One Bed, One Couch, One Home: LJCSC's Seven-Year Partnership wit…

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One in four homeless San Diegans who move into a new apartment end up back on the street within two years. Among the clients served by Humble Design, it's closer to one in forty — same city, same rents, same crisis, but a completely different outcome.

Marie Olesen, CEO of La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre, and Laura Lavoie, executive director of Humble Design San Diego, join Monique Ramsey to explain what changes when a bed, a couch, and a set of dishes show up on moving day.

Laura walks through what a "Day of Joy" actually looks like: professional designers meet clients where they're sleeping on the floor, ask what colors and styles they love, then spend two to four days pulling those choices from a 15,000-square-foot warehouse before a volunteer team turns an empty apartment into a finished home in four to six hours.

Marie shares how redesigning her own guest room led her to Humble Design San Diego's board seven years ago, and how La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre has sponsored 14 of the organization's homes since 2019.

The two also cover what a UC San Diego research team found when it studied the program — including a jump in kids having friends over after move-in day — and the emergency furnishing effort Humble Design ran last summer for two families who lost everything in the Murphy Canyon military housing plane crash.

At the time this episode was recorded, Humble Design San Diego had completed 681 homes — and Marie is about to receive its first-ever Humble Impact Award. Listen for the moment a Navy volunteer explains why the day changed how he thinks about his own service.

LinksLearn more about Humble Design San Diego

Meet La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre CEO Marie Olesen

Questions answered by this episode

What is Humble Design and how does it work?
What happens during a Humble Design "Day of Joy"?
How many families stay housed after Humble Design furnishes their home?
How is La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre involved with Humble Design San Diego?
How can I donate furniture to Humble Design San Diego?
What kind of furniture does Humble Design accept?
How does having a fully furnished home affect a family's chances of staying housed?
What did the UC San Diego Homelessness Hub study find about Humble Design?
How can I volunteer for a Humble Design "Day of Joy" in San Diego?
What is the Humble Impact Award and who is receiving it this year?

Learn from the talented plastic surgeons inside La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre, the 12x winner of the San Diego's Best Union-Tribune Readers Poll, global winner of the 2020 MyFaceMyBody Best Cosmetic/Plastic Surgery Practice, and the 2025 winner of Best Cosmetic Surgery Group in San Diego Magazine's Best of San Diego Awards.

Join hostess Monique Ramsey as she takes you inside LJCSC, where dreams become real. Featuring the unique expertise of San Diego's most loved plastic surgeons, this podcast covers the latest trends in aesthetic surgery, including breast augmentation, breast implant removal, tummy tuck, mommy makeover, labiaplasty, facelifts and rhinoplasty.

La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre is located just off the I-5 San Diego Freeway at 9850 Genesee Ave, Suite 130 in the Ximed building on the Scripps Memorial Hospital campus.

To learn more, go to LJCSC.com or follow the team on Instagram @LJCSC

Watch the LJCSC Dream Team on YouTube @LaJollaCosmeticSurgeryCentre

The La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Podcast is a production of The Axis: theaxis.io

Theme music: Busy People, SOOP

Transcript

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You're listening to the La Joya Cosmetic podcast with Mony Gramsey.

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One in four San Diego's placed into housing are back

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on the streets within two years. Among the families Humble

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Design has furnished, that number is two point three percent.

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Same city, same rents, same crisis. The difference is a bed,

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a couch, a set of dishes, and somebody who asks

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what colors you like. Humble Design San Diego has furnished

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more than five hundred homes since twenty eighteen, and La

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Joya Cosmetic Surgery Center has sponsored fourteen of them since

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twenty nineteen. Our CEO, Marie Olison, who is here with

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us today, has spent the last seven years on Humble

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Design San Diego's and their national boards and their regional boards.

