Ludmilla Bade

Ludmilla Bade is a second-generation Californian who has lived and worked in Alameda, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Mendocino and Sonoma Counties. She is currently living near Santa Rosa, California where she is a returning student majoring in social and behavioral science. After graduating early from high school, she worked in many fields including the arts, office and accounting, food service, grocery, retail, property management, organizing and decluttering, and as a caregiver. 

After her father moved into assisted living, she could not afford market rents and became homeless. She moved into a small trailer which she drove to work and at night parked at various places on the streets, moving every day or two. For several months, she found a community with several others, where the property owner provided showers, toilets, and electricity until code enforcement officers removed everyone with less than 30 days-notice. She was homeless for almost three years before finding a home in shared housing.

During her experience of homelessness, she volunteered to serve as a lived experience member of the Sonoma County Continuum of Care Board (CoC). She has subsequently been active on several homeless resolution subcommittees such as Strategic Planning, Income Increase, and the CoC Funding and Evaluation Committee. Ludmilla was instrumental in developing Sonoma County’s Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP). She also serves on the Advisory Committee to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH). Ludmilla brings invaluable insight to these boards as her passion to end homelessness is rooted not only in her own lived experience, but by being involved in her communities and advocating for solutions to gaps in the systems.