A Fresh Start : New Salvation Army Shelter Offers More Than a Home

Emmett and Patricia Wade’s one-room apartment at the Salvation Army’s new shelter for homeless families in downtown Ventura is tiny, but that doesn’t matter to them.

Emmett Wade recently landed a job as a teacher’s aide and his wife is getting help kicking her drug habit so she can care for their 14-month-old son, Emmett Jr.

They are saving money toward a deposit on permanent housing and getting mental health counseling. With the help of workers at the shelter, their lives are moving from the chaos of homelessness to a more stable environment, Emmett Wade said in a recent interview.

“I try to keep optimistic,” he said. “There are good people still out there to help you toward your goal.” The Wades are one of eight families who have quickly filled the Salvation Army’s shelter in the six weeks since it opened. All eight apartments reserved for families and a dormitory that can house up to nine women are full, said Anthoula Sullivan, the program’s executive director.

The 41 beds have become a precious commodity in a county where housing for the homeless--particularly families--has becoming increasingly rare. Besides offering private space for families, the program provides an array of services to residents: child care, psychological counseling, job training and meals served family style three times a day.

“We were amazed,” said Patricia Wade, a recovering heroin addict who is getting counseling and methadone treatments as part of the shelter’s program. “It was, like, “Wow, this is wonderful.’ ”

Word-of-mouth communication about the shelter’s bright, modern facilities, private apartments and generous services has spread quickly among the homeless and in the social services community, said Joyce Jenkin, case manager for the transitional housing program.

Jenkin has been taking up to 20 inquiries a week about available space and has started compiling a folder of applications from prospective tenants, she said. The demand has forced Jenkin to be picky about who she will admit.

“I look to see if a person is tired enough of what they have been doing to change,” she said. “Sometimes people are not willing to give up the destructive behaviors in their life.”

Residents pay 30% of whatever income they are receiving toward rent and agree to set aside any extra money toward a deposit on permanent housing in a trust fund set up by the Salvation Army. There are other rules: no smoking, no drinking and a 10 p.m. curfew on weeknights.

For those willing to abide by the restrictions, the shelter represents a chance to concentrate on pulling their lives together, Sullivan said.

“Our residents come from all over,” she said. “They were living in the streets, in their cars, along the river, in motels and with family and friends.”

The Salvation Army approached the city in 1991 with the idea of transforming the charity’s aging headquarters at 155 Oak St. into a shelter for homeless single women and families. Then it took two years to raise the $628,000 needed to modernize the 6,000-square-foot building, Salvation Army officials said.

The city of Ventura agreed to give the Salvation Army a $200,000 grant for the expansion project; the remaining money came from state grants and donations. A onetime, $1.3-million federal housing grant will cover operating costs through 1999.

Salvation Army officials and Ventura Mayor Tom Buford are scheduled to formally celebrate the opening of the shelter at a dedication beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday.

An estimated 4,000 homeless people live in Ventura County. But the Ventura shelter is the only center for homeless families to open anywhere in the county since the Zoe Christian Center in Oxnard closed last year. It is one of two shelters for homeless families--including one run by Project Understanding--in the county.

The Salvation Army’s goal is to give homeless people job training and counseling while they are at the center so they can become self-sufficient.

Residents can stay about six months, enough time to become stable, learn budgeting and save some money for a deposit on housing, she said. The Wades are well on their way to reaching that goal, said case manager Jenkin.

“They’re one of our ‘look-good’ couples,” she said. “Emmett has a job now and they are working on their personal problems.”

Emmett Wade, 39, said his family became homeless after he lost a job at a group rehabilitation home in May, 1993. Wade, his wife and their infant son bounced around different shelters, stayed with friends and even lived in their car for a short time before coming to the Salvation Army shelter.

Two weeks after moving in, Wade got a part-time job as a teacher’s aide at Cabrillo Middle School in Ventura. With two years of college already completed, he is now taking courses at an adult school to get his teaching credential.

Living at the shelter “alleviates some of the stress,” Wade said. “It makes it easier for me to pursue my goal so I never end up in this situation again.”

Patricia Wade, also 39, said the counseling she has received at the shelter gave her the courage to give up her heroin habit. She is now receiving methadone treatments.

“It’s scary coming off drugs,” she said. “But I know at least here I have a chance to do it. Out there (on the streets), I wouldn’t.”

Child-care workers at the center also help her take care of Emmett Jr., Patricia Wade said.

“I never trusted anyone with my baby before,” she said. “But it’s kind of like a family here.”

Jenkin acknowledges that not all shelter residents are success stories. Many of the homeless struggle with long-term problems involving alcohol or drugs and come from troubled families, she said. Center officials have asked one resident to leave because he would not abide by the shelter’s rules, she said.

“We are asking them to change their entire way of being,” she said. “That is incredibly hard.”