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And Laura Lavoy, who's also here today, runs Humble Design

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San Diego, and she's here to partly say the things

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that Marie won't. So welcome, ladies, Hi, thanks for having

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so for any one who's never heard of Humble Design. Laura,

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if you'll walk us through a day of service, or

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actually call it a day of joy, as I remember

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from the moment the truck is loaded, or even what

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that week is like prior to that day of joy

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and the moment the family opens the door.

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I would love to and thank you so much to

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both of you for hosting me. I tell people who

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don't know anything about Humble Design where like HGTV for

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people who actually need it, And it is the most

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amazing and magical thing I've ever been part of in

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my life. And what happens is we meet our clients

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who have left homelessness on Monday. All of our clients,

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they have a roof over their head, but nothing under

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their roof, so they're sleeping on the floor. They're eating

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out of a takeout container. They are stable, but they

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are not living in beauty. So we have professional interior

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designers and movers on staff, and our team will go

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and sit with our clients on the floor of their

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place on Monday morning, learn about their journeys through and

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out of homelessness, and then, like you said, it flips

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into a design consult and the designers will ask our clients,

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who are you, what do you like? What colors do

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you like, what styles do you like? What are your

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kids love? And then they'll come back and they shop

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our fifteen thousand square footwearhouse that's crammed filled with donated

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furniture and home goods, and in two, three or four days,

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depending on if you're our client, on Wednesday, Thursday, or

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Friday of that same week, they will create a custom

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home design for that client based on that interview. And

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then the morning of the Day of Joy, our team

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and our volunteers will show up in the morning to

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an empty house and four to six hours later, what

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takes the rest of us sometimes four to six months

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or longer to do is done, and the team and

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volunteers will unpack the chuck. They will wash all the

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dishes that the table, build the beds, make the beds,

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hang the art. And then at the end of the day,

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our clients knock on their own front door and our

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volunteers will open the door. We all clap and say

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welcome home, and just like HGTV, we walk them through

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the space, show them the home that is designed specifically

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for them, and then, like you said, ninety eight percent

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of our clients, after their Day of Joy, they break

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the cycle of homelessness for good.

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It's so awesome, it's actually incredible. Okay, Now, Marie, you've

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always believed that the space around you shapes your happiness

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and your productivity. When did you first connect that belief

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to homelessness.

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So I've always really been very visual, and I've cared

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greatly about my home and our office and not only

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cleanliness but beauty. And so I happen to be redoing

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a guest room and the designer that was helping me

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ask me what I wanted to do with the things

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that we're not going to go forward into the redesign

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of the room, and it was some very pretty things,

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and she said, have you heard of humble Design? And

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I said no, And so then she began to tell

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me about this and it. You know, we're in the

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business where people make visual changes to themselves and they

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enjoy their lives more and they're happier, And so it's

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not too far a step to go to my surroundings

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affect me and nourish me, and homelessness is such an

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huge problem, and as an individual, you feel like, what

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could I ever possibly do? My life is so wonderful,

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and these people have need and I wish I could

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know how to help them in a meaningful way. And

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so she had me go on a day of joy

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and we began, the center began supporting that, and it's

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led to a long and very happy relationship.

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Yeah, our very first day of joy I remember doing

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that installation, and I was working in the kitchen because

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I love to work in the kitchen and help put

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things away and organize a kitchen for that person's home.

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And so at the very end where all everybody was

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in their own little room, and then at the end

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you kind of come and you see like what were

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everybody else was up to. And in the home that

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we decorated, there was a little girl's room and I

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walked in and in the corner they had made almost

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like a little reading book and they had put this

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really pretty gauzy thing that they hung from the ceiling

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and little pillows and stuffed animals and books. The pillows

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were your pillows, Marie, from your guest room. And I

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was like, oh my gosh, here I'm seeing, like in

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real time, I know whose pillows those were, and here

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they are, and it was just so lovely and they're

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pink and satin and pretty, and I just thought, you know,

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what a wonderful thing to be able to if you're

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going to take something out of your home, you wanted

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to go to good use. And I think the things

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that Humble Design does, Laura, I mean you see it

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all every week, three times a week, right.

