Hertzberg’s Heroes: Vol. II, Issue III — Ken Craft
Welcome to Hertzberg’s Heroes! Every month, Team Hertzberg will highlight an organization or individual that exemplifies heroism through their dedication to making life better for the San Fernando Valley. Have a Hero to suggest? Submit your idea to Senator.Hertzberg@sen.ca.gov!
For San Fernando Valley resident Ken Craft, serving his community comes from a place of empathy. After 20 years of experience as a pastor, and six years working for a Fortune 500 company, Craft saw people sleeping in tents on sidewalks, and felt like they needed just what everyone else needs — a little bit of hope.
Hope of the Valley started 11 years ago when Ken Craft starting serving hot meals out of a Sun Valley church. Now, Hope of the Valley serves around 1,500 meals a day, and tackles the complex needs of a vast homelessness crisis.
Craft began by opening a recovery center, and then expanded to a winter shelter, a home for transitional age youth, a family shelter, and most recently bridge shelters in North Hollywood and Van Nuys.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, while many of us were sheltering in place, Ken Craft and his team rolled up their sleeves and helped take care of our most vulnerable by assisting with rapid rehousing projects such as Project Roomkey. By the end of 2020, Hope of the Valley was operating nine shelters and 507 beds. By the end of 2021, Craft estimates their numbers could double to 14 shelters and 1,100 beds. “Public opinion is changing,” says Craft. “Hope of the Valley is about second chances, because no one is unredeemable.”
Hope of the Valley welcomes people with pets, and helps take care of the needs of both the owner and the furry friend. When I toured their help center in 2018, I noticed that it was a special and welcoming place for both the people (and the pets) they served. The nonprofit Pets of the Homeless estimates that five to 10 percent of Americans experiencing homelessness own a dog or a cat.
Meanwhile, a 2020 study, published at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at USC, interviewed unsheltered individuals in L.A. County and found that while approximately 10 percent of them reported to have owned at least one pet, almost half of these individuals reported being turned away from shelter because of pet policies.
Ken Craft says he knows that pets are a source of comfort and joy for people who have lost so much. He recalled one Hope of the Valley resident, who was devastated after his dog passed away from cancer. When Hope of the Valley staff surprised him with a new dog, he “came back to life again.”
In 2020, Hope of the Valley received the Pet Assistance and Support Program (PAS) grant, which stemmed from SB 258, a bill I introduced to create a permanent grant system for homeless shelters to provide shelter, food and basic veterinary services to the pets. The bill turned into the PAS grant, and while temporary, I am introducing SB 344, a similar effort this year. This bill will expand the PAS grant, and help homeless service providers, like Hope of the Valley, continue to fund their pet care services.
This could mean that more homeless shelters don’t turn people away simply because they lack the resources to care for pets. And it’s thanks to people like Ken Craft, who bring these programs to life and truly help our two-legged and four-legged members of our community.
