ORANGE : House of Hope Gets Finishing Touches

To enter the House of Hope, still under construction in Orange, one must step carefully through the front window.

But by the time the house opens Feb. 1, more than 20 homeless mothers and their children will walk through the front doors for an 18-month stay.

The privately funded, Orange County Rescue Mission-operated facility for the homeless will be one of a kind in the nation. It will have 20 residential rooms, a health-care clinic, a child-care program and a mini-high school under its roof, said Jim Palmer, executive director.

“It is going to look incredible,” said Palmer, who has been a part of the ambitious project for the past three years. “We will be literally taking people out of the welfare system and teaching them to live differently, work differently and parent differently . . . to help the homeless get back on their feet.”

Currently, the $3-million house on Lemon Street is empty. Construction workers are putting the finishing touches on the facility. The walls are bare, a concrete floor is exposed and the garage space is full of construction equipment.

A lot has to happen before residents move in.

So last week, the Rescue Mission kicked off a “baby shower for homeless children” to furnish the 12,000-square-foot home. As a part of the event, people who wish to help may go to Robinson’s-May Co., where there is a House of Hope registry with a list of needed items such as beds, tables and chairs. The retailer will ship the purchases free.

Palmer said the House of Hope is large in scope because there is an even larger local demand. A Homeless Issues Task Force study this year found that of 12,000 people on the county’s streets, about one-third are children.

The Rescue Mission receives about 250 calls per day from mothers who are looking for long-term shelter. The House of Hope will employ five full-time workers to make certain that the 20 mothers and 25 children are improving themselves and learning a trade or attending school.

Each mother must take herself off welfare before moving in.

“We want to break the co-dependency on the government,” Palmer said.

The House of Hope itself is not dependent on government funding. It was built with the help of 3,300 private donations and more than 100 corporate donations. Palmer said another $190,000 is needed to complete the project. Once completed, the house can be largely self-sufficient.