House of Bread has been selected to host a highly skilled and talented Del Mar Encore Fellow on its leadership team.
The Fellow, funded by a Del Mar Healthcare Fund grant from the Dayton Foundation, will lead a year-long project focused on alleviating two of the many indignities of poverty for our guests: not being able to shower regularly and having to wear the same dirty clothes day after day. This Fellow and the House of Bread will partner with several community organizations to determine what it would take to increase the local options for bathing and laundry for our community’s unsheltered homeless population.
“Having a clean body and clean clothes restores a person’s dignity, and I am grateful to the Foundation for believing in the potential of this idea,” says House of Bread Executive Director Sherry Gale.
The Fellow should be in place by fall and will work with House of Bread staff and guests; consult with other relevant nonprofits, community and government leaders, and funders; and research best practices in Dayton and other communities. At the end of the grant year, they will submit a proposal that could lead to a citywide system of bathing and laundry facilities or services.
The number of people who could benefit from this work is significant: The 2025 point-in-time survey estimated that there were 750 people in Montgomery County who were homeless and unsheltered for at least one night over the course of the year. But point-in-time surveys, by nature, undercount the actual unsheltered homeless population by as much as 75%—so that number is probably closer to 3,000.
“The House of Bread is honored to be part of a conversation about this need,” Gale says. “And I look forward to working with the Fellow and the other organizations in the community who also care for the people we serve.”
