VAN NUYS : Facility for Homeless to Get Grant Award

The Women’s Care Cottage, a nonprofit organization for homeless women and children in Van Nuys, will receive at least $10,000 from the UPS Foundation and is in the running for $100,000, an amount that would facilitate a planned move to a larger site.

The Women’s Care Cottage now operates a day drop-in center in a cramped one-bedroom cottage on the property of the First United Methodist Church on Sylvan Street. The organization offers services such as hot meals, showers, clothing, assessment and shelter referrals for as many as 50 homeless women and children daily. The $100,000 grant would enable the organization to move its drop-in center to a site that is more than three times the size of the 800-square-foot cottage.

Last year, the organization served 6,000 women and children, said Cynthia Caughey, executive director of the organization. Two years ago, it served about 2,000, she said.

Caughey attributed the rapid increase to the poor economy and a more widespread familiarity with the organization. She said the growth has put a strain on the tiny facility.

“It has one bedroom, one bathroom, and one little kitchen,” she said. “It’s absolutely too small.”

The Women’s Care Cottage, which also operates a shelter and a child-care center in the San Fernando Valley, was chosen by the UPS Foundation from hundreds of candidate organizations to represent an area that includes Southern California, Arizona, Utah and Hawaii. Six other organizations from western states are also in competition for the grant. The UPS Foundation is an arm of the Atlanta-based United Parcel Service.

Jon Shutt, an employee relations manager for UPS, said the committee reviewed hundreds of organizations before selecting the Women’s Care Cottage. He said he was overwhelmed when he saw the work being done there.

“They take somebody that is homeless and hungry and create an avenue for them,” he said. “I haven’t seen the other (districts’) projects, but I can’t see them being much better than this one.”

The recipient of the grant will be announced in October.