As Davis prepares for the regional Big Day of Giving on May 1, local nonprofit leader Tracy Fauver is sounding both an urgent call and a hopeful message. Fauver, the Executive Director of Davis Community Meals and Housing (DCMH), is working to raise $100,000 for programs that support some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. But she’s doing much more than fundraising—she’s challenging the community to think differently about homelessness.
“We already have some match pledges—$25,000 from the Willow Grove Development Group—and we’re working hard to get to a $50,000 match,” Fauver said in an interview this week. “The Big Day of Giving is not just about the money. It’s a chance to tell the story of what we do, and why it matters.”
One story that stands out is the quiet effort DCMH has launched in partnership with people experiencing homelessness themselves. With a grant from St. Martin’s Church, the organization has been employing clients from its resource center to clean up H Street, a stretch of Davis often criticized for visible unhoused encampments and trash.
“Every Friday, either I or Becky drive the truck, and we go up and down the street with folks who use our services. They pick up bags and bags of trash,” Fauver explained. “What’s really important is that this isn’t just about sanitation—it’s our clients saying, ‘We care about this community too. We want to give back.’”
This message—of dignity, reciprocity, and shared responsibility—cuts against much of the public discourse in Davis. At recent city council meetings, community members have voiced sharp criticisms of the city’s respite center and unhoused population. But Fauver sees that frustration as misdirected.
“I agree with you,” she said when asked about the gap between criticism and constructive engagement. “People say, ‘Make them go away.’ But where are they supposed to go?”
DCMH offers a range of answers to that question, from transitional housing to permanent supportive options like César Chávez Plaza and Creekside Apartments. The nonprofit also manages Paul’s Place, a new housing and service hub built mortgage-free thanks to community support. But even with over 160 new affordable units added in recent years, Fauver acknowledges the problem isn’t going away.
“We focus on safety, we create a healing environment, and our case managers walk alongside people. They build trust.” – Tracy Fauver
“How do you empty a mud puddle when it’s raining?” she asked. “We’ve helped a lot of people. But the number of people becoming homeless keeps growing. And there’s a wide range of reasons for that.”
Fauver, a licensed clinical social worker, points first and foremost to trauma.
“Whether it’s childhood trauma or adult trauma, it changes the brain and the body. And if you don’t have the opportunity to heal from that, it stays with you for life,” she explained. “If you did a study, I don’t think you’d find a single person experiencing homelessness who hasn’t been through trauma.”
In her view, DCMH’s programs are most effective because they are grounded in trauma-informed care. “We focus on safety, we create a healing environment, and our case managers walk alongside people. They build trust,” Fauver said. “It’s about helping someone when they’re ready. And it takes work. Real work.”
That perspective guides DCMH’s transitional housing program, cold weather shelter, and resource center—each of which plays a role in helping individuals move toward stability at their own pace. One recent example sticks with Fauver.
“There’s a man in our congregate shelter now who I’ve known on the streets for 15 years. He finally came inside and said, ‘I don’t want to be outside anymore.’ That’s the moment you wait for. That’s when you get to work.”
The City of Davis recently announced it would continue funding DCMH’s eight-bed congregate site through June, allowing that man—and others like him—to remain sheltered while receiving services.
But as Fauver emphasized, healing and progress require not just housing, but long-term investment.
“Poverty is a huge factor too,” she noted. “People may not realize this, but Yolo County ranks at the very bottom in terms of poverty across the state. We’re one of the most impoverished counties in California.”
And while housing costs, wages, and access to services are major barriers, Fauver said the deeper issue is that society continues to build systems that trap people in hardship.
“It feels to me like we keep adding barriers for people on the lower end of the income scale. And we make it easier for people on the higher end to just pay their way through any problem,” she said.
The connection between homelessness and incarceration is especially clear to her.
“When someone is released from prison and doesn’t have support—no family, no job, no training—they end up on the streets. And then they end up back in the system,” she said. “Usually it’s not for violent crime. It’s drug use or a minor infraction. But it adds more trauma, and the cycle continues.”
As federal funding becomes more uncertain, Fauver said local support is essential.
“We’ve already seen key funding sources vanish. That’s what I mean when I say it feels like the water is receding before a tsunami,” she said. “But what gives me hope is the Davis community. When I talk to folks who care about our work, I feel like if you hang in there with us, we’ll be okay.”
And that’s where the Big Day of Giving fits in.
“It’s not just about the dollars,” Fauver emphasized. “It’s about showing up. Showing that this community values healing, dignity, and hope. And that we’re all in this together—even if some of us are struggling more than others.”
To learn more about Davis Community Meals and Housing or to donate on the Big Day of Giving, visit [organization website].
“To learn more about Davis Community Meals and Housing or to donate on the Big Day of Giving, visit [organization website].”
https://daviscommunitymeals.org/
https://www.bigdayofgiving.org/
” . . . the organization has been employing clients from its resource center to clean up H Street, a stretch of Davis often criticized for visible unhoused encampments and trash.”
This is an effort I can get behind. Having persons working their way out of homelessness help clean up the town from the effects of homeless person’s is the kind of positive loop that can help all parties.
