Gift of new beginnings

A tranquil retreat in the foothills of the San Fernando Valley gives Olga Koleshchuk the chance to rebuild her life after fleeing an abusive boyfriend.

Koleshchuk and her 8-year-old son, Daniel, are among six mothers and their 15 children -- as well as nearly two dozen elderly women -- who are living at Hope Gardens Family Center, a transitional housing site for women and children that opened two weeks ago north of Lake View Terrace.

Each family is assigned a one- or two-bedroom apartment with a bathroom. Freshly painted and clean, the rooms look onto a wooded hillside where residents can see deer and raccoons scrambling in the underbrush.

A former senior citizens retirement home, the 71-acre complex is worlds away in mood and character from their former lives on the street. Under the shadowing trees, lodge-like buildings house apartments and offices. Footpaths wind past lush gardens, a gurgling brook, a koi pond and a new playground.

For Koleshchuk and her son, Hope Gardens most simply means no more temporary shelters.

“You have no privacy” in those, she said Tuesday. “That’s the best thing about being here. You have your privacy.”

In the next year, the Union Rescue Mission on skid row, which runs the center, plans to move as many as 225 homeless women and children to Hope Gardens. The mission bought the property a couple of years ago in an unincorporated area for $7.5 million.

On any given day, about 90,000 people are homeless in Los Angeles County, and 40% are women and children, according to relief agencies.

The mission, through a comprehensive program aimed at training the women for jobs, expects the families to make the transition from homelessness to renting their own places within 12 to 36 months, said Andy Bales, chief operating officer at the mission.

Early on, the idea for Hope Gardens generated opposition from residents of Kagel Canyon, about a mile away, and other local communities. Vocal neighbors complained about the risk of fire and said the center would attract crime and drugs and lower property values.

Opponents flooded county Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s office with letters and phone calls criticizing the plan. After Union Rescue Mission officials agreed to hire more security guards, install smokeless ashtrays and slowly phase in the number of residents, the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission approved Hope Gardens’ permit in May.

Ethel Brooks, 31, moved to Hope Gardens last week with her three boys -- Joshua, 9, Kweashad, 7, and Ethan, 1 -- after bouncing from friends’ apartments to relatives’ homes after her divorce left her destitute. She acknowledges that her own weaknesses also played a role in her family’s financial troubles.

“We’re not all junkies and ho’s,” Brooks said. “It’s about making bad choices. Here, we’re learning about budgeting and managing money so we don’t make those bad choices anymore.”

For the first time in five years, she said, she has a chance to get an education, find a job and work while her children are being cared for in a safe environment.

One of the greatest problems homeless mothers face, several women said, is their inability to afford day care on their low wages. Often they have to give up their jobs to care for their children, which sends them into homelessness.

Brooks said she is interested in becoming a pharmacy technician or getting a job in the accounting or auditing department of a large company.

After they land jobs, the women have to give a portion of their salaries to Hope Gardens for their housing costs and set aside part of their pay for savings so they can eventually rent a place of their own.

Veronica Duran-Ramirez, 35, fled an abusive relationship that left her with two broken legs, no money and no home. She ended up living on the streets of North Hollywood with her daughter, Maria, 10, and son, Bobby, 7, for six months.

During that time she attended school to become a certified cardiac technician.

Other homeless women she befriended baby-sat her children in the parking lot of a homeless shelter while she went to class.

“We lost everything, and my self-esteem was really low,” Duran-Ramirez said. “It takes a toll, mentally and physically -- living on the streets. But I want to show other girls who are in domestic violence situations that you can do it too.”

She appreciates Hope Gardens.

“There’s no gangs, no shootings, no drugs she said. “It’s a clean, safe environment, and I’m bonding with my kids. I want my kids to know the importance of getting an education. I have goals now.”

amanda.covarrubias @latimes.com