OUR MISSION

(1) To provide fellow students experiencing houselessness with a safe and supportive environment, the basic necessities they deserve, the opportunity to invest in their education, and a place to call home.

(2) To empower shelter volunteers to become social justice leaders, philanthropists, and innovators.

(3) To be an open-source model for other universities to create student-run shelters.

OUR STORY

Bruin Shelter was founded in 2016 by Louis Tse and Luke Shaw, both UCLA graduate students at the time. They became inspired to support college students experiencing houselessness when volunteering on Skid Row. In order to acquire adequate funds to initiate Bruin Shelter, Louis made the decision to live in his car and put money that would have gone towards rent into funding the start of Bruin Shelter. Through the support of undergraduate volunteers and multiple community partners, the organization quickly grew to what it is today and has even inspired the formation of Trojan Shelter, a similar peer-to-peer model also under Student Mojo, run by USC student volunteers.