Charity Putting Its Faith in House of Hope : Shelter: Facility for women and children will offer job training to help break cycle of homelessness.

It’s to be called the House of Hope.

Social workers say the “house” in the title describes the shelter itself. It will be a comfortable, cheery place where homeless women and children can live in a quiet neighborhood.

And social workers say the “hope” in “House of Hope” describes the counseling and job training that will be available to the women living within the shelter. The goal is to enable homeless women to get and keep jobs, and thus to break the cycle of living in the streets.

“What we’re doing is creating a facility for 45 women and children, but making it look like one large home inside,” said Jim Palmer, executive director of the Orange County Rescue Mission.

“There’s a tremendous need for a shelter like this,” Palmer said. “There are up to 4,000 homeless women and children on the streets in Orange County, but only about 300 beds available at any one time to take care of them.”

The Orange County Rescue Mission, a nondenominational charity that operates a shelter for men in Santa Ana, broke ground for House of Hope two weeks ago. Completion of the $2.3-million project is expected by next November.

“We want to have it open and able to accept women and children by next Thanksgiving,” Palmer said.

House of Hope is being built on a lot at 357 S. Lemon St. in Orange’s Old Towne area. The architectural design calls for a “country home” look, built of stone and wood.

“It’ll fit right in with the other homes in Old Towne,” Palmer said. “This is not one of those institutional-looking places. And it will have no sign outside or anything to indicate it’s a shelter.”

Those who deal with the homeless in Orange County say there is an urgent need for a new shelter for women and children.

“The number of homeless women and children has been increasing in the last five years,” said Susan Oakson, executive director of the Orange County Homeless Issues Task Force. “There are many more women who are homeless because of divorce, domestic violence and other reasons.”

“The need is constant,” Oakson said, “and there are always more people seeking shelter than there is available room. There’s especially a need for a place where the women can stay and learn skills so that they can make more than minimum wage.”

Oakson praised the counseling and job training that House of Hope will offer residents. Volunteers from businesses and industry will help train the women.

Palmer said women and children will be allowed to stay in the shelter up to 18 months. The house will have 20 private rooms, each with its own bathroom. The main floor of the house will have a large, country-style living room with a fireplace.

“We wanted the children to feel that this is their home while they’re there,” Palmer said. “A lot of these children have come from living in cars and hotels and motels.”

There are also many homeless children and mothers who do not have cars to live in and cannot afford motels, he added. They are thus forced to live on the street.

“You don’t see that many women and children on the street because the women know they’re unsafe, and they have to make themselves invisible,” Palmer said. “They try to stay out of sight, behind buildings and things like that.”

He said no government aid is being used to build House of Hope. “It’s all from private donations,” Palmer said. “A lot of the work and material are being donated by construction companies, and we’re greatly benefiting from the (Building Industry Assn.’s) HomeAid program.”

HomeAid is BIA’s program to help build shelters for the homeless.

The Orange County Rescue Mission was started in 1963 by the late Rev. Louis Whitehead, who was then a sergeant in the Marine Corps. The mission at first was only a small office in downtown Santa Ana but has since evolved into one of the county’s largest shelters for the homeless.

The rescue mission operates an overnight shelter for men at 1901 W. Walnut Ave. in Santa Ana. That shelter, which is about 9 years old, can accommodate up to 90 men.

“We only shelter males within the facility there, but we also have there our health-care and food and clothing programs for women and children, as well as for men,” Palmer said.

The rescue mission currently tries to place homeless women and children in the few available facilities operated by other charities, he said. Another alternative, he said, is to give money or vouchers to the homeless women so that they can stay at a hotel or motel.

But he said the ideal solution is to find a long-term shelter for the women and children, such as House of Hope.

The women and children in House of Hope will not have to pay rent, Palmer said. “We want to help the women save their money so that when they leave House of Hope, they can rent their own place,” he said.