Past Issues :: 2006 July 1 :: News: Rose Haven Transition
Rose Haven's transition leaves gap in services
Nearly eight years ago, Sister Cathie Boerboom helped create Rose Haven, one of the
few women-only hospitality centers for women experiencing homelessness. It
was a treasured center for women who needed shelter from the streets during
the day, a sense of community and support, and a resource for getting assistance in rebuilding their lives.
It was all those things for more than 8,000 women and untold numbers of children. And it will be again, Boerboom promises, despite closing its doors for good at 116 NW Third Avenue. The organization locked its doors on June 30 and will be cleared of the office by the end of July. The program is losing its office space to a building renovation, and its funding through Catholic Charities is being shifted to women’s housing efforts.
Boerboom doesn’t fear the prospect of starting over again, but the months it will take and the toll on the women brings her in tears.
“When I first could see that this was coming, I saw all these faces walking lost, all these wonderful people not having anywhere to go — in the rain, in the sun,” Boerboom said. “Some women come in so sunburned it scares me. And in the winter, their wet feet, sopping wet hair, they’re sick. I could just see these faces. So that’s my fear, that they’ll be so alone and so abandoned.”
Boerboom is quick to acknowledge that there are other good services available that will help the women, but there are many more women than resources available, and women-only facilities are rare.
“There are so many that suffer so much depression and then there are so many rapes and so many beatings,” Boerboom said. “And there are great domestic violence places here, but room for one in 10, maybe one in 11. And that means the others are out there, especially those being abused who are homeless, they have nowhere to hide, because their place to hang-out is now the other people’s hang-outs. So they’re not safe.”
Several forces have a bearing in Rose Haven’s closure, the most significant being a shift in funding from its primary sponsor, Catholic Charities, which provided $300,000 a year to Rose Haven. Whereas Rose Haven was hospitality and service focused, Catholic Charities will instead channel the funding to directly support housing for homeless women.
Catholic Charities has extensive experience in operating housing facilities such as Kateri Park, Haven House and Elizabeth House, among others, and serves approximately 25,000 people a year through its social services. The organization is in the process of buying and constructing more permanent, supportive housing units for formerly homeless women in need of case management services.
Catholic Charities continues to support Boerboom in her efforts to relaunch Rose Haven by early next year. The organization has given her all of the office and program furnishings, and will pay for the cost of moving and storage.
“Rose Haven was a real gift to us because it brought to our awareness the needs of homeless women. Now they are clearly one of our priorities.” said Dennis Keenan, executive director of Catholic Charities. “We’re looking forward to a positive partnership with the new Rose Haven in terms of being a resource to each other. I think we’ll have added resources in terms of housing and case management support, and Sister Cathie will still have the hospitality.”
Keenan said Catholic Charities expects to help between 50 and 150 formerly homeless women get into housing in the coming years.
“All the research says housing is the most essential ingredient,” Keenan said. “Once they have a home they can attend to the other needs in their lives. It’s hard to do that when you’re out on the streets.”
Also prompting the closure is the renovation of its host building, Central City Concern’s Estate Hotel. The building is undergoing a major renovation, and the women’s center won’t be returning to the new building. Rose Haven has to vacate by the end of July. Finding a new location, at the right size, cost and location, has been difficult, Boerboom said.
“In this neighborhood there’s a lot of space, but people want retail,” Boerboom said. “They really don’t want more homeless. Even if it’s already here, they don’t want us to move into their space. Or it’s too small or it’s too big, or it’s too expensive. Some places are up to $23 a square foot.” (With assistance from Central City Concern, Boerboom says Rose Haven paid about $8 a square foot in its Third Avenue office.)
From the women’s perspective, Rose Haven needs to stay within a mile of its current location, near the downtown, free public transportation, and other services.
“A lot of people are on crutches, sore feet, pushing carts,” Boerboom said. “We get a lot of injuries. We’ve been having a lot of people come in who have been hit by cars. And then of course you have the people coming right out of hospital and they’re weak. And they really can’t go a long way. Some have kids in strollers. And a lot of people just don’t have the strength, energy or possibility of going very far.”
As Boerboom prepares to start all over again, she has several advantages in her corner that weren’t there eight years ago. She has a dedicated corps of volunteers and a solid reputation on the streets as a place to go for hospitality and assistance. And she has a wealth of community support for the program, including numerous organizations that donate resources, counseling and training for the women. Working to keep those volunteers and supporters on board with the project is critical to Boerboom.
“I don’t want to lose any of them,” Boerboom said. “It’s so important to have these people out here in our city who support (the women). It’s just another way to say, ‘you’re important, even though some people spit on you and call you names because you don’t have a home, there are people out here who appreciate your situation and you.’ And I don’t want to lose all those people.”
Boerboom emphasizes her immense gratitude for the people who have built Rose Haven into such a strong community, and the feedback from the women has been a pillar of strength.
“Almost every day, and usually many times a day, we hear, ‘I’m so glad you’re here;’ ‘I don’t know what I’d do without a place to come;’ ‘The smiles I get here help me make it through the day;’ ‘I come here for my motivation to stay clean;’ ‘Thank you so much for the help for my medicine, now I’m not feeling so sick;’ ‘Thank you so much for writing the letter to so-and-so.’ We get feedback all the time,” Boerboom said. “What we’re getting right now is the grief load and the fears about us not being there. And some anger is starting to surface now. ‘Why can’t the city care about us?’ ‘Why isn’t there a place while you’re not open?’ ‘Where are we going to go?’ ‘We’re going to miss you guys so much.’”
When Rose Haven first opened, Boerboom expected about 30 to 35 people would use the facility each day. The average is closer to 80 a day, Boerboom said, and often the office overflows with women needing assistance or a place to be.
“The need has been bigger all along than I expected,” she said. “What was different in the beginning was that we hadn’t been here, so people had been on the streets for years and years and years. Now people are coming to us, maybe yesterday they lost their housing, or last week, or they just got to town. So we’re at least getting to address things earlier in people’s lives. That’s been a really good thing. That doesn’t mean some haven’t been homeless for a long time, but they find us more quickly. And usually their health is a little better.”
The biggest hurdle to recreating Rose Haven is money. Boerboom is pursuing options for grant support and seeking 501.c.3 identification through her congregation, Good Shepherd Sisters, until she can establish nonprofit status for Rose Haven.
“I’m kind of excited,” Boerboom said. “I’m not excited to start over. But I’m excited that this isn’t going away. I’m really grateful that I have the call to keep on going.”