Final Club May Lease to Sanctuary

Street people may soon have a crash pad in Cambridge again. Sanctuary, a counseling service for street people, is negotiating with the Iroquis Club to rent space for a hostel where transients can stay without charge.

Sanctuary rented the entire building of the Iroquis Club at 74 Mt. Auburn St. as a crash pad this summer while operating a store front office at 9 Mt. Auburn St. for its counseling services.

Move to Store Front

When Harvard students returned for the Fall semester, however, the Iroquois reclaimed its space and Sanctuary attempted to sleep some 20 people a night at its store front office, stipulating that each person stay only for three nights.

But the Cambridge Board of Health put pressure on the group to stop letting people sleep there, citing a zoning law which requires a certain number of square feet per person in a lodging, and Sanctuary began its search for a new location. The store front has been closed from midnight to 10 a.m. since Nov. 19.

Sanctuary has not yet reached a final agreement with the Iroquois Club. "Our chances look reasonably good," David Bynum, one of the co-directors, said yesterday.

Space for 30

"We would like to rent the lowest level, a semi-basement. There are a lounge and several storage rooms, which we hope to convert into crash pads. We need space for about 30 persons during the winter and 100 in the summer," he said.

Bynum said he expects a decision before the end of the week.

Sanctuary's staff offers counseling on the draft, drugs, abortions and other problems, referring people to medical services and psychiatrists if necessary. It also has a research and public information service which is housed in the Old Cambridge Baptist Church.