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Three times a week and sometimes four.

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Yeah, So Laura, you know Marie's going to underplay her

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role in helping you guys over the last few years.

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But how did Marie and the Joya Cosmetic Surgery Center

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first show up and what did it kind of evolve into.

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Marie is far too humble with a lowercase H and

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is absolutely all things humble with a capital H. She's

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been with the Humble Design San Diego since almost the

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very beginning. We came to Diego as an organization in

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twenty eighteen, and Marie joined our board in twenty nineteen

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at the very beginning of our Humble story and has

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been guiding us, supporting us, and shining light and love

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on this mission since the day she walked in the door.

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I could probably fill the entire hour talking about how

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amazing this woman is. I told her the other day,

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you better let me give you your flowers, Marie, because

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you are such an incredible part of our organization's story

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and the reason that we are so successful is because

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you have had this vision since the very beginning, not

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only of the impact of the work that we do

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on the individuals whom we serve, which is at the

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core of Humble We make impact, one beautiful home at

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a time, and also since the moment I met you,

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you've been singing the song of let's collect the data,

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let's gather the evidence. Let's not just show, but let's

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demonstrate with real numbers the impact that this work has

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on the community. And that is how we will be

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able to continue to grow and serve the unfortunately way

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too many people who need our services and the services

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of the heroic agencies that refer our clients to us.

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So the impact that you're talking about, Laura, here it

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is for San Diego at a glance, and this was

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through twenty twenty five. Ninety eight percent of the people

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where you've been involved in making their house beautiful, making

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their house a home, are still in their homes, which

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is incredible to me.

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It's remarkable. And the snapshot you're showing right now, that's

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last year, that's twenty twenty five. Our aggregate impact is

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even greater. We did one hundred and forty eight homes

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last year alone, and today my team is working on

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home number six hundred and eighty one here in San Diego.

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Oh my gosh, that's incredible. And I think one of

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our first years it was like the fiftieth home and

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we all are holding like two balloons of the five

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and a zero and that was a huge milestone. But now,

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how many did you say?

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Today? Is six hundred and eighty one in process as

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we're recording this podcast.

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Oh that's so nice.

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So I just did the math on that, and that's

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six hundred and sixty seven families still housed. And that

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is what's so remarkable because there's so much recidivism for

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people going into empty apartments on sleeping bags with no furniture,

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no kitchen utensils, and suddenly they move into a true

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home and there's a lot where they have there's been

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abuse and negative family situations, and there's a tendency to

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go back to the abuser just to have.

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A house with things in it.

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And so this is solving that and letting that generally

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mother and her children go forward. And the amazing thing

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is we with UCSD Department, what is the Urban Studies.

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Yes, the homelessness, how about uc San Diego?

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So they did a study and they're the ones who

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verified this ninety eight percent. But what they also found

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was that it wasn't just homing them. It was a

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change in the children's lives and their socialization, in attending school,

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in the mom, having friends over, in greater use of

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home meals, just a plethora of indicators of a normal

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life for these families.

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It's very, very touching to see.

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This shows that before and after. I mean, that's really

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what it's like when we come in to help do

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a home and I for anybody listening today, I really

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recommend you do a day of joy. It's you know,

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five or six hours and you are transformed afterwards. Not

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only is the space transformed, but you as an individual

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are transformed. And it's incredible how they pull together, your

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designers will pull together that week into something that is

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just gorgeous. And it's the things that they asked about,

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like oh, I love the outdoors, or I love peach,

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or I love you know whatever that thing is, or

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my son loves baseball. It's like they hear and I

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think that the people who are coming into their new space,

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they're amazed every time of like, oh you really listened,

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Like I didn't really think, like, I'm telling you what

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I like, but I didn't think you were going to

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do it. And not only did you do it, but

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you do it so beautifully.

