The passionate vision of GEMS founder and author Trizah Smith, known
as 'T'.  After experiencing first hand having three children, being pregnant,
and living in poverty as one of the 180,000 homeless families subsisting on the
streets of Los Angeles, she discovered that finding short-term housing and emergency
assistance was next to impossible.  All of the government programs had impenetrable
waiting lists, while other seemingly plausible options resulted in shady characters
who took all of Trizah's cash and food stamps, forcing her and her children
to live on the streets.

After pulling her family out of the depths of homelessness and publishing a book
about her experiences 'Miracles of My Mistakes', T. Smith promised herself
that once her family life was stable, she would emulate Harriet Tubman and go back
for the rest of her homeless sisters, and help lead them to the glory of having
a place to call home.