This year has been full of twists and turns, ups and downs, and challenges and successes. To close out 2025, lets take a look at some of GFW’s accomplishments and the new landscape we find ourselves in as we enter 2026.
GFW’s Services have Increased Significantly in 2025
GFW has seen record numbers in 2025. This year has had the highest attendance rate since 2018, and it’s still not over. We had already served our annual average of 400 women and children by the end of October, and 56% of our guests this year are brand new. Our annual numbers for nearly all services have increased by over 28% compared to 2024.
Even more telling, though, is our Daily Average counts. Especially as we enter the coldest months of the year, we see a rapid increase in these daily averages. Our Daily Average Attendance rate has gone up by over 40% year-over-year, and our Daily Average Meals have gone up by over 60%!
Who has been hit the hardest?
The largest increase we’ve seen in our demographics is Youth between 18 and 24, which has nearly doubled this past year. However, guests in this age range are still less than 5% of GFW’s guests, and all other age demographics remained somewhat steady. There was also no significant change along racial or ethnic demographic groups. This tells us that the rising need in services for our homeless and housing-insecure neighbors affects our entire community equally.
Even with the surge in services and needs across all age groups, over 50% of our guests remain over 50 years old. We wrote about the specific challenges faced by older adults entering a period of housing instability in our May 2025 post: What the “Silver Tsunami” means for people experiencing homelessness.
What is GFW doing to help?
Over the past 3 years, GFW has worked to build a comprehensive list of service offerings that have demonstrable positive effects on our guests’ lives. In 2025, we made huge strides in our Wellness programs with alternative therapies, which include non-traditional therapeutic activities like Art Therapy and Equine Therapy. We found that guests participating in these alternative therapeutic options are more likely to have improved behavioral health in the short term and more likely to gain and maintain housing in the long term.
We have also streamlined our Next Step Case Management services so as to provide a faster intake experience for our new guests. Previously, due to the increased demand for our case management services, new guests might have come back three or four times before having an intake meeting. In March, we streamlined our process so that now 60% of new guests get an intake on the first day they arrive at GFW, and the remaining 40% are seen within 2 business days on average.
Our Case Managers and Housing Navigators are also working with community partners in “Case Conferences” for particularly tricky cases. Oftentimes, guests have unique challenges and needs which are being addressed by multiple different service providers. Our GFW Case Managers and Housing Navigators are calling in all service providers working with a particular client for “Case Conferences” to better understand and meet each client’s needs together.
Our Successes in 2025
GFW has had much to celebrate in 2025! We have housed 21 guests so far, and – through grants – 5 of those guests had at least 12 months of rental assistance in order to help them rebuild their support systems to maintain permanent housing. Nine of these guests have found affordable housing through housing voucher programs, and seven guests have found immediate, short-term emergency shelter.
Our Wellness programs have also increased this year and we’ve seen an increase of 13% in participation. The largest increase we saw was in our physical health and wellness screenings and exam services offered by our community partner Clínica de Salúd at a 41% increase from this time last year. Thanks to our wonderful community partnerships, our case managers have been able to connect over 50% more guests to services through our referral programs. These community partnerships with other service agencies are some of the most beneficial services we offer our guests, second only to our case management and housing navigation services.
In addition to our guests’ successes in 2025, our organization had a few successes of our own. We launched a blog to further our Public Education efforts, and our Advocacy committee has been instrumental in getting the stories of our guests and our community to our law makers in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. We launched our revised Mission and Vision statements to better reflect our organizational direction, and we even started plans for a new space at 141 El Dorado St. We also had some very successful community outreach, engagement, and fundraising events this year including the ongoing MC Gives campaign!
Future Challenges
With new changes to federal funding guidelines, the ongoing affordability crisis, and rising housing costs, we anticipate another 25-30% increase in service needs in 2026. While in previous years, the federal government has allotted 80-90% of federal homeless services funding to permanent housing solutions such as housing voucher programs, the new guidelines released on November 14, 2025, cap that spending at 30%. This massive cut to funding for permanent supportive housing puts over 170,000 people at risk of losing their housing, which will increase the need for homeless and housing-insecure services dramatically. If you are interested in expressing your thoughts on the changes to funding for permanent supportive housing, the National Alliance to End Homelessness has some resources on current advocacy efforts and a template to help you contact your representatives here.
How Can You Get Involved?
As we wrap up another successful year for GFW, we want to thank you once again for all of your support. Whether you are a volunteer, a donor, an advocate, an ambassador, or anything in between, we are grateful for your time, effort, and attention in 2025.
Moving forward with us into 2026, there are many ways in which you can support GFW, our guests, and the work we do in the community. An increase in needs for services means an increase in need for volunteers. You can also support GFW by:
- Supporting local efforts to build more affordable housing
- Supporting local homelessness prevention efforts like rental assistance and financial education programs
- Volunteering your time and talents to local homeless service providers
- Donating clothing or personal care items, or making a monetary contribution to your local homeless service providers
- Becoming an ambassador by telling everyone you know about your favorite non-profit and what we are doing to help!
If you are ready to be part of the solution, you can find ways to get involved at GFW on our website, or contact us at info@gatheringforwomen.org.
The Main Contributor for this post is:
Resources used in this post:
- What the “Silver Tsunami” means for people experiencing homelessness – https://gatheringforwomen.org/silver-tsunami/
- Gathering for Women’s Blog – https://gatheringforwomen.org/learn-more/
- Gathering for Women’s About Us page – https://gatheringforwomen.org/about-us/
- Monterey County Gives! – https://www.montereycountygives.com/nonprofit/gathering-for-women-monterey/
- MSN. “Number of Americans living paycheck to paycheck surges.” – https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/number-of-americans-living-paycheck-to-paycheck-surges/ar-AA1QObmg
- MSN. “5 charts that illustrate America’s deepening affordability crisis.” – https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/5-charts-that-illustrate-america-s-deepening-affordability-crisis/ar-AA1QLkJF
- New York Times. “Trump Administration Proposes a Drastic Cut in Housing Grants” – https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/us/politics/trump-homeless-funding.html
- Politico. “Trump admin looks at deep cuts to homeless housing program.” – https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/us/politics/trump-homeless-funding.html
- National Alliance to End Homelessness – https://endhomelessness.org/
- Advocacy Efforts around Housing Funding – https://endhomelessness.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/NOFO-Activation-Handbook-11.17.25-3.pdf?emci=21a6e8e2-cfc3-f011-8196-6045bdfe8e9c&emdi=d4a57a17-d8c3-f011-8196-6045bdfe8e9c&ceid=15023249
- Contact Your Representatives Template – https://endhomelessness.org/action/stophudnofo/?nvep=&hmac=&emci=21a6e8e2-cfc3-f011-8196-6045bdfe8e9c&emdi=ea000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&ceid
- Gathering for Women’s Volunteer page – https://gatheringforwomen.org/volunteer/
