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Ogden • As Raquel Da Silva walks through the empty rooms, she dismisses the wires dangling from the ceiling and the grease-stained carpet. Instead, she sees the potential.

"This is going to be our recreational area with toys and books for the children," she says in a small room off the kitchen. Pointing to a table with no chairs, she adds, "We are going to have computers here."

The anticipated renovations are part of a monthslong effort to convert Ogden's former Fire Station No. 3 into a day center for homeless families. The transformation has required patience and time.

"And a lot of Clorox," Da Silva says with a laugh.

Vestiges of the firefighters remain. A stack of wooden ladders sits in a corner near a pile of hoses and a fire extinguisher. A sign near the garage doors reads, "Help firefighters fight muscular dystrophy." But slowly, as Family Promise of Ogden moves in and Da Silva, the group's executive director, checks off the remaining projects still to be completed before opening May 7, it's starting to look less like a firehouse and more like a safe haven.

A divine idea • Five years ago, Nancy Davis Broderick was desperate for a distraction. She had found herself without a job and the hours spent filling out applications and searching for employment were daunting.

That's when she stumbled upon St. Anne's, a homeless shelter in Ogden since renamed Lantern House. Davis Broderick volunteered there for about three hours a few days each week.

"There were a couple families in there and it was tragic. The little boys were this tall," she said, pointing to her shoulder, "and they had to be separated from their moms. They went into the areas with the men [as soon as they turned 13]."

Within four months, Davis Broderick found work and had less time to return to the shelter. But the image of kids being pulled from their parents continued to weigh on her.

"It's totally what shaped this," she said, throwing her hands up inside the garage of the firehouse with a jingling echo of her charm bracelet.

Davis Broderick founded Family Promise of Ogden in November 2014. At the time, all she had was the idea: Keep homeless families together. The program is a stand-alone affiliate of a larger national organization that sees 75 percent of participants move on to better housing. The branch in Salt Lake City touts a 95 percent success rate.

The homeless population in Salt Lake County — estimated at 10,000 individuals — is 10 times that in Weber County — mainly gathered in Ogden, according to the Utah Department of Workforce Services. There are about 14,000 homeless people statewide.

Though each Family Promise affiliate operates a little differently, the idea is to house homeless families among the religious congregations of a community. The group Davis Broderick pulled together has 12 Christian churches in Ogden, including Presbyterian, Mormon, Adventist, Lutheran and Episcopal faiths.

Family Promise of Ogden will host up to five families at a time, with some coming from Lantern House and others from a nearby domestic violence shelter. They'll spend the day at the firehouse, 340 S. Washington Blvd. (400 East), filling out job applications, taking classes, speaking with caseworkers, showering and doing laundry.

At night, the families will be shuttled to one of the churches — rotating each week to a different congregation — to sleep.

So far, Davis Broderick and her husband, David, have invested $12,000 of their savings into the organization and countless hours, including vacation time from work.

But even that hasn't been the biggest hurdle.

Home for the homeless • In January 2016, Davis Broderick, a brassy California native, marched up to the microphone at an Ogden City Council meeting and said: "I want a free building."

It was an unusual pitch, she acknowledges, but it wasn't unachievable. Finding a place to house Family Promise was the pinnacle of her project, but it also felt like repeatedly jamming a fork into an electrical outlet: Davis Broderick was constantly shocked by the price and condition of existing structures.

When she made her plea to the council, the city was sitting on a vacant property that would work perfectly for her plans. It just didn't occur to anyone right away.

Ogden was in the process of moving into a new fire station at 450 E. North St., abandoning the place on Washington Boulevard that was built in the 1940s and no longer suited the needs of the crew, said Brandon Cooper, Ogden's deputy director of community and economic development.

"It was just going to be used for storage," he said. "And we were going to have to maintain the expense for upkeep, keeping it heated and lit."

City officials then hit on the idea of leasing the space to Davis Broderick — for free.

She'd pay for the maintenance, of course, and the utilities, keeping the sidewalks clear in the winter and mowing the grass in the summer — a plan Ogden figured would save taxpayer money even without charging rent. Cooper also said the city appreciates the effort "toward helping those who are disadvantaged find resources and get back on their feet."

By June 2016, Davis Broderick was touring the facility. It was exactly what she wanted.

"Do you think this is going to work for you?" the fire chief asked.

"Yes, yes, yes," she said. "I'm like watering at the mouth."

Council members unanimously approved the no-charge lease March 21. They drafted an agreement to loan the space to Family Promise of Ogden for a year. Much as it is for the families they'll help, this, too, is just a temporary space for the organization, which will look for a more permanent home.

Firefighters' spirit • Davis Broderick and Da Silva pulled open the large garage doors of the station April 1, when the space officially became theirs, and walked inside along the tire marks where the fire engines used to roll in and out.

Since then, Da Silva estimates, she has spent 50 hours a week scrubbing the floors, cleaning the bathrooms, preparing the rooms and bringing in furniture (which she picked up at a discount from nearby shops and hotels).

Most of the amenities needed to run a resource center were provided by the existing structure of the firehouse: showers, restrooms, lockers, places to rest and a large kitchen. She has cleared out the wooden shelves where flame-retardant yellow jackets used to hang on metal hooks. And fixtures of the old alarm system, though turned off, still cling to the walls inside.

In less than a month, the first group of homeless individuals will be welcomed inside. Davis Broderick is already gushing over "when we see our first families graduate."

She anticipates each family will spend roughly 60 days in the facility, receiving intensive care and attention before finding better housing. She hopes to help 50 to 60 families before the lease ends.

"Something bad happened, and we're going to help them and lift them back up," she said. "It's not these pictures of people you see rummaging through garbage cans. It's people who work so hard that had a bad break."

Family Promise of Ogden will run off a yearly budget of $150,000 — the churches cover another $300,000 in costs by providing meals, living quarters and some 30 volunteers at a time. Davis Broderick also has raised an additional $90,000 in grants and donations.

The goal for all the families is one thing: "self-sufficiency," Davis Broderick and Da Silva said at the same time.

"It's more than just housing them," Da Silva added. "It's healing the problem at the core."

Outside the firehouse, an empty flagpole remains, though the white letters that previously read "OGDEN CITY FIRE STATION NO. 3" have been peeled from the brick. Firefighters still visit, Da Silva said, as she cleans the space. She jokingly calls them "welfare checks." As she talks, a firetruck goes by the former station with its siren blaring.

"It has the spirit of the firefighters," Da Silva said.

"And their love," Davis Broderick added.

ctanner@sltrib.com Twitter: @CourtneyLTanner