A dilapidated, unmarked concrete building, where the ceiling is slowly chipping away, houses some of San Diego’s homeless families. Tiny cubicles separated by tattered blue and white curtains are home to 40 women, 10 men and 100 children, give or take a few, who share three showers, two meals a day delivered by the San Diego Rescue Mission and a variety of chores designed to keep the shelter as clean and habitable as possible.

Until last December, this establishment was run by St. Vincent de Paul Village under the direction of Monsignor Joe Carroll. When the city accepted proposals for the management of the project, however, San Diego’s YWCA responded and was awarded the contract. Because the temporary shelter is populated mostly by women and children, managing it seemed a perfect fit with the YW’s mission, says Judy Case DiPasquale, the YW’s executive director,who supervised the bid. “We felt it would be a natural extension of the current programs we offer.”

Locally the YW’s focus has been and continues to be to support women and children in crisis. This is done through a variety of programs including domestic violence services for battered and homeless women and their families, various children’s and youth services, residential housing, legal advocacy and more.

With only a few weeks’ notice, the YW took over management of the family shelter last December. Amy Benjamin, who previously worked as manager at Becky’s House — a YW center that offers protected long-term housing and rehabilitation to abused women and children — was chosen to head the monumental task of seeing the transitional housing program through its temporary location on the corner of 12th and Broadway to its permanent home, now under construction on Cortez Hill.

Assuming the reins of the Downtown location was significantly eased by St. Vincent de Paul personnel, says Benjamin. “The former staff here was very helpful. They explained their procedures and we tried to keep what we could the same,” she says.

Families, referred by various area agencies, are allowed to stay at the shelter for 90 days, with a possible 30-day extension, during which they meet regularly with case managers and try to get their lives in order.

Although the family shelter may look the same as in days past, significant changes have been made, reports Benjamin. One is a zero-tolerance drug rule which leads to immediate expulsion. “St. Vincent had a three strikes rule,” Benjamin says. “We’re zero tolerance and we do random drug testing.”

Other program changes include regularly scheduled counseling sessions for children, divided into groups by age, and an extensive children’s activities program of crafts and walking trips to local museums and parks. The adult case management system, in which three case supervisors are in-house and readily accessible, is more structured.

Families, volunteers and employees all look forward to moving to the converted Days Inn on Cortez Hill’s Beech Street sometime this summer. Here, curtained cubicles will be replaced by individual rooms, each with its own bath. A concrete sidewalk will be buffered by a grass courtyard filled with play equipment for children. Built at a cost of $600,000 by the city and designed by Golba Architects, the Cortez Hill Transitional Housing Project is designed to blend seamlessly into its surroundings and has seemingly been met with little concern by other area developers.

Directly across the street, for instance, a new upscale apartment and town home development called The Heritage, is just now in the process of being occupied. “We fully support the (YWCA) project,” says Mike Van Etten, development manager for The Heritage. “Our early concerns were that the shelter needed to be fully funded by the city to be run in a Class A manner, but that seems to be being done, so we have no concerns at this time.”

Also nearby, Discovery at Cortez Hill, a 22-story condo high-rise by Bosa Development, not only is unconcerned about its proximity to the transitional shelter, but has contributed $250,000 to its development. “We looked into it thoroughly and met with people who are running it,” say Dennis Serraglio, director of marketing and sales. “And by contributing, we’ve been able to keep in touch with what’s going on.”

In addition to tackling the transitional housing project, the YWCA looks to make big changes on a national level. Local YWs are voting on a complete reorganization through which the decision-making process would switch from a national board to area associations bonded into nine regions that would each send two representatives to a coordinating counsel.

“It really is a grass roots movement,” says DiPasquale. “It’s a wonderful way we can rescue the YWCA. We have lost hundreds of chapters over the last 25 years because the support from the national office was not there.” If the vote passes, the all-volunteer national board of directors will be asked to resign immediately, reports DiPasquale. “This change has to occur for the YW to flourish and expand,” she says. “Change is always difficult but it has been thought about for four years. It is painful because we are saying goodbye to a structure that has been in existence for over a hundred years, so there is always apprehension, but this is the best plan for growing YWs and starting new affiliates.”

Current CEO of the national organization, Margaret Tyndall, has mixed feelings about the proposed structure change. “Some affiliates felt they needed more services like technical assistance and training,” she says of the push for reorganization. “Training is the one I’ve heard most. I was CEO in Pittsburgh for 23 years, so I have sat on both sides of the issue. I think this could turn out to be a more cumbersome decision-making process. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Whichever way the vote goes, San Diego’s focus on assisting women in crisis will remain the same, says DiPasquale. Providing a variety of women’s and children’s services is the easy part of her job, says the executive director. Funding such programs as Becky’s House, and various counseling and legal services, is a challenging and never-ending task.

Although the YWCA has a contract with the city to run Cortez Hill, other services are supported by various grants and entitlements that must be reprocessed and renewed periodically, always with the possibility of losing the funding and having to start over.

This is where the YW’s distinctive fund-raising programs play a vital role in filling the gap when finances become strained. TWIN, Tribute to Women and Industry, for instance, has long been a favorite recognition event in the San Diego business community. It serves a dual purpose: to salute outstanding women who have made a difference in their companies, and to raise much-needed dollars for YW programs.

“These are women who change the world and women who will change San Diego,” DiPasquale says of TWIN recipients. Now in its 23rd year, TWIN has honored more than 1,700 women for what they bring to the workforce and their communities and this year will add 101 names to the impressive list. The annual event is organized by past honorees under the direction of Suzanne McClain, the YW’s director of special events.

Acting as this year’s corporate sponsor is Manpower, the largest staffing firm in San Diego, which employs a staff of 100, 85 of whom are women. “This is the 25th anniversary of Manpower,” says honorary chairman Phil Blair. “We wanted to give back to the city and thought this would be a wonderful way. This is a vehicle to recognize special people. The event makes us stop and think about key people we want to honor.”

Although TWIN and sister events raise only 10 percent of the total YWCA budget, it’s a crucial 10 percent, DiPasquale says. These proceeds are not tied to any particular program and, therefore, can be used to bridge funding gaps until ongoing resources come through, or allotments are raised to meet cost-of-living increases, etc.

As an example, part of this unallocated money is being used to keep the Domestic Violence Hot Line open on a part-time basis. Opened with a 1997 federal grant that expired last year, the 24-hour hot line is desperate for new funding. DiPasquale says she will use some of the fund-raising dollars to staff the hot line 20 hours a week in hope that another grant will come through.

“This is the only county hot line where we transfer the caller directly to the shelter and maintain telephone contact until she has found a safe place to stay,” DiPasquale says. “It’s a seamless way to treat victims. Last year we handled 5,500 calls. Women and children’s lives will be lost because funding is not available.”

From giving a leg up to women and children in crisis, to reinventing itself to meet changing times, to celebrating all that women have to offer, the YWCA of San Diego is neither outdated nor has it run out of causes. And it’s certainly not out of energy.