FULLERTON : YWCA to Remodel Houses for Women

The YWCA will remodel two houses this summer using a $35,000 federal grant to provide affordable temporary housing for 10 to 12 single women.

Director Beverly Glen said the North Orange County YWCA wants to house women for six to 18 months and will help women who are “at risk of being homeless,” rather than already on the streets.

“What we are trying to do is prevent homelessness,” Glen said.

She said the agency will select women who have recently faced a financial blow, like the loss of a husband to death or divorce.

“They need not only someplace comfortable and safe and affordable to live, but some help in upgrading their skills,” Glen said of the women she wants to assist.

The program will offer job training, resume preparation, and physical and mental therapy.

“Very often they are depressed by where they find themselves,” Glen said.

Employment will be a condition of residency, Glen said. The women will pay rent on a sliding scale. The housing is expected to open in October, Glen said.

The women will live in two remodeled old houses now used for office space by the YWCA.

One is the YW House, built in 1917, a two-story building on North Pomona Avenue.

The other is a smaller building known as the Chaffee Cottage, built in 1927, on East Whiting Avenue.

With the grant, the houses will be painted, fire doors installed, roofs repaired, bedrooms added and bathrooms and kitchens upgraded.

Glen said the agency also hopes to build apartments to rent as affordable, long-term housing for women.

The women the agency seeks to serve might not qualify for other housing programs because their needs are not seen as great enough, Glen said.

“The women who are calling me have been employed,” Glen said. “They are not abused. They are not alcoholics or drug users. Where do they go? The economy has not been good to women.”