Mission Making Room to Shelter Women, Children

Edna Wise was one of dozens turned away last winter when one of the city’s few emergency shelters for women closed because of lack of funds.

The 35-year-old homeless woman took to sleeping in front of the warehouse that had been the shelter.

When she awoke, she waited for social workers to feed her and other women who, out of habit and need, continued to gather at the closed shelter during the day.

After a simple lunch, Wise roamed Skid Row. Each evening, she set aside four or five paper cups of water and bunked down on the warehouse loading dock. The water and the concrete slab were enough to sustain her until morning.

In February, the social workers stopped coming. Wise said she didn’t know where to turn. She knew, and homeless advocates agree, there are not a lot of choices for women on Skid Row.

But that is expected to change soon. On Thursday, Willie Jordan, director of the Fred Jordan Mission, said finishing touches are being put onto the area’s only emergency and long-term shelter for women, including those with children.

The fourth floor of the Jordan Mission building has been renovated and is being furnished to accommodate 46 women and their children.

“I know that doesn’t sound like much,” Jordan said. “We hope it’s just a start.”

City officials and advocates for the homeless estimate that there are between 6,000 and 15,000 women and children living in downtown shelters, low-rent hotels and on the streets.

The first year of the program will cost $485,000, which is raised privately by the mission’s foundation, Jordan said.

Security precautions--surveilance cameras and a night security guard--are planned for the safety of the mission clients, said Reuben Baldwin, director of the women’s shelter, which will be called Refuge.

The mission program--which will include counseling, child care, job referral and training, legal services and medical care--is scheduled to begin in the late fall, Jordan said. The daytime services will begin before the sleeping areas are ready for occupancy, she said.

“Some of the women come here on the run,” Baldwin said. “They are running from being prostituted, drug-abused or battered. We want them to feel safe when they get here.”

Edna Wise, where are you?