There was a feeling of satisfaction at the reception and open house at the family shelter today.

It was the Family Shelter and Community Resource Center's first anniversary.

After decades of debate and another of fundraising and construction, the community now has all its services for the homeless in one place.
The family shelter was the last missing piece of the effort and a crucial one, giving families a way of staying together while they get their lives back on track.

"It's gratifying to see the young people coming in and not having to stay on the street or in their cars," says Mayor Bob Cashell, widely credited with spearheading the effort.

Stephanie Taitano is one of those success stories. A little over a year ago she had just about run out of options and hope. Eight months pregnant, abandoned by her boyfriend, she was about to be homeless.

She still had a job at the Atlantis, but cutbacks in her hours left her without enough money to keep a roof over her head.

The newly opened family shelter was a godsend.

"I was about to stand on the corner and sing for food," she says. I could be homeless by myself, but not with a baby."

Her son, Fox, was born a month after she checked in. Four months later they were able to move out to their own apartment.

Thanks to student loans she gone back to school pursuing a career she hopes will lead to a recession proof job.

She says she'd be a different person today facing a different life if not for the family shelter.

"The shelter, she says, was a turning point in her life and one she's not likely to forget.

"I want to volunteer, donate food, perhaps come back down here and show my son what it was like for me when I first had him," she says.
"I'd like to pay it forward."