DECATUR - At least one man checking out rooms once occupied by Catholic nuns and more recently victims of domestic violence was looking Friday with more than a passing interest.

One of those rooms at 788 E. Clay St. soon will be home to the 53-year-old and his few possessions - things he cannot leave where he's been sleeping for fear they would disappear.

He and his caseworkers hope it also will be what he needs to break, once and for all, the hold alcohol and drugs have had on him.

"The stories of the chronically homeless are fairly typical," said Kathy Bourne, Heritage Behavioral Health Center's program leader for residential services. "They move from place to place, and their main focus is survival: where they're going to stay today and where they're going to eat today."

The Clay Street SRO, opened to the public Friday, is intended to stop that cycle for 14 people. Nine men and five women have been chosen to move in but cannot until state fire safety regulations, calling for the installation of special doors, can be met.

Ray Batman, executive director of Dove Inc., which owns the building, said the agency was happy the day had come Friday to cut the ribbon on the $409,000 project but not as happy as it would have been had the Single Resident Occupancy units been full already.

"We are planning to get people in as soon as we can," Batman said. "In this kind of weather, having a building where people could be staying, it's just not right for it not to be used that way."

Other speakers before the standing-room-only crowd Friday included Decatur Mayor Paul Osborne, Michael McAfee from the Chicago office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Missy Batman of the Community Foundation of Decatur/Macon County, Diana Knaebe of Heritage Behavioral Health Center and Mary Walker of the Neighborhood Housing Development Corp.

The Clay Street SRO, to be staffed by 71/2 Heritage employees, joins the Lindwood and Antioch Safe Haven in serving the chronically homeless in Decatur.

It also is the last piece of a larger plan that began with the relocation of Dove's domestic violence shelter in July from the former St. James convent to the Anna B. Millikin Home and continued in November when Homeward Bound moved into the shelter's former offices.

Pam Falk said the one-bedroom apartment she's had at Heritage Grove for the past two years has helped her stay sober. "I was homeless in the winter four years ago, and I just couldn't hardly handle it," she said.

Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill@herald-review.com or 421-7978.