The dingy kitchen is nothing more than appliances arranged side by side in what used to be a closet.
The quarters would be crowded for only one person, but 23 women, residents in Salt Lake's Community Correctional Center above the YWCA, prepare meals in the make-shift kitchen every day.The center is the only state-run halfway house for women, and as cramped and outdated as the living quarters are, for some women it is the difference between making it on the streets or going back to prison.
The brief transition it provides women may be in danger.
The YWCA, which rents the shrinking space to the Department of Corrections, recently notified officials that it plans to raise the rent. The letter also said YWCA officials would like the halfway house residents to move out altogether because it needs the space for its own programs. YWCA officials added they would work with the department in an effort to relocate the program.
"I don't particularly care for this place (building)," said Marcia Butler, 34. "But I like the programming."
Another woman, who's now living on her own, said her time in the halfway house will make her stronger on the street.
"It was a real learning experience," said Janet Darr, 21. "I was still even scared to leave. I was scared I'd screw up. It helped me, mostly to become independent, less co-dependent. It was pretty much a growing-up experience."
Butler said she's grateful the halfway house and its programs are available to women who have nowhere else to go. But, she said, the rundown housing affects their self-esteem.
"I think the environment you're in makes a difference," Butler said. "If you live in the ghetto, you're going to have a ghetto mentality."
Leslie Morgan, the probation and parole officer who supervises all the women, sums it up this way, "These women really deserve something better."
For the past several years, the Department of Corrections has asked the Legislature for money to remodel an abandoned nursing home. This year women's groups joined in the efforts to get money to open a newer and bigger facility.
But once again, the department, and the women, were told there just wasn't enough money. The women say they're frustrated when they see what their male counterparts have.
"They have a lounge and a television," one woman said. Butler adds, "We're not asking for more, just equal."
The 23 women share one washer and dryer, three shower stalls and two toilets. Several women laugh when asked how they all manage to get ready for work in the morning.
"We do it in shifts," one woman smiles. The center used to have a living room, but the YWCA put in an elevator that runs right through the area that used to be a living room.
Butler said the lack of space keeps the women from being more involved with their families.
She said it's unrealistic to hold parenting classes without the children. But there is no room to have the children at the classes in the center.
The facility is even too small to have families visit the women. Most of the women visit their children on weekends in another setting.
"If we had the space, he (her son) could come and spend weekends with me," Butler said. For now, she focuses on herself instead.
"My first priority is getting myself together," Butler said. "It's hard in here. You need to find yourself and have your own personal space. That's impossible when you're on top of each other."