Residents are moving in to OPCC’s new Cloverfield Services Center at Cloverfield Boulevard and Michigan Avenue in Santa Monica. The 22,000 square-foot homeless housing facility was dedicated November 16, 2006, by OPCC, but finishing touches, final furnishings and filling shelves and cupboards have now made the building open for business.
On Thursday morning, January 25, 15 women gathered in the second-floor common room of Daybreak Shelter, a 30-bed transitional housing program serving mentally ill homeless women, as the first full day of program activities got underway. (Ten of the Daybreak beds are reserved for emergency referrals.) Daybreak Project Director Amy Turk welcomed the ladies to their new home and listened to their reactions to the quarters.
Activities include mental health counseling, life skills training, housing assistance, basic medical care and social and recreational activities. OPCC reports that 97 percent of women who have completed the Daybreak Shelter program and been placed in permanent housing have retained their housing, an extraordinarily high success rate.
Also on hand for “opening day” were OPCC’s Executive Director John Maceri, Development Director William Jones and Associate Development Director Donna Miller.
Meanwhile, residents were moving in downstairs at Safe Haven, a 25-bed housing program bringing an innovative “Housing First” model to serve homeless men and women with mental illness, addictions, and physical disabilities.
