women's shelter
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Homeless women have unique needs that cannot be met adequately by predominantly male-occupied shelters. For a woman living with severe mental illness, trauma, or a sexual or domestic assault history, living in the shelter or on the streets intensifies her instability. The Women’s Shelter addresses these problems while providing a safe and supportive environment designed specifically for women.
At the Soup Kitchen this morning there were 293 people; 55 were women. Some were homeless girls from the Preble Street Lighthouse Shelter; others were women as old as 70.
Often in that same space we hold memorial services for clients who have died. One was for Jennifer.
She died outside, one night in December, homeless and alone before there was a Women’s Shelter. One friend shared warm memories of Jennifer and added, “No one ever said being homeless is easy, but you shouldn’t have to die for it.
With the opening of Florence House not scheduled until early 2010 and the precipitous closing of the YWCA, the need for housing options for women in Portland became acute in 2006, and Preble Street quickly pulled together a coalition to plan for adequate safe overnight shelter for homeless women until Florence House opens.
On January 31, 2007, Preble Street created a temporary Women’s Shelter at the Resource Center, in space occupied during the day by the adult drop-in center.
That night, for the first time in 20 years, homeless women in Portland did not have to sleep on mats on the floor in the city shelter outnumbered by men 4 to 1.
Our work at the Women’s Shelter has moved women off the floor at the overcrowded city shelter, has assisted women who were previously afraid to engage in services, has prevented a catastrophe in the city’s shelter and affordable housing system by filling the gap created when the YWCA closed, and is moving women through the first step toward permanent affordable housing at Florence House.
Since opening, the Women’s Shelter has provided 691 women with 39,751 shelter bednights.
The Women’s Shelter is a walk-in program that is designed to meet basic needs—a cot, laundry, showers, clothing, storage, etc.—and is staffed by housing support workers who partner with community collaborators to provide additional support, including mental health care, case management referrals, and therapeutic groups.
Women who use the shelter are encouraged to take advantage of the services available at Preble Street Resource Center—including meal programs, the Adult Day Shelter, and Casework services—and the City of Portland Health Care for the Homeless Clinic, as well as outreach from Sexual Assault and Response Services of Southern Maine, Pine Tree Legal Assistance, and Department of Health and Human Services intensive case managers.
The Women’s Shelter offers a refuge for women living alone on the streets as they begin to make plans for a more stable future at Florence House and as we continue to change how our community responds to our mothers and daughters and sisters living in poverty.
At the first Women’s Shelter House Meeting, a woman in her 60s remarked, "This has been a wonderful change. It's changed people's attitudes. It's changed how people feel."
Location and Hours of Operation
Every day, 7:00pm-7:45am
5 Portland Street, Portland
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