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On a Sunday afternoon in September 2022, REALTOR® Kay Wilson-Bolton received a phone call from a desperate woman.
“My name is Maria. My three girls and I are at the Oxnard bus station. We have no one to call, and we have no money,” the woman told Wilson-Bolton.
REALTOR® Kay Wilson-Bolton serves food and beverages to the homeless in her community.
That call was the catalyst for big changes for the woman, Maria Limon, and her daughters. She’s one of hundreds of people whom Wilson-Bolton has aided since founding nonprofit Spirit of Santa Paula in 2002 and Harvard Navigation Center (formerly Harvard Shelter) in 2019. Wilson-Bolton, who was a Good Neighbor Award winner in 2017, has led many other outreach programs to help those suffering from homelessness by providing food and other basic human needs.
The people she hires for her nonprofit have all gone through struggles in their own lives financially, emotionally and with homelessness.
“They can’t come here being judgmental or harsh,” says Wilson-Bolton, ABR, CRS, C2EX, an associate with Century 21 Real Estate Alliance in Ventura, Calif. “We are trying to change the narrative. That’s why we changed the name to Harvard Navigation Center instead of a shelter.”
The average stay at the center is 180 days, but some have lived there for as long as three years. Some are disabled or are undocumented immigrants.
“Some have burned every bridge they ever had, such as stealing grandma’s jewels, and the family won’t have anything to do with them,” Wilson-Bolton adds. “We get calls as far as San Diego. The housing shortage is so acute, and people are begging us to take people in. But our funding source doesn’t allow us to do that.”
She keeps the shelter and her organization running by working with private donors, the county of Ventura, the city of Santa Paula and many other government agencies.
New Possibilities for the Hopeless
Limon endured a lifetime of abuse, starting at the hands of her biological father at 13 months old. He molested her until she was 4. Her older brother became her first hero when he called the police on their father in Reno, Nev. The children were placed in foster care.
“Then to find out, her foster family was untrustworthy, and they ended up doing the unspeakable things like my biological dad had done,” Limon states.
Limon eventually ended up in a different stable foster family with all of her siblings together.
Her adult life saw more trials and tribulations, this time with the father of her two oldest daughters. He became violent, and Limon left home with nowhere to go. But a friend of Limon’s who was staying at the Spirit of Santa Paula referred her.
With the guidance of Wilson-Bolton and Spirit’s staff for nine months, Limon earned a job through a training program as a dental assistant, saved enough money to buy a car, and rented a three-bedroom apartment through an emergency housing voucher. She’s trying hard to give her daughters, ages 17, 12 and 6, the experiences in life she never had. They now have a stable home, and Limon’s oldest daughter even attended prom.
“I thank God every day for Kay Wilson-Bolton,” Limon says. “I swear she is like an angel in disguise. She somehow made a way for my family to feel safe and secure, and helped me learn how to trust in people so much more than I have in the past. Our lives have been turned around so much better that I don’t have to worry about the past.”
Limon is seeking another job right now, and once she starts, she will be able to finish getting her high school diploma. She is taking computer classes so she can become more familiar with technology.
“It’s what we dream of for everyone,” Wilson-Bolton says. “I answer my phone as often as I can because we have so many stories like Maria’s story.”
Food Rescue Serves Thousands
Two refrigerated vans travel throughout the Santa Clara Valley area every day to pick up excess food from outlets such as Costco and Trader Joe’s. That allows for thousands of pounds of food each week to be rescued and distributed to the community and cuts the food budget at the navigation center to zero.
Wilson-Bolton’s nonprofit helps people with clothes, counseling, guidance and whatever else they need to survive or thrive.
“Kay is a person who puts her passion into action,” says Santa Paula City Manager Dan Singer. “For the past 20-plus years, she has devoted much of her life to supporting others and lifting up those who are most in need, often unable to help themselves.”
He says Wilson-Bolton—who also has served as mayor of Santa Paula and chaplain for the Ventura County Fire Department—has an unparalleled determination and commitment to helping others.
“When she puts her mind and heart into something, it always gets done. Some would say she is a force to be reckoned with. Her drive comes from a deep religious commitment and belief in the value of all people,” he adds. “Santa Paula and our area are better for her dedication to difficult causes and for raising awareness about the needs and solutions surrounding homelessness.”
But many townspeople blamed Wilson-Bolton for an increase in homelessness in the town when she started a hot meal service in 2009 on Wednesday nights at a church. The “Many Meals” endeavor began when Wilson-Bolton was called to the scene of a homeless man dying in a church on Christmas Eve. Wilson-Bolton grew the effort to serve 600 people a week.
“They thought I was bringing in people by the busload. I’ve been a mayor and on every leadership position there. I thought I had a lot of goodwill here,” she states. “But when it became known what I was trying to do, I was one of the most despised people in Santa Paula. I had people actually hate me because I dared to help people who were homeless.”
Transforming a Nightclub Into a Homeless Shelter
A permanent homeless shelter has been a dream of Wilson-Bolton’s for many years.
In 2019, she sold a former nightclub and bar, which was going through foreclosure, to a Bay Area investor. She approached the investor about renting it for her permanent homeless shelter, but the buyer turned around and gave the building to the nonprofit.
Wilson-Bolton used a $1.5 million state grant to make improvements to the property. It’s now the only family shelter in Ventura County and has 57 beds.
“We’ve had 20 kids at one time, and we had three newborns come directly from the hospital,” she says.
Wilson-Bolton wrote a book to reveal what shelter life is all about, including the challenges, resilience and triumphs. Harvard Shelter: How Two Small Southern California Cities Saved Their Homeless Shelter has been available for purchase on Amazon and other booksellers since December 2023.
“My fear is that homelessness is becoming a household word, like drought or climate change. We are trying to change the narrative by calling it the Navigation Center. We have to navigate all the resources, do the paperwork, get through the obstacles, help them with credit repairs and so much more.”
Wilson-Bolton sees those she helped become successful all the time. She knows the struggles are huge for people in California, especially the many farm workers in her area.
“They can’t afford $2,000 a month for a one-bedroom apartment,” she says. “In moving forward through the years, were there times I wanted to give up? I don’t think so. Sometimes, I just got tired, but everyone needs an advocate. I’m relentless.”
