Comfort at Colette’s

Before Colette, they lived in hotels and cars, battled drug addictions and had their children taken away from them.

After Colette, they landed steady jobs, signed apartment leases and rebuilt their families.

The namesake of Colette’s Children’s Home isn’t an historic saint or a wealthy donor; she’s the teenage daughter of its founder and executive director, Billy O’Connell. The organization is celebrating its 10th year with a special dinner and auction Nov. 6.

Incorporated in November 1998, Colette’s Children’s Home has taken more than 1,000 women and children off the streets, offering emergency and transitional housing.

“We empower people, and we get them off the welfare rolls so they become a contributing member of society,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell got his start in soup kitchens and in labor organizing, from Orange County to New York to Ireland.

“I’ve always been for the underdog,” he said.

He had an original goal to start a facility for men, but was shocked when he saw the scarcity of options for women and children compared to men.

“There are very, very few places for women and children in Orange County,” O’Connell said.

The early days of the organization were not so auspicious.

“A pickup truck was basically our office,” O’Connell said.

Now the nonprofit runs five properties in cities like Huntington Beach, Anaheim and Placentia, with several more under development — including an income-generating permanent residence facility in Huntington.

The women are taught life skills like goal setting, parenting and budgeting; they are required to obtain employment in their first month in the home, and 80% of their discretionary income is placed in a savings account — which is then used to secure more permanent housing.

The average stay is six to 12 months.

“It’s been wonderful,” said Kelly Breitenbach, who moved into one of the nonprofit’s homes in August with her daughter, Jaelena, 19 months.

“I think that it really works for everybody. It’s helped me with a lot of things; it’s had an impact on my daughter’s life, too,” Breitenbach said.

“It feels so good to have a home to go home to,” said resident Tanya Taylor. She arrived at Colette’s after staying in multiple shelters.

“We don’t cherrypick our clients,” O’Connell said. “We actually break the cycle of homelessness for many of these people.”

But the slump in the country’s financial markets is also affecting the nonprofit, which has experienced $180,000 of funding cuts.

“We’re seeing more and more of a need due to the economic downturn,” O’Connell said; the organization receives about 250 to 300 phone calls each month, but has only a 116-bed capacity.

“We have to have the support of the community to do what we do — time, talent and treasure,” Operations Manager Diana Stalter said. “We cannot do it alone.”

Current matching opportunities allow the nonprofit to earn $3 to $4 for every dollar donated; it also takes in-kind donations like twin-sized bedding, diapers and grocery store gift cards.

O’Connell said he believes 100 years from now, it won’t matter what was in a person’s bank account, or what car they drove; their worth will be measured by what impact they had on the world.

“What we do here truly helps people who have nothing,” Stalter said.

For more information, call (714) 596-1380 or visit healinghomelessness.org.

CANDICE BAKER can be reached at (714) 966-4631 or at candice.baker@latimes.com.