A California home for women plans to open a new campus, meeting an increased need for safe housing for pregnant women and single moms.
Mama’s House originally opened nearly 11 years ago, and the need for housing for pregnant women and single moms in southern California hasn’t decreased. Therefore, the non-profit organization has stepped forward in faith and purchased a one-acre property by which to serve that grave need.
“At first we were simply looking for another big home,” said founder and Executive Director Jan Lupia. “We found this property … and we worked with an architect to design this campus. So, in addition to this large home, we have this huge expansion of five, three-bedroom casitas. They are literally like a small home.”
The search for an additional property started in 2019. The next year, at the organization’s annual February fundraiser, Lupia “cast the vision.” Nearly 1,200 attended the event.
That day they raised enough to cash-purchase the property - and then COVID hit.
An architect was hired and began drafting plans.
[Click here to subscribe to Pregnancy Help News!]
Journey to Mama’s House
The journey to this property, and the start of Mama’s House, started several years ago when Lupia lived in Texas. She began a ministry of education after her own abortion experience decades ago, and then during the mid-2000s she worked for a pregnancy resource center. After relocating from Texas to California upon her husband’s retirement, Lupia found her desire to help women experiencing unplanned pregnancies remained strong.
“This ministry is purely founded on faith,” Lupia told Pregnancy Help News. “I had a desire to serve. One day I was down on my knees in prayer … [God] spoke to me and said, ‘Your work with the unborn is not done.’”
She wasn’t sure what that meant or where the Lord would lead, however, she said, “ideas began floating in my head.” She asked friends to pray as she sought clarity.
“Before long, God began pressing on my heart, ‘There’s going to be a house,’” Lupia said.
And it happened. Mama’s House in Palm Desert, near Palm Springs, opened in 2013 and received its first resident. The home accommodates 10 women.
“It’s filled to overflowing most of the time, and we’ll have a waiting list forever,” Lupia said.
The new acquisition will meet the need for additional housing. The campus, with a 4,200 square-foot house and five smaller homes (call casitas), will accommodate 38 women. Therefore, the Mama’s House organization will be able to house 48 pregnant women, or a combination of pregnant women with small children.
Housing need for women crucial
The need for housing exists across the country, so pregnancy resource centers and other non-profits are responding by opening new homes and shelters, according to Maternity Housing Coalition Director Valerie Harkins.
“What we're seeing is some pretty remarkable growth in the last two years especially in the last year, and we're off to a similar trajectory in 2024,” she said.
Tweet This: Mama’s House in California has seen remarkable growth in the last two years, especially the last year, with a similar trajectory in 2024.
The coalition saw a 20 percent increase in the number of maternity homes last year, and more than 40 new homes are scheduled to open this year, she added.
“To put that in perspective, on any other average year we might have seen five, maybe 10 homes working on opening and on a busy season maybe we'd see 15,” she said.
Vida Medical Clinic in Wisconsin and Cradle of Hope Pregnancy Services in Iowa expanded their program offerings and opened homes for pregnant women in 2023.
Harkins believes one of the biggest reasons for the increase in housing projects for women is economics.
“There is a significant gap between the average wage and the average cost to operate their own home – housing affordability is through the roof,” Harkins told Pregnancy Help News. “Oftentimes what we find with women who are employed full time is that the cost their rent is half or more of their take home pay per month, which is largely unfeasible.”
Additionally, although illegal to fire or discriminate against a pregnant woman, such things do happen. Therefore, a woman who is pregnant has job instability, and so her housing situation is also not stable.
“Those things become quite a threat to her stability so providing a home that number one, gives you a safeguard in the event that she loses her job is important and number two, gives a start to safeguard if it takes longer to find a job while being pregnant,” Harkins said. “Offering housing that it's cost-free so that she can save money but then what we're finding now is that even when women are able to have safe housing during their pregnancy, it's no longer long enough – they need more because of the housing affordability crisis.”
Several homes offer stays after the baby is born, some for two or more years, such as Bethlehem House in Omaha, Neb., and its After Care program. Mama’s House also provides that important service. While there, the women learn basic homemaking skills, such as cooking and cleaning, as well as shopping for food and making and using a budget. Mama’s House accepts women who already have a toddler or a newborn.
“We are a Christian ministry,” Lupia said. “We are accessing their [the women’s] health and the baby’s health, meeting their spiritual needs, and dealing with their emotional health.”
“We see women from sex trafficking, we receive women straight from prison, and women who are homeless,” she said. “We are meeting all these needs. They all have to agree to get their GED if they don’t have it and to be respectful of our faith when we’re having devotions or going to church.”
Community support in a blue state
As with pregnancy resource and medical centers, other pro-life organizations, and all non-profits, community support is vital to maternity and women’s homes. More than 200 volunteers assist Lupia and her staff, serving as tutors, facilitators, at events, such as the major annual fundraiser, and in other roles. Mama’s House enjoys tremendous financial support as well, and the organization enters the new campus opening debt-free.
Lupia said they are in a position to pay off the property, but they still need furniture and other items, so they are waiting to ensure the casitas and home are furnished and ready for occupancy.
Her hope is to open the new residential homes, at least the large house, by early May. As staff is hired and time draws near to welcome the first women to the property that has been christened The Anne Silverstein Campus for Mama’s House in honor of a long-time supporter and honorary board member, Lupia is quick to say, “All glory to God! He has done everything!”
