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May 8 , 2006 • VOL. 44, NO. 9 • Oakland, CA
Nuns continue ministry to homeless women in Oakland
At A Friendly
Place in downtown Oakland, free laundromat facilities and hot showers
may be the 21st century versions of the corporal works of mercy.
For 16 years, the drop-in center has offered these services to an average
of 72 homeless women each day. Guests can also take naps, store their
belongings during the day, and receive counseling. Hot coffee and pastries
are available in this place of respite. All comes courtesy of the Sisters
of St. Joseph of Carondelet and their benefactors and volunteers.
But there is a practical downside -- utility bills.
“Nobody wants to give foundation grants to pay the water bill,”
said Sister Carol Anne O’Marie, the center’s co-director,
who applies for many grants each year to keep the doors open. “The
washers and dryers go all day long,” added Sister Maureen Lyons,
co-director.
To help the Carondelets continue to serve their women guests, the program’s
auxiliary sponsors an annual spring cocktail party fundraiser. This year’s
event takes place on June 4 at Santa Maria Church in Orinda from 4:30
p.m. to 7 p.m. The $25 event includes cocktails and a light buffet.
Sister Carol Ann O’Marie dreamed up the drop-in center after witnessing
the plight of a homeless woman in San Francisco. Sister O’Marie,
a published mystery novel writer, was on her way to give a talk about
her fiction writing when she saw a woman using the gutter for a bathroom.
Shocked that human beings should be faced with such desperate circumstances,
the Oakland nun contacted two of her Carondelet friends, Sister Maureen
Lyons and Sister Suzanne Steffan. Surely, helping homeless women was a
ministry just waiting to happen, wasn’t it, she asked them.
The three brainstormed. Finally, during a game of pinochle, the nuns decided,
“Why not us?” During the months prior to opening A Friendly
Place, they talked to church congregations and organizations, wrote about
10 grant applications and sent hundreds of letters asking for donations.
On Jan. 24, 1990, A Friendly Place opened its doors in a former storefront
building on San Pablo Avenue near Grand.
In 1993, thanks to a low interest loan from Catholic Health Care West,
the Carondelets purchased an adjacent building and began the slow process
of transforming it into 26 one-room apartments called A Friendly Manor.
The Manor, which opened nine years ago, includes a communal kitchen and
a community room.
So far, 189 women have called it home. “Some of them last for years,
others for two weeks,” said Sister Lyons. Guests pay $250 per month,
plus a one-time $300 security deposit.
Two of the Manor’s many success stories are Myra Hutson and Carol
Foster.
Hutson recalls her years of drug addiction as living in a deceptive “enchanted”
world.
“When you’re smoking tough, (crack cocaine), you think you
can do anything in the world whenever you want to, but it never happens,”
she reflected. After crashing on and off at her dad’s house for
many years, Hutson became “all smoked out.” To her shame,
she began to realize how many dealers she had brought to his front gate.
Carol Foster, Hutson’s Friendly Manor neighbor, inhabited a similar
world. “I smoked everything,” Before going into recovery a
few years ago, the former Oakland police officer existed on the streets
for 15 years. Foster says she used to be so skinny, “I looked like
a zipper turned sideways.”
Today, both Foster and Hutson are light years away from the haggard, sick,
and tired addicts they once were. Nourishing food, sobriety and rest have
filled out Foster’s tall statuesque frame.
Hutson spent a few months in rehab catching up on her sleep and “learning
that it is a good thing to just sit still.”
Both women have channeled their lives into schooling and employment.
Hutson serves on A Friendly Manor’s paid staff as night manager.
During the day, she is employed as a tutor at the Second Step Learning
Center in Oakland, “teaching people what I learned there myself.”
While residing at a local treatment center, Hutson began working on her
GED at the Center and the staff there pointed Hutson in the direction
of A Friendly Manor. She moved there five years ago and believes it is
the best move she ever made. “If you can’t get it (recovery)
right here, you can’t get it right anyplace,” she said.
When Foster went into recovery, she decided to begin training as an electrician.
With the help of Harry McCoy, then director of the Oakland Jobs Consortium,
she enrolled in beginning classes. Despite being homeless, she earned
top grades.
She also started going to both A Friendly Place and the St. Vincent de
Paul Women’s Visitation Center. Both are located just steps from
one another and each staff encouraged Foster to believe in her abilities.
When an apartment opened up at A Friendly Manor two years ago, Sisters
O’Marie and Lyons offered it to her.
Last year, Foster was hired at St. Vincent de Paul Society as a janitor.
She was quickly promoted to the position of desk coordinator at the Visitation
Center. When its former manager, Sister of Charity Marion Bill, was assigned
by her community to a position in southern California, Foster succeeded
her.
She continues her electrician studies to increase her job marketability
and participates in the Champion Workforce, a job training and placement
program at St. Vincent de Paul.
In March, she was one of 10 Workforce team members who worked as contract
temps during a national real estate weekend seminar at the Moscone Center
in San Francisco.
Besides earning $11 an hour, Foster received an Ipod bonus from her supervisor
for doing outstanding work in sales.
Last week Foster signed the lease on a new apartment – the first
permanent housing she has had in many years. “I once walked away
from a beautiful home I only owed $15,000 on,” she said, recalls
her years of addiction.
But with mentors like Sisters Carol Ann O’Marie and Maureen Lyons,
“who saw the changes in me,” she hopes to continue her successful
road of recovery.
Sharon Burce (left), Mimi Sherman (center) and Michelle
Myers, guests at A Friendly Place, sort through donated greeting cards.
Mavis Johnson works on a crochet project during
her afternoon stay.
Mary Woods selects numbers for a bingo game, a popular
event at drop-in center.
Sister Carol Anne O’Marie’s latest mystery
novel, “Requiem at the Refuge,” takes place in a center similar
to A Friendly Place, which she helped found 16 years ago. Financial support
for the drop-in center comes from foundation grants and from several yearly
fundraisers, including a spring cocktail party and silent auction which
will take place June 4 at Santa Maria Church in Orinda from 4:30 p.m.
to 7 p.m. Tickets ($25 each) can be obtained by calling Terry Saltiel
at (925) 945-7833.
GREG TARCZYNSKI PHOTOS
