COSTA MESA : Shelter Plans to Buy Apartment Complex

Human Options, a South County shelter for battered women, has launched a drive to buy an apartment building so its “graduates” have a better shot at making the break from abusive husbands and boyfriends for good.

With grants from the cities of Costa Mesa and Irvine totaling $174,000 and another $100,000 from private donations, the shelter hopes to make a down payment for a 16-unit apartment complex in Costa Mesa.

The apartments would be designed as low-rent housing units where “graduates”--clients who have received help at the shelter--could live for up to a year and receive counseling and job training.

Executive Director Vivian Clecak said the shelter is still $300,000 away from its goal of closing escrow Nov. 23 on a project that will reportedly cost “over a million” dollars.

“This is for decent, affordable housing,” she said. “It is not a shelter, it’s transitional housing. These are normal people.”

She added that current apartment residents would not be forced out to make room for shelter clients. The location of the complex is being kept a secret to ensure the safety of future residents.

A study done in 1988 of 100 women who had been away from the shelter for a minimum of six months showed that a lack of affordable housing was the biggest problem they faced in staying away from their abusive husbands, Clecak said.

The study found that the average monthly income of the women was $1,100, sometimes including child support, Clecak said. With the average one-bedroom apartment renting for upwards of $700, the need for housing assistance is evident, she said.

“So we determined we would make a difference and devise second-stage housing,” Clecak said.

The families that stay in the apartments will receive the counseling that is available to current shelter clients. Operators will also work closely with colleges so clients can receive advice on college courses or vocational training, Clecak said. Ideally, they will turn their lives around in a year’s time and become fully independent of their abusive spouses.

“We need more support,” Clecak said. “These are kids that won’t end up in juvenile hall, families that won’t end up on AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) and the children won’t grow up to be batterers themselves.”

Emergency shelters accommodate women and their children for up to 45 days. Recently, Human Options and two other emergency shelters in Orange County received grants from Pacific Mutual Foundation to help clients pay for temporary housing. The rental subsidy grant to Human Options totaled $12,700, she said.

Human Options serves 225 women and children annually.