Sarah's House on Fort Meade provides emergency shelter for as many as 66 people and transitional housing for 22 families. But neither service is meeting the demand for services for homeless women, according to the Sarah's House Web site.
"We've seen a dramatic increase in adult homeless women," Beninzoni said. "Any additional housing for women, for anybody, will help."
The women-only house is a change for AAMI, which manages Light House and Anchor House, transitional houses for the homeless in Annapolis.
"In our services right now, we serve more single men," Cole said. "We were kind of trying to make [the services] a little more adequate."
It took about a year to convert the building into Willow House, with a grant from Arundel Community Development Services Inc., part of Anne Arundel County's Office of Housing and Community Development. ACDS administers the county's federally funded community development block grants, which provided $25,000 for the Willow House project.
ACDS has worked closely with AAMI over the years and saw the building as a "golden opportunity" to create affordable housing in Annapolis, said Kathleen Koch, executive director of ACDS.
The house was converted with the help of the local community, particularly the Junior League of Annapolis, which helped furnish and decorate the house with donations from local residents and businesses. "We got involved because we wanted to support projects that build better communities and that support women," said Renee Christel, of the league.
With strong local support, Cooper can now work toward her dream of going to cosmetology school for hairstyling.
"I want to get to my goal ... [to] open my own salon," she said.
karen.shih@baltsun.com
