COUNTYWIDE : Group Seeks Funds for Women’s Shelter

The directors of a Laguna Beach women’s shelter want to open a 16-unit apartment house in Costa Mesa where abused women and their children could live for up to a year.

The project would be the first of its kind in Orange County and could serve 130 families in the first five years, said Vivian Clecak, executive director of Human Options.

The housing is needed, she said, because many women complete shelter programs and return to abusive mates because they have no place else to go. Most shelters for battered women allow them to stay no longer than 45 days.

“If they had decent housing, they would have a choice to make a good decision and not make a decision out of desperation and to keep a roof over their kids’ heads,” Clecak said.

By providing six months to a year to mend their lives while receiving counseling and job training, Clecak said, the shelter will offer women a better chance to gain economic independence. “People say women should lift themselves up by their bootstraps,” she said. “Well, we’re going to help them get some bootstraps.”

Last week, Human Options appealed to the city of Laguna Beach to endorse the shelter concept and to consider a grant for the project in the 1992-93 budget since no money is available for funding such projects in the coming year. The City Council agreed unanimously to do so.

Shelter proponents are now turning to other Orange County cities, private donors and the Orange County Housing Authority in hopes of raising money quickly for a down payment on an apartment building that has been identified as ideal for the project. The building’s location is being kept secret to provide security for residents, who would live there independently after completing a program at one of three Orange County shelters.

“What we’re trying to do is develop a model to show what it takes to take a family out of poverty and out of domestic violence,” Clecak said. “Most of the time we’re so busy treating the emergency that we don’t have the time to step back and treat some of the causes.”