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That's the real impact that you're getting at is or

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providing a home, not just a house. And this is

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something we've said for the organization is a national organization.

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We operate in four cities around the country, and we've

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known since the beginning that there's a difference between a

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house and a home. Having a team of PhD experts

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at a top ten research university coming back and validating

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and having so their top finding was ninety eight percent

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of the people we serve stay housed because of our services.

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The second finding was having a home instead of only

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having housing is a social determinant of health and well being.

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And we had never, I think articulated our work as

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a health and well being intervention. I don't think we've

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had used those words to frame it. But it was

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a complete aha moment for us. Of course, all of

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these other things that are happening in the lives of

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our clients because they are safe, because they are in beauty,

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because they are seen and heard and loved by their community,

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who didn't know them five days ago, they'd never even met,

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And now a team of people who have given their money,

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they've given their time, they've given their amazing I'm talking

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about my designers right now, superpowers to come and create

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this unbelievable thing for them. It's transformational. Yeah, And that's

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the thing that makes the difference. It's not just the product,

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it is the process together that.

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Makes You've heard the phrase you heard me when you're

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trying to say to someone something that I communicated to you,

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you actually heard me, And that is this is so

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representative of that. And frequently these people have not been

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in a situation where anyone was listening, let alone than

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taking that information and creating an environment that showed love

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and respect for them and their family. And so they

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are they're stunned. They when they come in, they just

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they're so amazed. And one of the first ones that

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we did, a boyfriend came along and you know, we

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here right to help hanging pictures and so on, and

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so we had a little circle at the beginning and

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talked about what we're going to do, and then we

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had a little circle at the end. How do you

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feel about this? And he said, well, I didn't want

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to come. I wanted to stay home and sleep. But

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what I've realized through this is I need to get

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a life. And that was so stunning to me because

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it basically said you can't just think about yourself all

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the time. And great richness, emotional social richness comes from

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doing something for others in need and being able to

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actually witness the impact of your commitment is very, very

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wonderful as a donor and as a volunteer.

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Can I tell one more story in that vein sure?

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Last summer, I don't know if everybody remembers, there was

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that tragic plane crash in the military housing complex in

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Murphy Canyon and we got called in on emergency. Can

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you help us? There are two families that lost literally

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everything in a moment, and so most of our clients

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have experienced a long journey through an out of homelessness,

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and in this situation, it was in one second they

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went from having everything they had to literally having nothing.

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And so we were able to come in and do

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those homes. And because it was a military complex, we

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had volunteers from the United States Navy working alongside our team,

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and we did our clothing circle like you were just

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talking about Marie at the end, and one of the

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service members said, I joined the Navy so I could

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help people, and today is what it's all about for me,

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And then of course we all cried. Yeah, and I'm

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kind of crying now. Just remember hearing this man say this,

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because he's not even from San Diego. He was here

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on his deployment, got to do this as part of

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his I don't want to say everyday work, but it

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was what he was assigned to do for the Navy

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that day, and he came away having given a home

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to a fellow service member and feeling that it reflected

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his calling to serve. It's a pretty powerful, nice, very.

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Credible I want everybody because I think one of the

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typical questions people have, Okay, you know, you come in

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with all the pretty things and we're going to turn

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this from a shelter to a beautiful home that they

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can really use and thrive in. But how does that

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family or that person get placed in the housing and

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how does Humble work to make that happen? Or do

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you make that happen?

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Our tagline at Humble is Togetherness to end Homelessness should

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be hashtagging that. And we are so fortunate here in

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San Diego we have almost one hundred agencies that we

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work with. This went way up after the UC San

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Diego study was published. Who are authorized to refer clients

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to us after they have gone through the programs of

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our partner agencies. So it is the heroes and the

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angels at the agencies who are walking alongside our clients

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through the beginning and middle of their story. They are

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the ones who help find the housing. We're not in

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the business of finding housing for our clients. So, like

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I mentioned, all of our clients have a roof over

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their head, but they don't have anything under that roof.

