Antoinette Red Woman was on the skids, the chronic alcoholism that had kept her homeless threatening to black out even more years, when she first came to The Gathering Place.
After the staff of the nonprofit hooked her up with agencies like the Mental Health Center of Denver, she began the long road to recovery. Now she works with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, helping others on the same painful path she once trod.
Tuesday, she was among the crowd celebrating the opening of The Gathering Place’s new 28,000-square-foot building.
“When I was homeless, this was a refuge to come and get coffee, breakfast, to have a meal. It was like coming home during the day,” she said.
Several hundred people, including volunteers and mothers and children who have relied on The Gathering Place’s services, attended a lunchtime celebration and ribbon-cutting by Mayor John Hickenlooper.
The new, three-story brick building is located at 1535 High St., the same location as the old facility, which once housed the Denver Public Schools credit union.
The old building was bursting at the seams. The Gathering Place experienced a 62 percent increase in visits for services between 2000 and 2005.
A fundraising campaign raised $5.7 million, mostly from individual donors, to replace the facility, said Leslie Foster, Gathering Place chief executive.
During the past year while the building project was underway, the operation moved to Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church.
The Gathering Place offers breakfast, lunch, a laundry, bus tokens, GED preparation, literacy tutoring, a computer lab and other services at the daytime drop-in center.
Pam Martinez, 53, first came to the drop-in center’s food pantry three years ago after she was laid off. “I just didn’t have any money for food,” she said.
After a string of temporary jobs, Martinez now has a steady part-time position doing telephone surveys. But the $8 an hour she earns barely covers her expenses, and she said she still relies on The Gathering Place for sack lunches and bus tokens to get to her job.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
