They start arriving about 3 p.m., back to The Delores Project on the West Side, their haven from the streets.

Before The Delores Project had this place, it operated in borrowed space - a church, a vacant school.

Then it bought this building from the city, gutted and remodeled it and settled in last year.

"We'd move once or twice a year," said executive director Terrell Curtis. "Some summers we weren't open at all."

Now, the women - 50 at a time - can stay put. The staff makes a place for 25 more on very cold nights.

They are women like Kris Schaefer, 41, and Jennifer Carey, 26, who came to The Delores Project because they had no place else to go.

"The first day in here, I was crying," Schaefer said.

She had lost her job and her apartment. She was in the hospital, which called around and placed her here.

"A woman walked up to me, put her arms around me and told me everything would be OK, that being scared was normal," Schaefer said.

That was two months ago. And now Schaefer is the woman who puts her arms around newcomers, soothing them like her new-found friend had comforted her.

The kind words are as important as the safe place, the warm meals, the beds to sleep in, Carey said.

"Without this, we'd all be dead - cold winter nights with no place warm to go, nobody to feed us," Carey said. "Just someone to talk to - oh, my God, sometimes that can save your life."

Some women are here because their marriages went bust. Or they lost their jobs. Or they are sick from alcohol or drug abuse.

"These people are very isolated. Many are disconnected from their own family," Curtis said.

The Delores Project doesn't judge the cause but focuses on the need.

There's no time limit on how long the women can stay as long as they're moving along, making progress in their lives.

"The average stay is 41 nights," Curtis said. "We say nights because we provide a night service instead of a day service."

Volunteers cook dinner. The women clean up.

They live in dorms. Each bed has a quilt made by Hands All Around.

The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless provides a medical van from the Stout Street Clinic, which comes by twice a month.

The staff - five full- and nine part-time people - helps the women initiate support groups.

This sanctuary is supposed to be a springboard back into a normal life.

It's more like "do with, not for," Curtis said. "We can help connect them to the resources, help them navigate through the system."

The women help each other, too.

"We're homeless. We're not hopeless," Schaefer said, quoting the mantra of the evening support groups. "I thought that my life was over. Now I know that it's not. Now I have hope."

About half the women work. Some are in counseling for addictions. Some go to The Gathering Place to look for jobs. Some, like Carey, study for their general equivalency diplomas.

"Everybody has problems. And we all need help at certain times," Carey said. "We're not better than anyone else. We're just as good. And we deserve the same respect."

Carey had been here before, when her marriage was on the rocks. But she said she left when her husband called, asking her to come back.

She's already heard from him this time around.

"I told him to shove it," she said. "I'd rather be here and do it myself. When I came here, I didn't even feel human. Now, I want to do everything I wanted before. I want to be a strong woman."

The Delores Project

• Purpose: To provide safe, overnight shelter, meals and services to women who are homeless and have limited resources

• Founded: 2000

• People helped: More than 500 since January

• Staff: Five full-time and nine part-time people

• Volunteers: 400-plus

• Budget: $613,371

• Web site: thedeloresproject.org

massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271

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