After 65 years, Ozanam Inn spreads wings

Renee Blanche, director of development at Ozanam Inn, said the 32,000-square-foot site almost doubles the current 843 Camp St. site, where Ozanam has offered shelter to homeless men since 1955. The new Ozanam Inn will offer all current services but in a way that’s easier and more private for residents. 
 

“Right now, in our 18,000-square-foot main building, the LSU and Tulane medical clinics and LSU Dental clinic have people having to sit in the hall, sharing private information (before they are seen by a doctor),” Blanche said.
 

At the new site, needed services such as sleeping dorms, the kitchen, clothing room and showers will be on one level – the first floor – while offices, clinics and classrooms will be on the second floor. The configuration of the current site has the kitchen on the first floor, and dorms on the second and third floors.
 

The new building will include private exam rooms and classrooms for courses such as anger management, life skills, job preparedness, financial literacy, resumé writing, how to dress for a job interview and other services that help clients return to independent living. The building also will include recreation space.
 

It is hoped that Ozanam Inn will move later this year after renovations are completed at the new site, which Blanche believes was built in 2006 and was last used as medical lab space.
 

“The biggest thing is we have to put in is a kitchen,” Blanche said.

Plumbing remains from a kitchen in the Morris Jeff School that temporarily was housed there after Katrina. Ozanam Inn will salvage as much current kitchen equipment as possible. Other renovations involve moving walls to recreate the inn’s open-dorm setting for residents. 
 

Another positive aspect of the new site, Blanche said, is its proximity to several ministries that care for the poor and homeless, such as the Harry Tompson Center, the Veterans Administration and University Medical Center – “the services that our residents use. It’s in an area that they have more easy access to.”
 

Reasons for the move
 

Last October, the Catholic nonprofit St. Vincent de Paul Society, owners of the inn’s Camp Street building, sold it to private developers. This caused Ozanam Inn to lose the home it has known since 1955, Blanche said.
 

A friend of Ozanam Inn heard about the inn’s predicament and invited inn representatives to visit two possible sites. The larger of the two sites was selected for the new home.
 

“It’s kind of a lateral move, initially, except that we will have more space and privacy,” Blanche said.

Blanche said the heavily used part of the Ozanam Inn – the outdoor area – will be duplicated at the new site, with only a covering and benches needing to be built. 
 

“We are the only shelter where clients are allowed to stay during the day,” she said. “This allows our clients to see visiting attorneys and case managers.”
 

With the larger space, Blanche said Ozanam Inn hopes to eventually open dormitory space for women on the second floor. The inn currently buys vouchers for women so they can stay at the Salvation Army shelter.
 

Homeless couldn’t do without
 

Ozanam Inn provides vital services for the homeless, serving about 400 meals a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner – and approximately 155,000 to 218,000 a meals year. When the current building was sold, residents and those who use the inn regularly were worried it might close. 
 

“Mostly, they were really relieved that we were not closing,” she said. “Now, they are relieved to know that we are just going to move.”
 

The inn’s original deadline to move was six months, but with that deadline quickly approaching, Blanche said negotiations to extend the deadline are in the works with the new owners due to the need for renovations at the new site.
 

Ozanam Inn will soon kick off a capital campaign to raise $6 million to purchase and retrofit the new building, Blanche said. To inform area residents of its move, a letter was sent to its neighbors. A community meeting is scheduled Feb. 19 at noon at the site, 2239 Poydras St., New Orleans.
 

Christine Bordelon can be reached at [email protected].