Sanctuary Gets $52,000; Grant to Pay for Staff

Sanctuary, the Cambridge hostel and counseling service for street people, has received a three-year grant of $52,000 from an Indiana foundation. The donation represents the first multi-year grant in the brief one-and-a-half year history of the operation.

The grant, from the Irwin-Sweeney-Miller Foundation, came as a surprise to Susan Sears, assistant director for administration, and financial head of Sanctuary.

"We were expecting something from them," she said, "because they had expressed an interest in programs run by and for young people, but we had no idea that it would be this large."

Salary Money

The money, which is to be spaced over a three year period, is specifically earmarked for staff salaries at Sanctuary's counseling service in the Old Cambridge Baptist Church on Mass Ave., rather than for the more publicized hostel on Mt. Auburn St.

Sears emphasized that the grant would not solve Sanctuary's financial problems. "All this means," she said, "is that we are funded until March or April instead of January."