising costs of rent, gas, and groceries. In the first 3 months of 2023 we assisted more than 50 seniors with rental assistance, utilities, groceries and other necessities. We are working with five of the mobile home parks in Thousand Oaks. So far in 2023, we have assisted 57 families or households with rental assistance, enabling 92 individuals to remain housed.
 
Poverty increased among Americans age 65 and older from 8.9% in 2020 to 10.3% in 2021, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. The increase in the poverty rate results in 1 million more older adults who rely on scarce resources to make ends meet. I'm so grateful to our staff and volunteers for working tirelessly to ensure our seniors can remain housed. 

The staff of Harbor House wish you all a very blessed Passover and Easter season and hope you find a bit of quiet in the midst of it all, ‘to be still and know.’
 
We are so grateful for the support and compassion we experience in partnership with you. The kindness and generosity that local low-income families experience because of your generosity is unparalleled. I am so grateful to live in a community that lives so generously.
 
Gratefully,  
Denise Cortes 
Executive Director 
Harbor House 
dcortes@harborhouseto.org 
  
“Here is what we seek; a compassion that can stand in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgment at how they carry it.”      
-Fr. Greg Boyle, Homeboy Industries