LifeHouse-Cape project announced by Catholic Charities

Downtown Cape Girardeau is the site chosen for a residential transitional housing program for homeless pregnant women, according to Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri.

The organization is basing the $4 million facility off LifeHouse-Springfield, whch opened in 2013. The facility will be near the intersection of Main Street and Park Drive on donated land. It will include housing space for 15 women and their children under the age of 5, educational areas, indoor and outdoor play areas, garden areas and space for supervision staff, who will be on site and on duty at all times. Homeless pregnant women can begin the program at any time during their pregnancy, and they can reside at the facility for a year after giving birth. After that time, there is a two-year period where services are available. Educational modules will focus on job skills, employment and health care, among others.

Though the program teaches the women how to succeed in society, its ultimate goal is to provide a better opportunity for the babies being born to them.

According to Maura Taylor, executive director of the not-for-profit organization, LifeHouse is not an emergency shelter-type concept but a long-term program aimed at helping the women and their families become self-sufficient, productive members of their community.

"The idea is to provide comprehensive services on site that really help people move toward self-sufficeincy and to help them address their struggles," she said. "It is a ministry, helping them heal, giving them hope and giving them an opportunity so that they can truly have a brighter future."

Taylor said the program results in personal growth.

"I see the women when they come in, and they are different women when they leave," she commented. "They are walking out confident. They have their own apartment or their own home. They have saved their money, and they bought a car."

Michele Marsh, director of special projects for Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri and former director of LifeHouse-Springfield, said the program focuses on personal responsibility.

"A key of this is we have a lot of points of accountability. We have agreements and expectation. There is a structure to it. They are expected to participate in changing their own lives," she explained. "We are not just helping people who have great needs. We are helping people who are at least trying to turn things around."

Marsh described the program as "intensive care" for homeless pregnant women. She said this area needs such a facility because of high infant and maternal mortality rates, generational poverty and substance addictions.

Richard Cuba of Cape Girardeau serves on the LifeHouse board and said he and his wife, Rhonda, took an interest in LifeHouse several years ago and began supporting the "teaching the women to fish" nature of the program.

"We have adopted children, and it was just very important to us to see these babies be born healthy," he said. "This is people who are vulnerable and in need. We do this because we're Catholic. We do this because we're Christian."

Cuba said supporters have begun a $6 million fundraising campaign -- $4 million for the "shovel-ready" facility and $2 million for two years of operating expenses. Though the organization formally announced the project this week, more than $1.6 million has already been pledged. Cuba said the group hopes to break ground this summer and open the facility by the end of 2022.

He also noted ancillary financial benefits the facility can bring, such as lowering health care costs because more babies are being born healthier.

For more information, visit www.ccsomo.org/lifehouse-cape-campaign.