New Downtown Shelter Due to Open for Alcoholic Women

A new shelter for homeless women will open its doors next month, but only those with alcohol problems will be allowed to spend the night.

It is the first program exclusively for women alcoholics in the area, and city officials say the slated mid-June opening will come none to soon. The 56-bed facility, housed in a remodeled hotel on East 5th Street, is a Salvation Army project.

“You have provided a sign of hope, an indication of love and an expression of caring to those who are down on their luck,” Mayor Tom Bradley said at a ceremony outside the building Friday. “The Salvation Army has been there whenever we have needed them.”

In the neighborhood, more than 60 hotels, many of them burned-out and rat-infested, are considered by many to be powerful contributors to the cycle of poverty among the 10,000 people believed to live in the area.

Symbol of Hope

Safe Harbor, the name of the new women’s facility, is dedicated to breaking that cycle, its staff members say. At the ceremony Friday, workers beamed proudly as they described the facility as a symbol of hope for the neighborhood. More than 100 people attended the celebration that began with a Salvation Army band playing the National Anthem.

In addition to Bradley, others spoke excitedly about the $1.3-million project.

Michael Barnes, a recovering alcoholic who wandered over to the ceremony from the Salvation Army’s facility for alcoholic men next door, called the new facility “the most beautiful thing they’ve put together.”

“This will give the women a chance,” he said. “But it won’t work unless the women who come here want help.”

Having a good attitude will be a major requirement for admission to the facility, where women may stay as long as six months, said the home’s supervisor, Gwendolyn Smith.

“All they need to be is an alcoholic, have a Social Security card, and say that they want help” to get a bed, Smith said.

Beds Are Short

Staff members say they expect to run out of beds by mid-July and, after that, residents will be selected from a waiting list.

In addition to the residential program, the facility also will have a drop-in area where women alcoholics can come in off the street for a meal or a shower. Employment counseling and alcohol and drug education are other features of the facility.

On Friday, visitors toured the first two floors of the partially completed, three-story facility and clearly liked what they saw.

“It’s terrific,” said one women as she walked out of a bedroom decorated with peach bedspreads, a framed watercolor and wood dressers.

“I think it’s wonderful,” said another as she entered a pink-tiled bathroom that it still without faucets.

After the tour, visitors gathered downstairs for a reception which included pink sherbet, punch and finger sandwiches.

One shabbily dressed woman, who said she came in off the street, opted to eat her lunch alone in the kitchen. She, like the others, had only good things to say about her hosts.

“The Salvation Army, I think they are great,” she said.