{"id":20530,"date":"2026-11-06T11:56:42","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T19:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sffamilyservicesalliance.org\/?post_type=partner-spotlight&p=20530"},"modified":"2026-11-06T12:07:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T20:07:24","slug":"homeless-prenatal-program","status":"publish","type":"partner-spotlight","link":"https:\/\/sffamilyservicesalliance.org\/zh\/partner-spotlight\/homeless-prenatal-program\/","title":{"rendered":"\u65e0\u5bb6\u53ef\u5f52\u8005\u4ea7\u524d\u8ba1\u5212"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Partner Spotlight:<\/strong>
Homeless Prenatal Program<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n
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Breaking the cycle of homelessness, one family at a time.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

Homeless Prenatal Program (HPP) has been a cornerstone of San Francisco’s fight against family homelessness for over 36 years. They provide comprehensive support services to pregnant women and families experiencing homelessness, helping them build stable, healthy lives for themselves and their children. From housing and health to job training and family support, HPP walks alongside families every step of the way because every child deserves to start life on solid ground.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Ebony Caraway, Former Resident of Jelani House<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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A Room of Her Own<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before coming to the Homeless Prenatal Program (HPP), Ebony Caraway had been moving around a lot. After the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted her coursework at California State University, Monterey Bay in 2020, she had been forced to move back home to San Francisco. After she discovered she was pregnant, the father of her future daughter was incarcerated, and she had been forced to couch-surf. While she was nervous about moving into HPP\u2019s Jelani House \u2013 the agency\u2019s transitional housing shelter for pregnant and postpartum women and their babies \u2013 she believed that, at the end of the day, she had to do what was best for herself and her baby. \u201c[Couch-surfing] is not what I wanted for myself, and it\u2019s not what I wanted for my daughter,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Transitions can be difficult, but Ebony\u2019s move to Jelani House was made easier by the shelter\u2019s dual emphasis on community and privacy for its residents. \u201cIt\u2019s a community, a community kitchen, a community living room. You get to interact with the girls, but you have your own bedroom… It\u2019s not like other shelters where it\u2019s bunk beds and you have no privacy,\u201d she says. With the shared living spaces of Jelani House, Ebony was able to connect with other pregnant women, and in doing so, she knew she was not going through her pregnancy alone. With her own room, she had the space she needed to get ready for work and unwind after work.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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A room of her own was especially important, as she spent the majority of the time she lived at Jelani House working in security. She would \u201cgo to work, come back and go to sleep, then do it all over again \u2013 each and every day.\u201d Jelani House residents pay rent based on what they receive from CalWorks, but at the end of their stay, that money is returned to them. Moreover, the shelter provides food for residents. \u201cThere\u2019s a pantry and whiteboard where you add specific foods that you want and they make sure to get it,\u201d Ebony says. Working as much as she did, over the course of the year that she lived at Jelani House, she was able to save a lot of money \u2013 enough to move out of the shelter into her own apartment.<\/p>\n

Today, living in Antioch with her daughter Andrea, Ebony appreciates her time at Jelani House as she looks forward to the future. \u201cWhen I was at Jelani House \u2013 even though it\u2019s like you\u2019re doing your own thing \u2013 those times, when I would connect with people, it just makes you feel that…at the end of the day, y\u2019all both moms, y\u2019all going through the same things being pregnant and things of that sort,\u201d she says. Ebony\u2019s experience with other pregnant moms and her own experience of birth, with a doula who made her \u201cfeel comfortable and empowered\u201d, changed her life. Currently training to be a birth doula, Ebony wants to be what her doula was for her for other women, but that isn\u2019t all she wants to do. She says, \u201cAs you grow, you learn about parts of yourself you didn\u2019t know…Becoming a doula is just the first step to realize what other tools I want to use.\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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For more information about Homeless Prenatal Prgram:<\/strong><\/p>\n