LuAnn Briggs peered over her left shoulder at one of two visitors she escorted into her studio apartment above Open Heart Kitchen in Livermore and whispered: “It’s small.”

The apartment, adjacent to and across from a dozen other rooms in a long second-floor hallway, is similar to a college dormitory room, about 16 feet by 16 feet.

But for Briggs, 70, it might as well be the executive suite. A year ago at this time, she called her car home.

“It’s really a miracle,” Briggs said of the change in her circumstances. “This place and these people saved my life. They really did.”

Briggs’ road to a new life is one of many success stories to have emerged from Open Heart Kitchen, a nonprofit that provides food and shelter for those experiencing life without a home. In 2023, it served more than 418,000 meals to those in need. In 2024, it will surpass 400,000 meals again and may reach 450,000.

The nonprofit operates its kitchen and works with other organizations to steer unhoused people into the apartments at the Vineyard Resource Center — where Briggs lives — as well as onto the 20 cots that are available in the dining area after the kitchen closes each night.

Said program manager Lilybeth Herrera: “People here are victims of domestic violence. They’re victims of human trafficking. They’re people who had nowhere to go when their landlord decided to kick them out. They’re people who have lost jobs, whose spouses have left. We’re not so concerned with how you ended up here, because anybody can.”

For the odyssey from unhoused to secure and looking ahead, Open Heart provides a map.

In doing so, Briggs said they do more than restore hope. They restore life. “I didn’t realize how cold and dangerous the car was until I got into (Open Heart),” Briggs said. “I don’t know if I can put it into words. I keep saying it, but it’s true. Truly a miracle. They saved me.”