Seeking Shelter

We hear about the housing crisis on the news, we see the numbers, but what does it look like on the ground? What does it feel like for a family fighting to survive inside of it?

Well, meet Evelyn. She’s a single mother of six in Los Angeles. She’s been cast into the city’s “urban wilderness” by poverty and domestic violence. And here’s the gut punch: she works a full-time job as a waitress, doing everything she’s supposed to do, and she still can’t afford a legitimate place to live. The system is so broken that the official family crisis network would likely split her kids up, so she avoids it. Her number one mission is to keep her family together and get her kids to school every single day.

For five years, she has fought. She creates loving memories and pushes college aspirations on her children, all while facing the constant, crushing stress of homelessness. Then she meets Wendi, a social worker who is just starting but who, decades earlier, survived a similar nightmare. Their relationship ends up being transformative for both of them.

This isn’t just some bleak poverty report. Told from the perspectives of Evelyn, her son Orlando, and Wendi, Seeking Shelter is a remarkably vivid and deeply empathetic story. It’s an unforgettable look at the power of a mother’s fierce love in the face of an impossible situation. This is a real-life saga that shows you not just how our society is failing people, but how a mother’s vision for her kids can be the most powerful force on earth.