Grace Baptist landmark approved by San Jose City Council

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 3, 2024 - PRLog -- Grace Solutions, a San Jose-based nonprofit dedicated to helping the unhoused in the community with dignity and compassion, is thrilled to announce the San Jose City Council has approved Grace Baptist Church's 1940 structure—located at 484 East San Fernando Street in downtown San Jose—as a city landmark.

"We are very pleased with the Council's Landmark decision, which guarantees that Grace Solutions will have a permanent home to continue its mission of meeting the essential life-saving needs of downtown San Jose's underserved residents – a Grace Baptist legacy spanning 75 years," said Grace Solutions Director Phil Mastrocola. "We look forward to continuing the work we are doing, improving services, and serving even more guests in the future."

Grace Baptist has a history of serving the most vulnerable. Starting in the 1950s with the addition of a sports/activity center for the use of SJSU students, and later in 1974, through a Community Center to provide hot meals, social services, and recreational/social opportunities for the hundreds of residents of downtown boarding houses. Later, the Grace Wellness Center was founded, in partnership with the County, to serve the jail re-entry population by providing anger therapy, drug abuse, job skills, and other classes, focused on assisting those seeking to assimilate into society. In the 1990s, increases in the unhoused population made Grace very popular, as everyone was welcome. In the winter of 2015, Pastor Liliana DaValle acted to open an emergency shelter for unhoused members who visited the Community Center who had nowhere else to sleep. Starting with six families, the shelter soon grew to over fifty guests nightly. In 2017, Pastor Liliana founded Grace Solutions, a 501c3 nonprofit, to take on the expanding mission to provide emergency housing, food, clothing, training, essential supplies, shower and laundry, case management, and other life-sustaining services.

Currently, Grace Solutions hosts 500 drop-in center visitors and 220 mobile service visitors each month. The nonprofit aims to make a significant impact on the ongoing houseless crisis by empowering our neighbors to pursue stability, safety, and self-sufficiency.

About Grace Solutions
Dedicated to helping the unhoused in the community with respect, dignity and compassion through services including interim housing, meals, and showers in a welcoming family-like atmosphere, Grace Solutions is a nonprofit operating out of Grace Baptist Church in San Jose since 2016.