SHELTER ACCEPTS DRUG, ALCOHOL USERS

Colourful toys are piled high in the playroom, waiting to comfort children
who have witnessed violence and abuse no adult should ever face.

Workers push, lift, drag and pull furniture, light fixtures and bedding
through bedrooms, sitting rooms and kitchens as they frantically prepare to
get a brand-new safe house ready to welcome women and children the next day.

Facility coordinator Trudy Shymka says the mild winter meant the St.
Elizabeth Home, run by St. James Community Services, came together almost
two months sooner than scheduled, so there was a last-minute scramble to
purchase and install the furniture.

"It's been crazy," she said, stepping out of the way of two burly-looking
men carrying lamps.

The $4-million facility, whose location can't be revealed, was funded by
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., Human Resources Development Canada and
B.C. Housing.

The latter not only contributed to the initial cost of the building, it has
dedicated $25 million for the long-term staffing and operation of the home.

Women are referred to the home by their social or financial workers or
other shelters-or can contact the facility directly.

Located outside the Downtown Eastside, St. Elizabeth Home offers 32
emergency shelter beds where women and children can stay for up to 31 days,
and 10 "second-stage" rooms where they can stay for up to two years. Five
of the emergency beds are dedicated to drug-addicted women trying to escape
the drug culture and poverty of the Downtown Eastside.

Shymka said one thing that sets this facility apart from most others in the
city is that it will accept women with active drug and alcohol addictions.
It's hoped that once they enter the facility on an emergency basis, staff
at St. Elizabeth can get them on the road to recovery.

Including the 10 long-term beds, the total number of "second stage" or
post-emergency beds available to women in Greater Vancouver is now 60.

No numbers were available on the number of emergency beds dedicated
strictly to women, but St. James now offers 70. Last year, St. James' other
women's shelter, Powell Place, turned away more than 1,800 single women and
423 families due to lack of space.

Many of the women arriving at the home will be on the run from physical or
emotional violence from spouses, partners and pimps.

Suzanne Jay, a rape crisis worker with Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's
Shelter, said last year, the shelter and crisis line received 1,400 calls
from women reporting abuse, including everything from rape to incest and
physical violence. While typically the women are trying to escape violent
husbands, partners and fathers, they could also be in flight from an
abusive landlord, Jay said.

"They might threaten to evict them or be entering their suites illegally
and the women have no choice but to leave," she said. "That leaves them
shelterless with no place to go. That's why it's so important to have
places like [St. Elizabeth]."

Shymka said one of the good things about St. Elizabeth's no-barrier program
is that women don't have to be on social assistance to qualify.

"And since we just opened we don't know what will happen after two years,
but we hope we will have given these women the support they need to make it
on their own."

Part of that support includes providing women with training in parenting,
financial management and nutrition. Shymka said offering women a safe,
stable place to live can be the first step in regaining, or keeping custody
of their children. They also assist in the process of reuniting and
supporting mothers with the children they gave up voluntarily.

"In some cases, the only way a woman can get her children back is to live
in a place like this," she said.