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BY LINDA WORTHINGTON
UMCONNECTION STAFF

Many volunteers from Severna Park UMC, in partnership with The Samaritan Women, are renovating a vacant, run-down, two-story brick house in Southwest Baltimore as a day shelter for homeless and addicted women, especially those in the sex trade. It will be known as Brigitte's Place.

Skilled volunteers from Severna Park UMC have been working in teams of four or five since October. The house had no plumbing, HVAC or electrical because all of it had been stolen for scrap metal.

"We have very generous contractors at our church who have donated much of the labor and money for supplies to put these major systems back in the home," said the Rev. Nicole Christopher, associate pastor at Severna Park.

This year, the church plans to take in larger VIM teams on the weekends to re-install wallboard, paint, refinish the floors and install two new bathrooms. Volunteers from Woods Community Presbyterian Church in Severna Park will remodel the kitchen.

They hope Brigitte's Place will be ready by spring. Pam Moniger, a member of The Samaritan Women, who has been "clean" from addiction for several years, will be the "house mother." It's a way off the streets, even if it is just for a few hours, Moniger said as she recalled the time she was homeless. "When I was out there, this would have meant so much," she said.

Within the doors of Bridgette's Place, named for a young woman who died of an overdose, women will find a spacious living room and modernized kitchen, showers, laundry facilities, and a resource room, which will be filled with clothing, toiletries and referrals to programs that can help. It will also have a garden.

"We can be a light here and a source of hope for these women," said Tom Yoo, a board member of The Samaritan Women who was instrumental in acquiring the house. The idea for the shelter grew from a street ministry that helps women whose addiction has driven them into prostitution, he said "The need here is great."

The Severna Park volunteers have been candid with neighbors about the plans for the house and they seem supportive.

"We've come to know there are people greatly in need very close to our church and that Christ is calling us to do all that we can to be in ministry with them," Christopher said.

Moniger plans to share her experiences with recovery. "I know what they are going through, how they think and how hard it is to get off drugs," she said. "Heroin is the enemy, and it has a fierce grip."

"Every step of the way the Holy Spirit has provided the needed volunteers, resources and finances to help us move forward," Christopher said. "The goal is and will continue, in the name of Christ, to help women who are addicted, homeless or caught in the sex industry in downtown Baltimore."

If the shelter only helps one woman turn her life around, the effort will be worthwhile, Yoo added.