Children Get Care, Parents Get Time : * Shelter: A private program offers a home to youngsters for up to three months while adults solve their personal problems, ranging from drug addiction to homelessness.

There are many shelters for troubled children, but a free program for the children of troubled parents run by two women in Pomona is unusual.

Mary Robinson and Ethel Martin give parents who are hooked on drugs or homeless, or both, a chance to straighten out their lives by leaving their children in a private home for up to three months.

Their idea is simple. They give parents in trouble some breathing room, while providing temporary care for the children--including counseling and tutoring to put them on the right track. Except for licensing the home, the government is kept out of it, so parents will seek help for their personal problems without fearing that authorities will take the children away forever.

But the idea is also expensive. It costs $130,000 a year to run the program, which serves no more than six children at a time.

Robinson and Martin said they cannot charge anything because the parents are usually broke. And they cannot bill taxpayers, because the concept depends on helping families before they come to the attention of social workers.

So, Robinson and Martin pay expenses by raising money, mainly through Wednesday night bingo games they run at the Ebell Club in Pomona. They hope to raise more funds at a thrift store they just opened in a mini-mall on Mission Boulevard, next to Grossman’s building supply store.

Robinson gave up a career as a bank manager to start the program with Martin, her former neighbor in Phillips Ranch. The project grew out of their own experiences.

Martin, the divorced mother of two, ages 15 and 20, grew up in poverty, the youngest of 14 children. “My father was an alcoholic, my mother was a battered woman,” she said. “To keep us together, she would move from one place to another. . . . Education was hard to get.”

Robinson grew up in Louisiana in a family that was nearly as large as Martin’s but more prosperous. She said she saw the need for this kind of program when a sister, who had two children, became a drug addict. Her family was able to care for the children, “but not all families are willing to do that,” Robinson said.

The women, who met three years ago through their children, began talking about their desire to help children less fortunate than their own and formed M & R Group Home Inc.

To launch the nonprofit corporation, Robinson and her husband bought a four-bedroom house in northeast Pomona two years ago for $163,000 and leased it to the project. The women furnished one bedroom for a house parent and put twin beds in the other bedrooms.

The house looks like any other on a street of 1950s era one-story stucco homes. But inside, instead of family photos on the wall, there is a bulletin board with a state license, other official notices and a menu for the week. The premises are clean and comfortable.

“We didn’t want to show the kids poverty,” Robinson said. “We wanted to show how regular, everyday people live. That’s why we didn’t go into the worst part of town, pay smaller dollars and obtain a home there. We’re trying to take them away from that.”

The 90 days parents can leave their children at the home gives them time to complete a drug rehabilitation program or find a job and save money for a rent deposit, Robinson said.

“We’re not a baby-sitting service,” she emphasized, adding that she tells parents: “We’re not here to let you continue in your same old ways.”

So far, all the parents have returned to claim their children, although procedures are in place to turn children over to authorities should that becomes necessary.

While the parents are getting help, a staff of paid and volunteer workers tries to help the children avoid similar mistakes. The staff includes child-care workers, a psychologist, an administrator and a recreation director.

“The kids are normal; the parents have the problem,” Robinson said, but that does not mean the children have come through tough experiences unscathed. Most have moved so often that they are behind in education, so tutors are provided. There are strict rules, including set hours for homework.

Although $130,000 may seem like a large budget, Robinson said it provides only the minimum of services, including the mortgage and insurance on the house. She said the cost, about $1,800 per child a month, is less than the county would spend.

(A Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services spokeswoman said county child care costs vary by age and circumstances, running from $400 per month for a child in a foster home to more than $3,000 a month for a child in a group home with specialized services.)

Families are referred to the Pomona program through churches and private agencies.

LaQuetta Bush, shelter coordinator for the Pomona Valley Council of Churches, said that while she has not yet referred anyone to the program, she thinks it is a fantastic idea that should help many troubled parents who need to be apart from their children for a while but do not want to turn them over to a government agency and risk losing them permanently.

Robinson said she and Martin would like to open more homes and eventually draw salaries. But so far, it has been a volunteer effort for them, she said.

Robinson, who has two children, ages 9 and 11, said giving up her job as a bank manager has cut her family’s standard of living. Her husband is an engineer. “My kids are saying, ‘When are you going back to the bank?’ ” she said.

But the two women are determined to succeed. They are seeking more players for the Wednesday night bingo games, and donors and customers for their thrift store.

Robinson said that although the program has not been operating long enough to measure its success, she has no doubt that a need is being met. The only question, she said, is whether “we’ll be defeated for lack of funds.”