The beds are made, the pillows plumped, the newly tiled bathroom ready for nightly showers. But until engineers and contractors involved in the renovation of Theodora House finish work and pronounce the building safe for occupancy, emergency housing shelters in the Denver area will continue to feel the squeeze.
When the 27-bed shelter for single women closed May 9 after heavy rains flooded its basement, program managers expected residents to be back in a couple of weeks. Eight months and extensive repairs later, work is nearing completion, and Lindi Sinton is one of many who eagerly await the reopening. The shelter is seeking funding from this season’s Post-News Season to Share campaign.
“This is only one of two nighttime shelters in Denver that serves single women,” says Sinton, who directs the program for Volunteers of America.
The women who would normally go to Theodora have had to stay at the adjacent 90-bed Brandon House shelter or other locations, meaning those facilities have had fewer beds this winter for others.
Winter nights are when it is hardest to be homeless in Denver, says Sinton, who has been with VOA for 27 years and was at the opening of Theodora House in 1994.
Many of the women, who on average are 45 years old, have mental-health problems that prevent them from holding a job, Sinton says.
So they bounce around in the social services system and often end up on the street, where they are vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse. As Sinton says, “They’re sitting ducks for exploitation.”
Women can stay at Theodora House for up to three months. Each night after the shelter opens at 5 p.m., the women are given a hot meal that is brought in and served by volunteer groups. The women can shower, do their laundry and relax in a community room. That room might soon be filled with new furniture from the VOA guild; many of the old tables and chairs were ruined in the flooding.
If anything good came of the flood, Sinton says, it is that the bathroom was retiled, kitchen cabinets and countertops replaced and walls repainted throughout. Grants from the city and county of Denver have paid for the renovations and repairs, but the final cost for the project is still unknown.
The advantage of an all-woman shelter is that it helps the residents feel secure.
“Many of them have had trauma and violence in their lives,” Sinton says. “Staying here gives them a feeling of safety. Being with other women is rehabilitative.”
Suzanne S. Brown: 303-954-1697 or sbrown@denverpost.com
VOA Theodora House
Address: 1550 Yates St., Denver
In operation since: 1994
Number served last year: 250 through five months
Staff: 2 full time; 5 part time
Yearly budget: $243,000
Percentage of funds directly to clients/services: 89 percent
Post-News Season To Share, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, gave $1.79 million to 62 agencies last year serving children, the hungry, homeless and those in need of medical care. Donations are matched at 50 cents for each dollar; 100 percent goes directly to the agencies. To make a donation, see the coupon in today’s paper, call 1-888-683- 4483 or visit seasontoshare.com.
