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SATURDAY December 6, 2003 - Subscribe - Contact Us Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels December 4, 2003 A warm, safe place Ashland's new shelter provides needed support to women in need of new start By John Darling Tidings Correspondent A new guardian angel has moved into Ashland. Ashland's first shelter for poor and homeless women and their children - called The Angel House - is open in a five-bedroom home in a quiet, undisclosed neighborhood. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings Looking over a children's room at the newly opened women's shelter in Ashland, Sharon Schreiber of the Interfaith Care Community says this service is a much needed addition to the community. The shelter offers three- to six-month stays so the women can get on their feet with a job and save enough for first and last month's rent and deposits on their own place. The shelter, operated by the Interfaith Care Community, is a transitional house, not an emergency shelter, and its main function is to provide stability for children, said Sharon Schreiber of ICC Medford. Finding the place Schreiber said ICC has worked for years to get an shelter in Ashland, where real estate prices have soared and rents are high. It was rented to ICC at nominal rate by Connecting Point minister Gene Haag, who works with people coming out of the corrections system, and supported by the generous donation of a local man. The shelter is a "case managed" sanctuary for single mothers and a smaller number of single nonmothers whose lives have been destabilized by divorce and job loss, she said, and who find themselves overwhelmed by the cost of raising children on their own. "Most of these women are working for minimum wage and, after taxes, it's real difficult," said Schreiber. "Typically, there's a sense of psychosis among homeless women. If you take a rational, reasonable human out of her natural habitat and put her in a situation she has no control over, the frustration level is overwhelming. "If you're told you can't get a job because you have no transportation, because you can't afford insurance, then your car is impounded at $20 a day, so you lose your car to pay for that, then you start taking the bus which stops at 7 p.m., then how do you get home 10 or 15 miles away? "And meanwhile, who do you find to watch your children, who you trust and who's willing to wait six weeks to get paid?" It's a cycle of demise this shelter is hoping to stop. Shelters also see a lot of single women in their 50s, on their own with no retirement or medical benefits, who get sick and aren't able to work, said Schreiber. There's not a lot of work for such women, she added, and if they're bringing home $800 and have medical or drug expenses, it's impossible. Creating normal The shelter looks like a normal, middle class home inside and out. The women go off to work and the children to school. Kay, the house manager (who asked that her real name be withheld), watches kids after school as they play in a playroom or on playground equipment outside or watch TV. Women come home and are required to make dinner together and eat at the table. "Some of these children have never eaten a square meal at a table in their lives," said Schrieber. "What they know is eating cold cereal in front of the TV." The profile of a typical woman at the shelter, said Kay, "is low self esteem, no confidence whatsoever. When you talk to them, you get a sense of upset and that there's nothing they can do. We constantly have to reassure them. The kids are the ones it really shows on. They tend to be unruly and don't listen." Schrieber agreed, noting that children are often anxious because they blame themselves for the stressful situation their parents are in. And even if women have good parenting skills before they get homeless, it's very hard to maintain them, she said. On the extreme end, Schreiber said, are the mothers "out camping," - living in cars, fields or "couch surfing" - who won't come into the shelters and get on track because it would mean leaving boyfriends. Signs of success The shelter case manages women with job support, counseling, parenting classes and a focus on solutions, not institutionalization of the homeless, Schreiber said. The shelter has zero tolerance for alcohol or drugs. Similar shelters in Medford, donated by St. Mark's Episcopal and Zion Lutheran Churches and the Rogue Valley Community Development Corp. have had a 70 percent success rate in getting clients in their own homes and jobs within three months. ICC struggles for funding in this era of cutbacks in social programs. Too, it suffers from public unawareness of the problem. Said Schreiber, "So many people want to do something. We go to church or prayer groups and tell the story and they're absolutely astounded to hear how some people live." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Road Cams