news-record.com

What a difference a year makes.

That thought resounded in my mind as I pulled into the parking lot behind Christ Community Church on English Road in High Point's West End last week. Where last year stood a vacant lot is now a pretty two-story brick house with a white picket fence.

This is Leslie's House today. A dramatic improvement over the former church basement where 20-plus homeless women slept on cots and shared one sink and toilet just 12 short months ago.

A year ago, I devoted several columns to the need for a place where homeless women could not only find rest and safety for the night, but a place that could offer them direction in life and hope. Last December, the permanent shelter opened with 21 beds, four showers, four toilets, a full kitchen, a nice family room and a full-time director.

Thanks in large part to its innovative staff and community leadership, Leslie's House is a now a hub of activity.

As I walked up the sidewalk to the house last week, I took in the new surroundings. A warm brown brick building with crisp white trim. A thick, green grassy lawn. Fall flowers on the porch and people going and coming through the door.

My shopping bags of hair care products and breakfast ingredients were donations, but they could well have been bags filled with my own personal belongings. It didn't matter who I was. We were all greeted the same way -- with a warm welcome.

"It's a fine line that separates us from the girls upstairs," one of the volunteers at Leslie's House said. That, my friends, is the reality of homelessness. Sadly, our nation's economic woes make the line that separates the well-to-do from the destitute thinner every day.

Sara Holland, Leslie's House director, says that the 10-month-old center houses about 20 women a night. Although it has comfortable beds for 21, including a handicap-access bedroom, it has squeezed up to 26 under its roof. With winter coming, Leslie's House will likely have to bring the cots back out to cope with the growing need for shelter.

Since taking the job of director, Holland has expanded the services offered to the women who stay at Leslie's House.

Each woman meets individually with Holland who helps them develop -- and reach -- personal goals. She helps each woman develop a plan of achieving stable housing, financial security, mental wellness and medical wellness. To help each woman achieve these goals, Holland offers life skills classes -- classes that are strongly recommended to each woman who seeks shelter. And she puts these women in touch with the resources that can help resolve the situations that made them homeless in the first place. Holland is a rapid-fire source of ideas of where to go when you feel like you have nowhere to turn: the High Point Housing Authority, JobLink Career Centers, Employment Security Commission, GTCC, Consumer Credit Counseling Service, mental health, Alcohol and Drug Services, Project Assist, Caring Services. Her list is nearly endless.

Holland has Leslie's House running like a finely tuned machine. There are rules, schedules, responsibilities and most of all -- opportunities.

"I try to offer activities and classes that teach skills and accountability," Holland explained. "Getting yourself back on your feet here is a full-time job."

In addition to a safe place to sleep, Leslie's House also provides a continental breakfast each day of the week and a hot dinner as well. And if you attend the life skills classes, you can get a hot lunch four days a week.

When I look back to 2006 and realize that High Point's homeless women had few options other than life on the street, I am amazed at how much progress has been made. Yes, Leslie's House is a reality but the needs of this organization haven't gone away.

Contact Cathy Weaver at cweavernr@gmail.com or at 883-4422, Ext. 243.