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So we work in partnership with all of these agencies

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all over the county who are supporting the people that

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we then get to step in and become part of

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their story as well.

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Now, Marie being on the board tell us a little

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bit behind the scenes of what's Marie doing, what does

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that mean to be on the board, and what does

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she bring to the table the board table.

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Well, as I'm sure everyone listening to this knows, or

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if they don't, they should know, Marie is a force

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of nature and a force for good, and we have

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been so black to have her wisdom and her heart

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sitting at our board seat first here in San Diego

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in the early days, and you mentioned Monique. She she

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did a tour of duty on the national board and

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then we were very excited to have her back on

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our San Diego board starting at the beginning of this year.

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And I remember like it was yesterday. I've been at

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Humble for five and a half years and Marie was

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one of the very first meetings that I had at

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your practice, actually, and she said to me, everybody who

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gives you a piece of furniture can give you their

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money and their time and their hearts and everything else

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they have to offer, and the furniture is a welcome

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into the mission. And I never forgot that, because she's right.

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She's usually right about most things, and it's true everybody

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has something that they can give and for so many

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of our community members. For me, even the first thing

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I did was when I found out about Humble Design,

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before I even worked here. I said, oh my gosh,

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to my husband, we have a dining room table. We're

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going to give it to Humble Design. And then I

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saw it on an Instagram post, and I was like,

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look like, what are we doing.

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It's so nice. It's so nice to be like I

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gave it. It's just nice.

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It's so good.

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I have a whole new life, you know.

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And you get to read the story of the family

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who is going to give it its next beautiful chapter,

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and know that you had a part in that story.

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And so when I met Marie, she told me, whatever

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anybody gives you is the beginning. It's not the end.

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And again she said, and we have to measure it.

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And so she's been helping us to keep those two

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central truths at the heart of all the work that

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we do. And we are a small, scrappy but growing nonprofit.

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And when I was hired, we were doing one home

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a week. I was hired to take us from one

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to two. This was back in twenty twenty one, post

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pandemic sort of, And so we did that and then

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it was kind of exponential from there. We went both

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from two homes to three and got this study done

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by UC San Diego and last summer we tested out

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the operations of doing four homes, so we know how

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to do that once we have the funding and the

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resources that we need. In order to do for and

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all of it is because Marie has been sitting there

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at the table. She's the little angel.

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On my shoulder.

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I hear her voice all the time in my mind, saying,

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make sure that you have the data to support what

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you're doing. And when somebody gives you their dishes, they're

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giving you a piece of their heart. And that's how

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we've grown well.

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And I think that that one most expensive part for

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San Diego. At the beginning, it was just having the

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space for a warehouse, and you were a little bit

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constrained by I mean, I've seen you through three or

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four warehouses now, but I mean it was little. So

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how much you can you bring in to even be

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able to furnish a home? And Marie very astutey said,

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you know, to go get big donors, big big donors.

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And San Diego is a small town. You know, We're

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not Detroit or Chicago where you've got some global brands.

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We're little.

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And so how do you prove that this money that

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they might you might be asking for is really going

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to go help without that data that she's asking for,

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which was amazing to have that on paper, you know.

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So I want to talk for a second about what

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people can do. And so obviously you can give the

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pillows that you're replacing in your living room or your

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bed or whatever. But you can also say, I want

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to give pillows to arrive at the warehouse every month

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from Amazon. And so you can say I want as

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a business or a family or a person. And we've

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seen it all a person giving a birthday to themselves.

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We as an organization support these days of joy. People

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can make larger donations that would enable ten of them

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to be done. So it's sort of like, what's your

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ability to give and how do you do so in

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a way that builds this organization's impact.

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And for us, we started with that.

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It was my pillows, then it was the center doing

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a day of Joy, then days of Joy, then years

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of days of Joy, and it's.

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So fun, you know, and it's like amazing time to

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