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Sanctuary House in Rochester reopens

CEO of Catholic Family Center Marlene Bessette discusses the reopening of Sanctuary House.
Tianna Manon
CEO of Catholic Family Center Marlene Bessette discusses the reopening of Sanctuary House.

Sanctuary House is open and ready to serve the community’s homeless women and children again.

The facility in Rochester underwent more than a million dollars in renovations and reopened Thursday. It now has 47 beds, instead of 43. Improved accessibility, plumbing, heating and privacy also mark some of the major improvements.

But to Catholic Family Center CEO Marlene Bessette, the shelter does much more than give local women and children a roof over their heads.

“What happens in this shelter is not only warmth and food and a roof. But it’s also access to case management services and our partners at the county and in the city to be able to get the resources they need to be able to find permanent housing.”

Bessette says Sanctuary House helped over 1,000 women and children in 2016, the latest year numbers are available. Of that 1,000, 40 percent were children and of the children, 20 percent were under 5.

The activities room has chalkboard paint for children to draw on, a TV to watch and toys to enjoy.
Credit Tianna Manon
The activities room has chalkboard paint for children to draw on, a TV to watch and toys to enjoy.

The shelter also focuses on trauma, trying to help women and children deal with the hurdles and issues they faced and move on for a better chance at permanent housing. For children who are significantly younger, the focus on this trauma can help them meal and move on a lot faster. This allows them to perform better in school and be emotionally and mentally better while mothers now have more emotional and mental capacity to focus on finding permanent housing. 

“People who are in crisis are often fragile, have many, many challenges but often times their life has been touched by some type of trauma that we need to be sensitive to,” said State Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle of Irondequoit at Thursday's ribbon-cutting. “That’s one of the great things about Sanctuary House- it’s commitment to providing services for women and children who have been touched by trauma.”

Overall, staff there say they’re trying to reduce the “institutional” feel. Many of the families may come from a similar background; the children may have been in foster care, or the women exposed to jail. By setting up the dining room as more communal, families may be able to feel more at home. They may relax and by having that mental burden off of them be better able to find work, permanent housing or whatever they need to move out of Sanctuary House.

Credit Tianna Manon
The "lunch room" is more class-like to remove any "institutionalized" feel and encourage women and families to eat together.

Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo attended Thursday’s ribbon cutting. She says the shelter is one of the top in the area.

“For the County of Monroe the Catholic Family Center Facilities, both St. Francis House and Sanctuary House are the top two temporary housing facilities for all of Monroe County.”

The shelter first opened in 2002. Staff there offer case management, substance  abuse referrals, and onsite literacy training and employability assessments. Bessette says they take a more holistic route to help women find permanent housing and transition into it effectively.