Deja View : An updated look at some of the people, places and programs featured in Valley View during the year : HOMELESS : Care Cottage Offers Refuge to Women, Children

Six months ago, former nightclub singer Lynn Keath, 50, became homeless. She had only one place to go--the Women’s Care Cottage in North Hollywood.

“It got me through a tough time,” said Keath, who moved into an apartment in the fall after spending two months at the cottage. “I still think it can happen to anybody. I lost control.”

One year after opening, the cottage now houses 14 women and children. The two-story, five-bedroom, Tudor-style house is run by the San Fernando Valley Friends of Homeless Women and Children, a nonprofit volunteer organization founded in 1983 by two social workers who were doing academic research on the homeless crisis.

Under city guidelines, residents are allowed to stay at the shelter for 60 days. During that time, workers help the women search for jobs and apartments.

Cynthia Caughey, its executive director, said the cottage got only half of an anticipated $100,000 in city funding for 1992, but that its daily operations wouldn’t be severely affected.

“We’ll probably run a deficit,” Caughey said, “and have to draw money from our account at the bank, which we didn’t want to do.”

She said the shelter has appealed the amount of funding but has yet to be notified of the results.

The shelter recently hired a part-time therapist to meet weekly with the women and children, and a children’s coordinator to plan social activities for the youngsters.