A path from hopelessness to empowerment for single women, moms facing hardship
In December 2022, Shentia Simmons was stuck, she said, engulfed in hopelessness and lacking clear direction for the future.
After leaving an abusive relationship, Simmons and her two sons became homeless. They lived in Coppell and received help from Coppell Cares, staying in a motel for four days and using gift cards for food and gas. They later stayed with various family members, and her older son stayed with friends to find some normalcy during high school, Simmons said.
She leaned on her oldest daughter, who was in college and staying with friends, for help. They found a one-bedroom home in Dallas and stayed for four weeks.
Simmons would do her daily routine, drop off her children at school and spend time at a nearby library or park until school was over. One day, she sat at a park searching the internet on her phone for something that could offer safety and sustainability.
Simmons found The Gatehouse at Grapevine, a faith-based community that helps provide permanent change for women and their children who are experiencing a temporary hardship. With an associate’s degree and a job that wasn’t financially sustainable, Simmons applied for the program, and, by the following month, moved into her new apartment in the organization’s complex.
Now over a year later, with a better job and close to completing her bachelor’s degree, she says The Gatehouse provided her with a community and resources to get her back on her feet.
“When I became homeless, I felt alone,” Simmons said. “So just being in that sense of community, it just started a whole different shift of mindset, and the healing part that I didn’t even realize that I truly needed.”
The Gatehouse is celebrating 10 years of service this year that has included transforming the lives of more than 800 single women and their families in North Texas.
Program includes residential community
The vision for The Gatehouse began when Lisa Rose and a group of friends started projectHandUp, a nonprofit to serve women facing challenges by offering hope and practical tools. In 2008, the group started First Friday, a weekly speaker series in Harkins Theatres in Southlake. The series focused on women’s issues and provided resources and information from local and national speakers, doctors, counselors and authors.
Rose, with help from her her husband Matt Rose, the former executive chairman of BNSF Railway, had a larger plan to establish a community to help women overcome temporary hardship.
In August 2012, Rose and her team went before the Grapevine City Council, where city leaders approved the building of The Gatehouse. In 2013, they broke ground at a location near Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. The organization does not publicize its precise location because of security concerns.
The Gatehouse opened in 2015 as a $28 million, 61-acre supportive living community. It includes 96 apartments, but Rose says they can still accommodate every person that applies, and is made up of one-, two- and three-bedroom units rent free. The Gatehouse is funded through the private sector, foundations and corporations.
To be eligible for the program, a single woman must be 21 years old or older, live in the DFW Metroplex, and be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, among other requirements.
Women and their families can stay up to two years in the community, depending on their situation. Currently, there are 50 women and their families who are residents.
The program offers housing, transportation, food, education, job training, medical care, clothing, counseling and life-skills mentoring. The community also includes a community/conference center, a chapel, walking trails and commercial space.
Rose says The Gatehouse is designed to empower women and their families facing difficult circumstances, demonstrating that they are valuable and deserve an equal opportunity to achieve their goals.
“I do believe in providing opportunities where one can, where it’s possible, provide an opportunity for women to really be able to no longer be victims or held back by circumstances,” Rose said. “But for those who are hard working, and they’re overcoming hardships, and they’re stuck, but they just need the hand up to move forward.”
Support for education and careers
The Gatehouse provides two tracks for women to choose from: the career or education track.
The career track was the original initiative to help women in their chosen career field and establish consistent income. A team of people helps them achieve their goals, as they attend weekly coaching sessions and skills classes.
The education track was implemented in 2023 to allow women to attend school full time to complete their bachelor’s or master’s level degrees. They can go to school at any accredited institution or attend one of The Gatehouse’s partner schools such as Texas Woman’s University, the University of Texas at Arlington, and Parker University.
“Those single women who are overcoming temporary hardships and who are hard working, they have a goal when they’re stuck,” Rose said. “If you’re stuck in your education or career, this might be a great place for you.”
The more education single mothers have, the lower their poverty rate, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Single mothers in Texas who graduate with a bachelor’s degree are 70 percent less likely to live in poverty than a high school graduate, the report says. Over 158,936 college students in Texas are single mothers, according to the report.
Simmons’ attempts to go beyond her associate’s degree were stalled by the demands of raising her young children. She worked as a paraprofessional before her time at The Gatehouse but it did not offer her financial stability, and her degree didn’t allow her to grow within companies as she wanted.
When the education track was introduced, she knew her passion was to work with children so she enrolled to an online degree program at East Texas A&M University. She will graduate in May with a degree in organizational leadership with a teacher certification in special education and has now found a job as a substitute teacher in Colleyville.
Simmons’ time at The Gatehouse helped with healing she never realized she needed. She was not confident in herself before, but stepping into a community where she was not alone was empowering, she said. Being in conversation with others who understand you to laugh, cry, share stories, and sometimes just sit in silence helps a person build and grow, Simmons said.
Now she has inspired her own children to continue their studies. Her older daughter graduated college and will pursue her master’s degree next spring, and her older son started school at Texas State this year to study computer science.
Age or circumstance should never stop a person from following their dreams, especially when they can find a community like The Gatehouse to support them, Simmons said.
“To be able to set a goal to accomplish, it’s been life changing,” Simmons said. “Not just for myself, but for my family, and it allowed me to become the person I’ve always aspired to be.”
The Gatehouse will have a 10 Year Anniversary Celebration at AT&T Stadium, 1 AT&T Way, on April 17 at 12 p.m. To reserve a ticket go to gatehousedfw.org.
This story was originally published March 28, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
