Daybreak, wind focus on women safe haven heading to cloverfield
A nonprofit organization established in 1963, OPCC has a variety of social service projects operating in Santa Monica, funded in part by taxpayers and private donors.
John Maceri, OPCC’s executive director, said the 33,700-square-foot Clover-field site, which has been abandoned for five years, will permanently house two social service programs that cater to women — entitled Daybreak and Women in New Directions (WIND). A third program, called Safe Haven, will encompass co-ed housing for homeless individuals.
OPCC must move from its current location at 612 Colorado Ave. because the Big Blue Bus, which is housed in the same complex, is expanding. Currently, OPCC pays $4,100 a month to lease the 8,500-square-foot site. The majority of its services are expected to be out by the summer of next year.
The two housing programs for women will be based on the second floor of the two-story Cloverfield building. The ground floor will house Safe Haven. Each of the programs are geared towards getting the homeless off the streets and into social service plans that will help them become self-sufficient.
Hundreds of residents and a handful of community groups have come out at City Council meetings against the proposed shelter, concerned that more than 200 transients might daily be wandering area neighborhoods, loitering and panhandling. Most of their concerns stemmed from their perception that the new site was going to include OPCC’s daytime drop-in facility, which provides meals, clothing and other services to the homeless on a daily basis.
However, Maceri said the drop-in daytime service will remain part of a larger cluster of social services managed by the city at the Big Blue Bus site.
Maceri said individuals using the beds available at the Cloverfield site will come on referral from a number of sources, including other service organizations, hospitals, and the police and fire departments.
The Cloverfield site was bought by the city of Santa Monica in 2003 for $5 million. The city then also donated $2.4 million for the renovations. The building will be leased to OPCC for 55 years.
The organization’s capital campaign, “From Homelessness to Hope,” aims to raise $19.5 million for the construction and operation of the Cloverfield site, as well as OPCC’s new access center, to be built at Olympic Boulevard and Fifth Street. That facility will serve as the entry point for homeless individuals seeking help.
The Daybreak shelter has been operating at the Big Blue Bus facility on Colorado Avenue for the last 17 years, Maceri said.
The project’s goal is to address the needs of women with mental illness who face homelessness and poverty by providing them with a safe and accepting environment where they can find dignity, support and access to information and resources that can help them stabilize their lives.
The new site will bump the available beds from 15 to 30, providing 15 women on a waiting list with an opportunity to enter the program. The women will be housed in semi-private, cordoned-off cubicles which will include a desk.
Program users will have access to an outdoor garden, and recreational and meeting rooms that can be used for activities and common living areas. A doctor and nurse will be on site to provide health care once a week.
“The whole goal of these programs are for women to create a community for themselves,” Maceri said. “We’re trying to help these women build their self-esteem.”
Daybreak promotes an arts and crafts business for women, of which the artists keep 70 percent of the revenue, and the remaining 30 percent of the revenue goes toward a fund to help women in the program pay for materials to get started in the business.
Maceri said Women in New Directions is an after-care program for women who have been living in the shelter and making a transition to permanent housing. It has been in existence for six years and will continue to operate at the new location, providing support services.
According to Maceri, the Safe Haven project opened last July in the access center space of the Big Blue Bus building on Colorado Avenue.
As OPCC’s newest co-ed program, it’s intended to help chronically homeless individuals who suffer from mental illness or drug and alcohol addiction get back on their feet.
Safe Haven will be moved to the ground floor of the new Cloverfield facility, growing from 10 beds to 25, an increase Maceri said is intended to fulfill the waiting list.
Safe Haven users also will have semiprivate, cordoned-off cubicles which include a desk. They will have access to an outdoor garden that will be separated from the two other programs geared strictly for women.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 26, 2005. Read the original PDF.