The Salem area’s longest-running women and children’s shelter has added space for families and its programs aiming to help them secure a place of their own. 

Simonka Place, located in Keizer and run by the Union Gospel Mission, recently completed a $2.6 million renovation which transformed the shelter’s entryway, added new security features, increased privacy for families and brought new offices and classroom spaces. Final touches were added in the beginning of March.

The shelter, which first opened in 1968, has been at 5119 River Rd. N. since around 2004.

The building was formerly a senior assisted living facility. It has seen some renovations since becoming a shelter, but still had an institutional feel to it, said Kathy Smith, UGM’s director of women’s ministries, who manages the shelter. 

The latest renovation aimed to make Simonka Place feel more like a home.

The front of the shelter has been transformed, with lower ceilings and getting rid of “horrible chandeliers,” Smith said, that looked like they belonged to The Addams Family. There is also a newly added two-door entryway with weapons detectors, and office spaces for staff who had been working from converted closets. 

Smith said that former guests have visited since the renovation and were amazed by the difference. There are 12 people on staff, aside from Smith, most of whom are former residents, she said.

“I really appreciate how the new space changes the culture of the house. Guests coming in, there’s … a relief of coming into a space that is calm and lovely, and just a beautiful place to be,” Smith said. “And then the staff are just even more beautiful, and more lovely and more gracious than the space. It’s just been a wonderful opportunity to see us all step up, and be a little bit more.”

Simonka Place is both an emergency shelter for homeless women and their children and home to the New Life Fellowship program. The faith-based program typically lasts 18 months, and includes Bible study, counseling, academic classes and case management, with a goal of helping women secure their own housing at the end.

UGM Executive Director Craig Smith, no relation to Kathy Smith, said the recent renovation added a child care space. That gives women with children the opportunity to participate in the fellowship program, rather than just staying at the emergency shelter. He said that program expansion accounts for much of the capacity increase, from 84 to 93 beds.

Prior to the recent expansion, “There was no way women with kids could really do the program, because there was no place for their kids to be when they were in class,” he said.

Now, the fellowship program has room for 28 single women and eight women with children. Thirty-six women can stay in the emergency shelter, up to four of them with families, Kathy Smith said. Children through age 17 can stay at the shelter.

The newly added family development center gives kids a place to play while their moms are in therapy, classes or doing assignments. The plan is to staff it with an early childhood educator, she said. 

For the past three weeks, through a partnership with the Marion & Polk Early Learning Hub, the moms have been able to take parenting classes to learn about how to help their kids learn and grow, and activities like reading to them, said Craig Smith.

“Some things you’d take for granted, that a lot of the ladies that are here just haven’t experienced because of their broken families. It’s kind of like: ‘Here’s how families work,’” he said.

The families will also have more privacy. He expects that will ease the ability to participate in the longer-term program.

Previously, two different families would have to share the same large room and bathroom.

“If you could imagine how difficult that would be in the best of times,” Kathy Smith said. “When you’re homeless, and dealing with all those issues, it was just a really difficult situation. So we’re really pleased that we have provided this opportunity for women and children to be able to have rooms for themselves.” 

The renovation split the large rooms into private spaces, and added bathrooms so each family would have their own.

Throughout the building, old carpets were replaced with wood, and walls got fresh coats of paint.

The upgrades were paid for by a mix of private funds and $1.4 million from Marion County. Craig Smith said the community support was striking.

“We have the opportunity to serve some of the most vulnerable people in the community, and the community is so supportive of that. Instead of them saying ‘They don’t deserve that,’ it’s like: ‘They deserve better,’” he said. “And that’s what this project was. It was us upgrading our ability to serve them, and our ability to make them feel at home. And when you feel at home, then you can deal with the issues that are creating problems in your life.”

Craig Smith said the work, and the expansion of the New Life Fellowship program, will help them focus on long-term support for homeless women.

“Our ministry is based on long-term involvement. There is an emergency shelter piece to what we do, but that’s not our primary ministry. Our primary ministry is long-term discipleship and recovery,” he said.

At the end of the program, women can stay on while they search for a place to live.

“That’s probably the biggest unmet need in the city right now, is transitional housing, especially for women. It’s really tough if you’re a mom with kids, to find a place to live. Even if you can afford it, which rarely you can,” Craig Smith said.

He is part of the Bloomberg-Harvard City Leadership Initiative, which is bringing community members together to discuss public safety in Salem. He’s on the committee discussing housing and sheltering options.

“We’ve met a couple times, and we sit around and tell war stories, because there’s no answers,” he said. “How do you make recommendations for something that doesn’t exist?”

He said that they recently learned through analyzing data that over half of Simonka Place’s 372 residents in the past year had come from living with a friend or relative, or had recently lost a home, rather than coming from the streets.

“It’s mostly people that have lost their bed, or have been couch surfing for a while,” he said.

It’s a form of homelessness which is considered harder to measure, and harder for providers to connect to.

Smith said he hopes the news of the expansion will reach people who need their services.

There’s not a waitlist for Simonka Place, Kathy Smith said. They encourage those interested in participating to call 503-362-7487 or visit their website to start the intake process if there’s availability.

There will be an open house from 12-2 p.m. on Thursday, April 2, where the public can see inside the shelter.