An "A" list group of community and business leaders gathered in Sacramento this morning to celebrate the unveiling of a new, larger shelter for homeless women and children.
A former industrial office building off of Jackson Road will soon be the new home of St. John's Shelter for Women and Children, thanks to a state grant of $1 million and hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from private businesses, including $400,000 from Wells Fargo bank, shelter director Michele Steeb announced.
Mayor Kevin Johnson, Congresswoman Doris Matsui, restaurateur Patrick Mulvaney, Councilman Kevin McCarty and hundreds of others attended the event at the site of the new shelter, which is expected to open in August.
The shelter, founded in 1985, takes in some 1,200 women and children each year, but its current quarters just south of the new facility are cramped, Steeb said. The new building has almost three times the current space, and will have 31 bedrooms compared to its current 14.
St. John's focuses on teaching women life and job skills that can put them on a path toward independence, said Steeb.
"This is a place where lives will be transformed and dreams realized," said Mulvaney, who along with his wife Bobbin are longtime supporters of St. John's.
For more on this story, read tomorrow's Bee.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
• Read more articles by Cynthia Hubert
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.