Irvine : Street Fair Designed to Aid Homeless Women

Strolling mimes and jugglers will be part of the street fair atmosphere Thursday as the YWCA of Santa Ana’s Program for Women Foundation hosts a “Rooftop to Rooftop” street fair to raise funds for a hotel for homeless women in Orange County.

The street fair--actually to be held in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn under construction in Irvine--will feature food and music. Trips to San Francisco, San Diego and Las Vegas will be raffled.

Marlee Parker, one of the foundation’s board of directors, said the group hopes to raise about $10,000 from the event, set for 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the hotel site, 17941 Von Karman Ave. She said the foundation has already raised about $325,000 from pledges for the shelter project.

Orange County has about 600 single, homeless women, Parker said. “The shelter is for women in transition, for people who do not want to be street people . . . (this is) to get them back on the right track.”

Ground-breaking ceremonies for the YWCA hotel are scheduled for later this year. The YWCA will raise the roof of its Santa Ana gymnasium, 1411 N. Broadway, and convert it into a 20-room, 40-bed shelter, Parker said, “where no one will be turned away (because they) lack funds.”

The fair will coincide with a topping-out ceremony for the Irvine Holiday Inn.