Volunteers Paint Shelter for Women, Children

With each stroke of pale peach paint, the room around Andre Foster started to look more like a home.

And quite a home it will be when it opens in early March: the privately funded House of Hope will be the largest complex of its kind in the nation for homeless and abused women and their children.

The chance Saturday to help paint the 22-room house brought extra meaning for Foster, one of about 35 homeless men from the Orange County Rescue Mission’s shelter in Santa Ana helping with the project.

“It feels good just to be out doing something,” said Foster, 39, who was laid off from his job in a molding company last year. “It’s definitely hard out there, especially if you have children.

“This is basically therapeutic, a lot of fun and a chance to help out,” he said, running a long-handled paint roller up and down the wall of a second-story bedroom. “When I needed the help, it was there. I’m extending that help.”

About 50 people, including a church youth group from Mission Viejo, spent the day painting the 12,000-square-foot, wood-shingled center in Old Towne Orange. The home will be operated by the Rescue Mission.

Many of the homeless men who turned out to help Saturday will receive extra nights at the mission’s Santa Ana shelter in exchange for their efforts.

The volunteers said they were glad to help.

‘It’s nice to help out,” said Doug Woolston, 23. “This is a blessing.”

The 60 gallons of paint donated by the Old Quaker Paint Co. of Santa Ana went quickly as the volunteers painted the expansive house, with its 133 doors and 600 electrical outlets. Another 120 gallons of paint were expected to arrive this week to help volunteers finish the job.

Like the paint, almost everything else at the house has been donated by local subcontractors and building suppliers. About two-thirds of the $3-million outlay for the house came from craftsmen and builders working through HomeAid, the nonprofit organization of the Orange County chapter of the Building Industry Assn. The remaining third of the funding came through 20,000 private donations, said Jim Palmer, executive director of the Rescue Mission.

When complete, the house will provide shelter, health care, child care and academic and vocational classes to 20 women and 25 children for up to 18 months, giving the women time to learn job skills and to find work.

Jim Womack, who helps coordinate transient services for the mission, said it was easy finding volunteers for the painting job among those staying at the Santa Ana homeless shelter. “They want to work, they want to be productive,” Womack said. “They believe in this thing. They know the need for the House of Hope.”

Indeed, officials say there is a great need for the House of Hope. Single parents, mostly mothers, are the fastest growing segment of Orange County’s estimated 10,000 to 12,000 homeless population.

“This building and the programs that are going to be involved are going to put a big dent in that,” said Virgil Garduque , a mission employee who was once homeless himself. “This is going to be home.”