‘Grand Tour’ at New Hotel

The paint was still damp in the corridors when supporters of the Program for Women Foundation gathered for the “Grand Tour” of Santa Ana’s YWCA Hotel for Women Thursday evening, but they were assured that the hotel will open before many of Orange County’s homeless women suffer through another winter.

The foundation, organized last year specifically to build the hotel, had already raised $1 million to cover construction costs. Event organizers hoped that with nearly 350 supporters paying $200 each for dinner and the tour, the foundation would net an additional $55,000 to furnish the rooms.

“It is just being finished right now--today,” Jackie Ross, president of the YWCA board of directors and tour guide for the night, said of the hotel. “The workmen laughed when they saw us setting the tables in the gym. They couldn’t believe that the absolute mess last night could turn into the glorious place it is now.”

Peeking through the 20 double-occupancy rooms that make up the second-story addition to the original YWCA, the evening’s guests, many in black tie, seemed jubilant as Ross and the other guides pointed out the hotel’s features.

“This is my room if my husband throws me out for all the work I’m doing,” Ross said of a corner room. “I’ve talked to literally hundreds of groups, as small as 10 and as large as 350--anyone who has asked me to come.”

Temporary Shelter

An estimated 3,000 homeless women are in Orange County--at least 600 of them within a 10-mile radius of Santa Ana. The hotel was built to provide temporary shelter while the women rebuild their lives through the YWCA’s programs for counseling, job-placement assistance and help in finding shared housing.

The hotel, which will serve 480 women annually, will open Jan. 1. Nominal fees will be charged.

County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley and his wife, Emma Jane--the group’s president--had been among those instrumental in mobilizing forces to build the hotel. Supervisor Riley said the tour brought back memories.

“All of a sudden I remembered the day I first came over and saw the homeless women,” he recalled. “They were so different from what I had anticipated. You think of homeless women as bag ladies, but the first gal I saw was 19 and pregnant. I was amazed.”

Foundation Vice President Jean Aldrich recalled getting involved after her church sponsored a photo exhibit called “Shopping Bag Ladies” at UC Irvine, where her husband Dan was chancellor for 22 years.

Consciousness Raising

“It was a matter of consciousness raising,” said Dan Aldrich, now acting chancellor of UC Santa Barbara.

“It took a lot of meetings, a lot of begging and a lot of selling, but we are holding the event in this facility tonight,” said the foundation’s executive vice president, Harriet Harris, who headed the fund-raising efforts.

“This is a mega-night and a mega-award night,” she said upon taking the podium.

An audio-visual presentation followed, and as the lights dimmed and she returned to her seat, Harris’ husband Bill reached out to take her hand.

“If I had her energy, I’d probably be president,” said Bill Harris, who is CEO of Rampart General. As it was, Harris had dedicated six rooms at $5,000 each to the women in his life: his wife, mother, mother-in-law and three daughters.

String Ensemble

For the evening, poinsettias dotted the gymnasium’s stage and gift-wrapping decorated the windows. A string ensemble, including six women in blue lace, serenaded guests with an eclectic repertoire ranging from Christmas standards to “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen.”

The award ceremony was brief and the auction confined to two items--a trip to Tahiti for two and an evening at the hotel for 10 couples, with brunch served by the Rileys and Irvine Co. representative Bob Shelton and his wife, Barbara.

With KOCE’s Vice President of Community Affairs Jim Cooper encouraging bids from the audience, the hotel stay fetched $7,500. Cooper said he had never seen such a prize but added that it was his first time out as an auctioneer. “Hey, this hotel is a first, too,” he quipped.

Among those receiving awards were the Irvine Co., patron John Crean, American Savings & Loan Assn., the City of Santa Ana, the Rileys, architect Walt Richardson and general contractor J. Ray Construction Co.

Betty Hutton Williams served as honorary chairman.