Casa Adele opens: Benedictine Sisters quest for family housing realized

For Benedictine Sr. Terry Hall, the completion of Casa Adele is a “journey of faith.”

“It is a dream come true,” Hall said.

Named in the honor of the late Sr. Adele Mansfield, OSB, who was the co-founder of St. Joseph Shelter, Casa Adele has eight apartments and two studios for migrant workers and their families. The residents can stay up to one year. The two-bedrooms are $475 a month and the studios are $295.

To celebrate the completion of a vision that began in 1988, the public is invited to an open house at Casa Adele at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 7 at St. Joseph Shelter, 925 S. Main St., Mount Angel.

“I am so very proud of all the Benedictine Sisters who had the courage to risk such a project,” Hall said.

She’s also grateful for all the individuals who have dreamed, supported and gave their time and prayers to the project.

“It took a whole community of people who believed in us and our ministry of hospitality to the poor,” Hall said.

As St. Mary’s Sister Marcella Parrish, SSMO, gave a tour of Casa Adele, she pointed out the carefully considered details – a mudroom; a coin-operated laundry room; a common room; and a desk that will have a two computers and a phone for residents to use. The rooms are painted brick red and white. Each two-bedroom apartment has a fully equipped kitchen with plenty of counter space, a dining area, a common area and a bathroom. The Benedictine Sisters have a warehouse filled with donated furniture that will be used to decorate the apartments. Hall and Parrish went to IKEA to purchase items such as kitchen materials.

“The housing meets a huge need in our community,” Parrish said. “We are going to take families who are doubled up, couch hopping or in really bad situations and provide them with a really nice place to live.”

Parrish said many area nurseries and farms are hiring full-time workers, and therefore increasing the need for more housing.

By giving families a clean and safe place to live, they are also giving them hope and security, she said.

Both Hall and Parrish said Mansfield would be pleased with the completion of housing for migrant farm workers and their families.

Parrish said Mansfield was a visionary and a hard worker.

“She believed in people,” Parrish said. “She had a great sense of humor. She was really fun to be with.”

When asked what Mansfield might think of Casa Adele, Hall said “she would be smiling her beautiful smile and saying thank you.”

“We wouldn’t be able to do it without everyone’s support, work and prayers,” Hall said. “Our project believes all who come through our doors is seen as Christ himself.  I hope I don’t miss a chance to serve him.”

The $2.23 million renovation of the former Bede Hall began in September 2012, thanks to financial support from a variety of public and private sources including Oregon Housing and Community Services, the Farmworker Housing Tax Credit Program, US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rural Innovation Fund, the Federal Home Loan Bank and the Meyer Memorial Trust.

Parrish said the Sisters are thankful for CASA of Oregon, Scott Edwards Architecture of Portland and LMC Construction for their assistance with the project.

St. Joseph began in 1988 when Sisters Mansfield and Hall had a vision to have migrant farm workers live in a place of dignity. They were aware of the many ways some people exploited migrant workers and they felt called to provide safe, temporary and transitional housing as well as hot meals, clothing, advocacy, referrals and other support services to homeless people and families.

“The program started with a hot meal site that ended up serving up to 400 people who walked from up to 12 miles around for one hot meal a day,” Hall said. “This was done Monday through Thursday and then St. Paul’s Catholic Church served a meal on Fridays-Sunday.

“In 1988 when we started the program, things were tough,” Hall said. “We felt we had a lot to prove and yet we had over 100 area volunteers who helped ready the buildings. Also, St. Vincent de Paul, Mount Angel Abbey, Saint Mary’s Parish and Benedictine Sisters began to coordinate efforts for housing, food, and even bus loads of people back to Mexico if they did not have jobs at the time. The bus trips were also coordinated with the Christ the King Episcopal Church in Stayton.”

With the completion of Casa Adele, St. Joseph Shelter will have 11 rooms for homeless families and a dorm for migrant worker men. The journey wasn’t easy. They applied for grants and were denied. Resilient, they applied again.

“Completing Casa Adele is beyond our fondest dream,” Parrish said. “We knew what we wanted to do. We were in the dreaming stage for five years. What we didn’t know is what we did would be more wonderful than we imagined.”