Starting on Friday, February 24, 2017, Catholic Charities’ The Loft, a drop-in day center serving the homeless, will be closing and transitioning into Manzanita Housing to serve vulnerable women. Catholic Charities will continue to provide support to the homeless through coordinated entry at its office and through other programs of homeless outreach and veteran services.
New Start After Jail
The Loft space will be renovated into two bedrooms and a shared kitchen and living space to serve women exiting jail and returning to civilian life. The community housing gives these women needed support to successfully rebuild their lives.
“We decided to make this transition, because The Loft services replicated other local organizations’ offerings to the homeless. However, this population of women is underserved,” said Sandi Flores, senior director of northern Arizona Catholic Charities programs. “We’ve had great success with similar housing in Flagstaff, so to align with our mission of permanently improving lives, this is the direction we are going.”
Local Resources Will Serve Homeless
For the homeless who have been using The Loft’s facilities, program staff will redirect them to other local resources and provide laundry vouchers until May as a transitional resource until May.
“Our office is open to help the homeless,” said Flores. “However, we’ll be using coordinated entry to serve them. Coordinated entry is a national best practice in which communities work together to streamline the process of helping clients go from homeless to housed. Coordinated entry seeks to reduce the time an individual is homeless as well as ensure that they are matched with an appropriate housing resource to ensure a permanent solution to their housing crisis.”
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