SPONSORED SPECIAL SECTION REDWOOD GOSPEL MISSIONS
Missions of Mercy Redwood Gospel Missions expands at a time of increasing need for homeless families
T here was no single rock bottom for Kenzie High. Just a seemingly never-ending series of them. The Lake County native had been homeless. Friendless. Gripped by drug and alcohol addiction. Abused by her partner. Disconnected from family. In one disturbing incident, she was attacked by a baseball-bat wielding street person. The thing about rock bottom, it can always go deeper. For Kenzie, still seized by addiction, that meant being unable to care for her children—her older three went to live with their fathers, while the youngest was eventually adopted by his grandmother. Kenzie High’s rock bottom wasn’t a turning point, but a lifestyle. Which makes where she is today all the more miraculous. A decade later, Kenzie is celebrating 10 years sober. She’s a valued leader with Santa Rosa-based homeless-services nonprofit Redwood Gospel Missions—and was recently named director of its shelter and recovery ministry. She’s living proof that a path to recovery not only exists—but, through the help of nonprofits like RGM, can lead to opportunity, meaning and a chance to thrive. “We have a strong group of volunteers [and staff] that really love on our guests,” Kenzie says about the nonprofit’s work with those seeking help. “Their lives can be transformed.” A new home For the past eight years, Kenzie, 47, has managed Redwood Gospel Missions' women’s shelter, known affectionately as “the Rose.” In her work, Kenzie exemplifies what the best staff and volunteers at RGM bring to the table: Understanding not judgment; empathy more than sympathy; lived experience over distant observation. “I was helping women that had gone through the same thing as me,” she says about her work at the Rose. “I could By Jason Walsh
The former Finley Dream Center in Santa Rosa has transformed into RGM’s much-needed campus for families in crisis. [Duncan Garrett Photography]
empathize and connect, and mostly I just really had a soft spot for them.” “They were loved and encouraged and their needs met in more ways than just survival.” organization headquartered in Santa Rosa with a simple directive: To mobilize the community in service of the needy. RGM offers myriad initiatives: homeless services, recovery programs, vocational training, jail ministries, outreach events and operates thrift stores in Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park. The good news: Homelessness in Sonoma County is seemingly on the decline. Redwood Gospel Missions is a nondenominational, faith-based According to the annual single-day point- in-time homeless count last Jan. 31, a total of 1,952 people were living unhoused throughout the county—a decline of 570 from the previous year’s count. The biggest progress was a reduction in homeless veterans—down 39% since 2024. But homeless advocates worry that progress may be unsustainable—as state and federal pandemic-era funding for homeless services dries up, while cities and
counties realign their budgets to fit the new reality. The Santa Rosa City Council in May proposed $1.4 million in cuts to homeless programs, while the county this year announced nearly $1.9 million in cuts to homeless services. And despite the reduction in overall homelessness, a pair of startling setbacks were reported in the point-in-time count: The number of chronically homeless increased by 20% and the number of homeless families jumped by 37%. And those statistics could render a major expansion by RGM as both critical and timely. A dream for expansion Redwood Gospel Missions has been a staple in the community for decades—it launched as a 14-bed shelter in 1963—but has made headlines this year through its $10 million purchase of the Finley Dream Center, a 7.4 acre property at 2447 Summerfield Road in Santa Rosa. The center had served since 2016 as a shelter and headquarters for Sonoma Advocates for Youth (SAY) until that youth- services nonprofit went insolvent and shut
42 NorthBaybiz
August 2025
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker