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FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - After years of readying and months of construction, a longtime sanctuary for women successful request is getting a caller life.
The Poverello House, successful concern with St. Agnes Medical Center, officially opened Naomi’s House astatine Holy Cross with a ribbon-cutting ceremonial Friday morning.
The recently renovated installation volition service arsenic an exigency structure for women experiencing homelessness, offering 34 beds and a way toward stability.
“This is simply a beauteous moment,” said Zack Darrah, CEO of the Poverello House. “Today is astir legacy—about the bequest of the Sisters of the Holy Cross and the much than 40 years of concern we’ve had with St. Agnes.”
The task is rooted successful the enactment of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, who created the archetypal Mission Center for Women. That abstraction had agelong served arsenic a daytime haven for unhoused women, offering vocational classes and a harmless refuge from abusive oregon unstable situations.
“When it started, the crushed was that the sisters saw each of the unhoused women who needed respite during the daytime,” said Dr. Gurvinder Kaur with St. Agnes Medical Centers. “They needed to travel present and beryllium capable to get backmost connected their feet by learning immoderate vocational courses.”
The pandemic forced the Mission Center to rethink however it provided support. In response, St. Agnes partnered with the Poverello House to grow services, yet starring to the instauration of Naomi’s House arsenic a transitional, overnight shelter.
“So, we partnered with Poverello successful extending the Naomi House, wherever women tin person transitional lodging overnight,” Dr. Kaur said.
While Naomi’s House volition connection short-term exigency shelter—typically for 90 to 120 days—the larger extremity is lasting transformation.
“This spot is astir helping women extremity their homelessness for good,” Darrah said.
Dr. Kaur echoed that sentiment: “Naomi’s House offers much than a roof. It’s a spot to rebuild—physically, mentally, and spiritually. I deliberation this spot tin supply that enactment for women.”
