San Francisco Fumbles: MARIAN RESIDENCE CLOSES!

St. Anthony's to close S.F.'s Marian Residence

by Marisa Lagos

San Francisco Chronicle
June 10, 2008

[...]

Marian Residence...will close at the end of this summer,...the victim of budget cuts and rising costs. But unlike other homeless shelters slated for closure - and despite promises by city officials that the beds will be replaced - Marian Residence is unique, focusing its services exclusively at the largely hidden population of homeless women....

There is a dearth of shelters for women, and many beds at coed facilities are unsafe. In general, it is difficult and time-consuming to reserve these beds, and they don't offer long-term arrangements or services.

Marian Residence is really two facilities - an emergency shelter downstairs and a transitional home upstairs. The drug- and alcohol-free center offers meals, case managers, mental health referrals, job training and money management help to its clients. Those in the transitional home have to be working, in school or in mental health treatment....

The home at 1171 Mission St. started as a makeshift shelter in 1983. Workers at St. Anthony Dining Room realized that there was nowhere for homeless women to go and starting putting mats out on the floor at night. More than a decade later, the program moved into its current home and expanded. It now costs about $1.2 million a year to operate.

City officials have said they plan to bring an additional 60 beds online at existing shelters to make up for the loss, but Hernandez and others insist Marian Residence cannot be replaced simply by adding cots elsewhere.

"When you're homeless, you have no time," she said. "Marian gives you time to heal emotionally, and financially, so you never come back to the shelter."

There are no accurate numbers on exactly how many women are on the streets of San Francisco, but advocates agree that they do not have as many options as men, who make up a majority of the homeless population. According to the city's last count in 2007, at least 13.5 percent of the 6,377 homeless people in the city are female. Advocates believe there are far more.

"Really, homelessness is about what you see when you walk down the street," said Paul Boden, director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project. "You don't see women as much, so they're not as much of a priority. But those women are out there."

Many of the women served at Marian Residence are severely mentally ill; some are recovering addicts. Others are victims of domestic violence, some are transgender women, and lately more are elderly and on fixed incomes.

Residents and staff members say each group presents unique challenges they doubt will be met in other homes. Many domestic violence shelters, for example, refuse to take homeless women, and transgender women are often turned away by both men's and women's facilities.

"It's brutal," said Boden, who was once homeless, of Marian's closure. "There's no other way to describe it."
Many programs being cut

The program is just the latest victim in a long line of social programs being cut across the nation because of the worsening economy and the worldwide food shortage.

Francis Aviani, a spokeswoman for the 57-year-old St. Anthony Foundation, said it was a difficult decision for the nonprofit's leaders. By next spring, St. Anthony's also will shutter and sell the Farm, an organic dairy farm in Petaluma that is run by 42 men recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

St. Anthony's board of directors, faced with more demand, higher food prices and other rising costs, decided in April to shutter Marian Residence and the Farm so the foundation can focus on its core mission - offering basic services such as meals and clothing. "Marian Residence is a very beautiful program," Aviani said, "but it also takes money to run a program of that caliber. We have to brace ourselves for what is around the corner."

Excerpted from
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/10/BA2210MDK8.DTL

by Amanda Witherell, SF Bay Guardian
June 17, 2008

Inside the front door of the Marian Residence for Women, a small handmade sign by a former resident advises newcomers, "Don't compare this place to any others."

But I've stayed in the city-funded homeless shelters, and after a night at Marian, it's hard not to rave about the differences. I'm given an actual bed to sleep on, with freshly laundered sheets, blankets, and a pillow. The bathrooms and showers are clean, and I'm offered every toiletry I could possibly need — as well as pajamas. Dinner is a wholesome meal of turkey, potatoes, and steamed greens — not the mystery meat on Wonder bread I received at the city's MSC South shelter.

And unlike the tension I've witnessed at other shelters, the atmosphere inside Marian is close to pacific. After dinner, the 29 other women shower, read, rest on their beds, work on their laptops, or talk quietly while sitting at small tables in the common area. After my mandatory shower, I sit with an employee who explains the rules — be respectful of others, no drinking or drugs, and don't forget to do my chore, which is assisting with dinner service. As long as I'm home by 7 p.m., I can have my bed as long as I need it.

MORE:
http://www1.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=6559&catid=&volume_id=317&issue_id=383&volume_num=42&issue_num=38