Sleeping in niches of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament or doorways of downtown Sacramento businesses has been a way to make it through cold nights for many of the capital’s homeless population.

To address what has become a growing issue of concern to neighbors in the downtown area, a new Cathedral Square Project will provide temporary housing for some of the homeless beginning in December.

Working in collaboration with the Downtown Sacramento Partnership and Sacramento Self Help Housing, the Cathedral’s St. Vincent de Paul Society will administer the program.

The project calls for donations from downtown business sponsors and partners to finance housing for five to 10 homeless people nightly.

Following a monthly screening process conducted by St. Vincent De Paul volunteers, priority housing assignments will be given to women and children, the mentally ill and the elderly.

People selected to participate in the program will also be provided with a bag of groceries and toiletries as well as transportation to temporary housing units.

Shannon Lahey, president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, said that the organization’s decision to take action on behalf of the homeless in the neighborhood emerged in 2001.

“(The Cathedral) probably had between seven and 15 people nightly throughout the year,” she said. St. Vincent de Paul volunteers currently provide the homeless with bag lunches, bottles of water, sleeping bags, coats and bus passes, she said.

Father James Murphy, rector of the Cathedral, said that tension among neighborhood businesses regarding the homeless in and around 11th and K Streets had escalated during the closure of the Cathedral for restoration.

A meeting was held at the rectory in May 2004 with representatives from the St. Vincent DePaul Society, the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, and civic and business leaders.

“Our neighbors felt we were a magnet for all the people coming to K Street because we were helping these people,” Father Murphy said. “The reason they come here is because this is the house of God and they feel safer sleeping on the steps of our building.”

That reality did not lessen the problem for neighbors such Arezoo Zand, general manager of Pyramid Brewery Restaurant, who was among the people attending the meeting.

“We spent $1.8 million to put the restaurant in downtown Sacramento,” said Zand, who has become one of the major financial supporters of the Cathedral Square Project. “Instead of having people arrested, we would like to be part of the solution.”

In the months following the meeting a mediation process conducted by the Sacramento Mediation Center led to the formation of the Cathedral Square Project.

Ryan Loofbourrow, director of community services for the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the central business district, said the new program promises to “create a relationship” to move the homeless “from the sidewalk to services” so people can become more self-sufficient.

John Foley, director of Sacramento Self-Help Housing, said his organization, which works to improve the living conditions of people living at or below the poverty level, will provide inexpensive rentals to qualified applicants in the Cathedral Square Project.

“We want to reach out to folks and offer something significant, a safe and decent place to stay and a portal to services,” he said.

The organization’s Friendship Housing program will locate beds costing $523 a month and connect people with a full range of medical and financial services.

“Getting someone off the streets, cleaned up with a warm bed to sleep in, makes people’s lives better so they can begin to make life changes,” Foley said.

Among the leaders providing funding to launch the Cathedral Square Project are the Sisters of Mercy of Auburn Regional Community.

Mercy Sister Sheila Browne, president of the Sisters of Mercy regional team, said the project is a work of mercy deserving widespread support.

“This is a beginning,” she said. “It is our hope that others will see this as a creative solution to get people in out of the elements.”

The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament and Pyramid Brewery Restaurant are sponsoring a fund-raiser for the Cathedral Square Project at 2 p.m. on Sept. 25 at the Pyramid Brewery Restaurant in Sacramento. For more information, call (916) 444-3071.

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