“Every Friday, either I or Becky drive the truck, and we go up and down the street with folks who use our services. They pick up bags and bags of trash,”
Thank you. I noticed H Street looking much cleaner recently. If you get some extra time and resources, come down to the train station, the PG&E substation at 3rd & K, and the abandoned car wash, and ‘mitigate’ the effects from homeless persons on my neighborhood as well.
“What’s really important is that this isn’t just about sanitation—it’s our clients saying, ‘We care about this community too. We want to give back.’”
Awesome.
“This message—of dignity, reciprocity, and shared responsibility—cuts against much of the public discourse in Davis.”
But doesn’t cut against the public discourse — this is what we want. Effects mitigation. And among the largest of such effects is homeless people not cleaning up after themselves and leaving garbage in the neighborhoods and certain key spots in the city that we are all aware of.
“At recent city council meetings, community members have voiced sharp criticisms of the city’s respite center and unhoused population.”
I resemble that remark. Sharply.
“But Fauver sees that frustration as misdirected.”
There is not “direction” to the frustration. It’s very real frustration, and my rage builds as the mitigation continues to be ignored, especially in my neighborhood.
““I agree with you,” she said when asked about the gap between criticism and constructive engagement.”
No you don’t agree with me.
” “People say, ‘Make them go away.’ But where are they supposed to go?” ”
Not the ‘where are they supposed to go’ argument, ARRRRRRG!!!! Do you all have a playbook you read from, and that is line #1? The simple answer is ‘away from my house’ and ‘away from my business’. You may think I’m being a selfish arse, but I think it’s y’all who are being selfish arses. There are a few select areas of Davis that get pummeled by the effects of the homeless, while 80% of Davis that is distant, rich suburbs don’t see homeless people at all. Those of us near railroad tracks, bike paths, certain greenbelts, drainage ditches, downtown, etc. are *fully* effected by the homeless in Davis, and we take all of it, so that y’all selfish, rich f*cks can be all “where will they go” can live in homeless-free peace in your suburban paradise while we take the carp for you, sometimes literally (human feces). So my point – don’t try to play the dumping shame and guilt on us game.
YOU (most of Davis) are to blame for what we (those near areas sited) have to put up with, you and your squeaky-clean suburbs with no homeless people. Thank us, or better yet, stop these policies that allow people to live outside near railroad tracks, bike paths, certain greenbelts, drainage ditches, downtown, etc. and enforce anti-encampment and anti-crime laws and recognize and respect those of us who have to put up with what YOUR polices have wrought upon this town, and respect that we want these encampments and the associated garbage and crime gone. You do your thing, but both help and enforcement needs to be funded. Not enforcing against criminal and anti-civic activity is not a solution to homelessness.
“Usually it’s not for violent crime. It’s drug use or a minor infraction.”
NO stop lying to us and gaslighting us. As I have shared here many times, officer John said to me many years ago (paraphrasing, referring to a group of four men on railroad property near my house): ‘don’t let people tell you these are good people’. He then rattled off the rap sheets for all four of them from memory. None of them were only guilty of ‘minor infractions’, not by a long shot. And my friend Heather, threatened with death twice from the same guy, a guy who had been threatening and assaulting people in Yolo County for almost a decade now and still isn’t behind bars. Why?!!???
And more recently I talked to the Amtrak police who enforce at the Davis station intermittently and are actually able to do something about homeless trespassing on station and railroad property, even when our own police force are directed not to in town, at least up to a certain point. The officers told me that they have to physically print the rap sheets of people they cite before turning in the citations to Yolo County. They said the rap sheets from individuals cited for a couple of weeks of enforcement, just around the Amtrak station and surrounding area, was almost a foot high! So don’t continue to spread this lie of ‘minor infractions’. It isn’t the ‘minor infractions’ people that are the issue, it’s the major infractions people, and they are out there and they are common.
So yes, your program of cleaning up H Street is fantastic, and a giant step. I’m all for funding effective homeless services. But you have to respect those of us effected. Enforcement is a different issue, and those of us effective deserve and demand enforcement to clean up our neighborhoods. Some of you try to force upon us the idea that ‘they’ are our neighbors, but that is just semantics. Let’s say ‘they’ are our neighbors. Then they are sh*tty neighbors. Because good neighbors who respect the neighborhood don’t trash it, and don’t set illegal and dangerous fires, of which there have been numerous and costly fires the last few years, many caused by homeless persons.
So yes, do your calling of helping the homeless, but we will continue to demand enforcement from the effects of those nearby. A neighborhood forever burdened with trash, graffiti, poop, bike parts and garbage is not a sustainable end game just because of the homeless-boosters chant “But where are they supposed to go?”
And stop sh*tting on District 3, I say, to Districts 1, 2, 4, and 5. How about you invite some of our ‘neighbors’ to be your ‘neighbors’. Such a nice lake out there in west Davis, with so much grass. THAT is where they are supposed to go!!! Problem solved.
“But you have to respect those of us effected.” You mean “affected.”
No, I meant “effected”