MaryAnne settles into one of the overstuffed couches in the Warm Zone's designated "comfy room."

Drying laundry is draped around the space, which is often the one safe place homeless women in Abbotsford can catch a nap free from fear and with both eyes closed.

Clatter echoes down the hall from the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room where a dozen women are coming and going, grabbing a warm meal, a shower and the chance to clean their clothes.

Another few women are socializing over a warm lunch at the long table in the dining room.

MaryAnne is unequivocal about what the Warm Zone has done for her and she's distressed that the centre is in danger of closing.

"This place saved my life," she says simply.

"I was hungry; they fed me. I had nothing; they put clothes on my back."

MaryAnne heard about the Warm Zone, located near Jubilee Park in downtown Abbotsford, two and half years ago.

She was desperately broke after a year-long battle with cancer, out of work, and trapped in an abusive relationship.

Staff at the Warm Zone helped her get medical and social assistance and temporary housing, which allowed her to get back on her feet and sever the ties with her violent home situation.

She's now in her own apartment, peer counselling other women at the Warm Zone and looking to a future as an advocate for seniors.

MaryAnne, in her early 50s, swears she wouldn't have been able to start all over again without the help of the staff at the Warm Zone.

"I couldn't have left and started all over again at my age, not without the help of these women. They've been my rock," she says. "I've started to believe in myself again."

Warm Zone coordinator Michele Giordano enters her cubbyhole of an office and drops into her chair. She's scrambling to make sure the drop-in centre for street-engaged women managed by the Women's Resource Society of the Fraser Valley isn't closed when its federal funding and building lease ends March 31.

A three-year pilot project funded by Status of Women Canada, the Warm Zone provides a safe, accepting place for Abbotsford's most marginalized and vulnerable women, says Giordano. Those women may be homeless, working the streets, battling illness, abuse, poverty, drug addiction or mental health issues or a combination of those problems.

The centre has a bathroom, laundry facilities, clothing and personal care items, Internet, a telephone, a kitchen with snacks, hot meals three times a week, support workers and counsellors, access to medical and legal services, a monthly HIV clinic, and help for obtaining emergency and stable housing.

When the centre first opened, Giordano expected to help about 30 women a month.

Last year the centre saw more than 1,300 women and is on track to serve more than that by the end of February.

The federal government has provided $93,000 a year since March 2009.

Giordano worries about the impact the facility's closure would have now it has become a vital service to the community. The Warm Zone enjoys support from the city, the Abbotsford Police, Abbotsford Community Services, faith-based groups, businesses, service clubs and individuals.

Giordano hopes she can go to that well of support again and obtain a new location, perhaps with the help of the city.

The Warm Zone's three priorities are to reduce the risk of violence to marginalized women; improve their health outcomes and to find them housing.

Giordano hopes to get funding from provincial agencies with mandates that encompass the services the centre provides.

Housing and health are the greatest areas of need for Warm Zone clients, but staff strive to help women, no matter what they need.

"We do what needs to be done," she says.

Angie is only 25 years old, but already trying to start her life over. She was 18 years old when her mother died and she received a $50,000 inheritance.

By the time she was 19, her boyfriend had introduced her drugs, and within a year, she was flat broke, addicted to crack and heroin and forced to start working the streets.

She spent a good portion of the next two years homeless and hungry, battling serious health problems and washing out of sinks in public washrooms. She secured temporary housing through the Warm Zone around two years ago.

She's lived a year in her own place and has been clean six months.

"I wanted to get my life back on track and want to go back to school. I want a family and kids," says Angie. "Like everybody else, I have dreams."

She volunteers at the centre four hours a week, as it gives her continued emotional support and helps maintain her sobriety.

"I still need support and it's my way of giving back what was freely given to me," Angie says, adding other women who feel lonely and alone need the help the Warm Zone provides.

"I was known as a drug addict and a prostitute," she says. "If other women here see me moving ahead, I think it gives them hope they can do it, too."

RBaker@abbotsfordtimes.com

http://twitter.com/RochelleBaker1

http://twitter.com/abbytimes