Our Mission
Street-level support.
System-level change.
Every single day, people fall through the cracks of a system that was never built with them in mind. For those living without stable housing, the barriers are everywhere—missing documents, confusing applications, long wait times, and the ongoing struggle to meet basic needs. On paper, they may be eligible or even have coverage, but in practice, it rarely leads to timely or high-quality care. The result is illness left untreated, needs unmet, and health outcomes that should never be accepted as inevitable. At Project Lux, we refuse to let access stop at paperwork. Our work begins at the street level—meeting people where they are, helping them navigate benefits, and connecting them to care. From there, we listen to the lived experiences of those we work with, using what we learn to highlight systemic gaps and push for broader solutions that make healthcare more accessible for everyone.
Mission Statement
Project Lux is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding healthcare access for unhoused and underserved communities through enrollment assistance, care navigation, and basic needs distribution. Run entirely by volunteers, we are a grassroots organization working alongside our local communities to connect those in need to essential services and promote health equity.
Enrollment Assistance
Project Lux Navigators assist unhoused and under-resourced individuals with enrollment in public assistance programs such as Medi-Cal, CalFresh, and Cash Aid. Through these programs, our clients gain access to health insurance, monthly support for essential and nutritious groceries, as well as financial assistance to help with rent or other expenses.
We are dedicated to making essential resources more accessible for underserved communities so they can reclaim stability and thrive. Everyone deserves healthcare, groceries, and stable housing. By guiding our clients through complex systems and often stressful processes, we hope to reduce barriers and foster greater equity within our communities.
The Beacon Team, comprised of dedicated and experienced Project Lux Navigators, strives to maintain long-term relationships with our clients and assist them with post-enrollment follow-up: helping submit updates to affirm eligibility, choosing a primary care provider that best fits their unique circumstances, and addressing any other questions or issues that may arise as clients navigate confusing and fragmented systems.
Clients who connect with us at our in-person enrollment fairs—hosted by Project Lux chapters at various community sites—as well as those who request our services through our website, will have access to the Beacon Team and receive ongoing support. By staying connected with our clients beyond a single interaction, the Beacon Team ensures that clients have the tools, information, and resources needed to navigate their benefits with confidence.
Care Packages
Our care packages contain various items that fulfill the unhoused population’s basic needs. All of our care packages are distributed in canvas drawstring bags that recipients can continue to use long after they have depleted all the contents of the care packages.
In our care packages, we pack shelf-stable foods such as granola bars, trail mix, or beef jerky, as many unhoused individuals lack access to refrigeration or kitchens, and long-lasting food may be crucial for food safety, accessibility, and reliability.
We also make sure to pack essential hygiene products—be it body wipes, deodorant, toothbrushes, or pads. We believe that hygiene products are crucial not only to support physical health directly but also to protect mental well-being by fulfilling an essential aspect of human dignity, confidence, and social connection.
Many of our care packages also include articles critical to providing warmth and protection, such as underwear, ponchos, socks, and blankets. For many without permanent shelter, these articles provide a vital barrier against the elements and can bolster an individual’s mental and emotional state by offering feelings of comfort, security, and safety.
After receiving and responding to feedback from our care recipients, we began including items such as hydrocortisone cream to prevent foot fungus, nail clippers, and whistles—all items that are often overlooked by service efforts, yet may be equally essential to quality of life when unhoused.
Advocacy
In the wake of administrative and congressional policies such as the “Big Beautiful Bill,” funding cuts to “Navigator” programs within the Affordable Care Act, or tariffs that increase health insurance premiums, it becomes ever more transparent how health is directly impacted by policy decisions—particularly for vulnerable populations.
It is increasingly essential to be aware of how policy decisions, systemic barriers, and misinformation can impact lived experiences. Only through consistent advocacy can we collectively shift stigmatizing narratives, demand accountability from decision-makers, and safeguard both immediate well-being and long-term rights to health and dignity.
At Project Lux, our advocacy efforts seek to target the general public, the unhoused community, and Project Lux volunteers alike. Chapters seek to educate their broader communities about topics related to healthcare and the unhoused through informative and statistics-based social media posts, on-campus advocacy fairs with interactive activities, or educational collaborations with other organizations.
In 2025, in the midst of policies detrimental to healthcare, affordable living, and the unhoused community, we are strengthening our advocacy efforts among our unhoused recipients. Our advocacy committees are creating flyers for unhoused individuals that address how to navigate changing and challenging healthcare, job, and food security landscapes; for example, we are creating pamphlets to guide unhoused individuals through the job search process.
We also seek to educate our volunteers; many of our Project Lux Navigators are receiving training on relevant policies and administrative changes that may be relevant to their interactions with the unhoused.
We at Project Lux believe that advocacy multiplies impact beyond direct support. We aim to build a community in which all—from college students to individuals unhoused themselves—can be powerful voices to amplify and defend the health of unhoused individuals.
