Adelle is a 53-year-old recovering addict who easily qualifies as one of the "chronically homeless."

She's been bouncing back and forth from shelters to the streets for five years.

But not anymore.

Any day now, she will move into a home, thanks to a small women's shelter on East Fifth Street that has become a community affair of donated space, donated dollars and donated expertise.

It's called Elizabeth's Caldwell House, and the growing list of partners includes about a half-dozen churches, Carolinas Medical Center-Mercy and even leaders of the surrounding Elizabeth Community Association.

In the case of Adelle, the support helped transform a former addict into a Presbyterian Sunday school teacher in just under a year.

"God brought me here," says Adelle, who prefers not to give her full name. "To these people, I'm not a homeless person. I'm another human being, a friend."

It's a far different response than the heated protests that surrounded past proposals to put homeless housing and mixed-income homes in outlying areas, including a hotly debated 2010 affordable housing project in the Ballantyne area. The proposal was eventually abandoned.

The Caldwell shelter has seen none of that.

In fact, organizations in the surrounding Elizabeth community are crafting a plan to bring evening programming to the shelter, with volunteers teaching about topics such as financial planning and art.

It's something the Salvation Army never imagined when it proposed the site in 2009 as a temporary overflow site for the Center of Hope.

Caldwell Memorial Presbyterian Church volunteered to host the shelter, and the Leon Levine Foundation later stepped up with an $80,000 challenge grant to encourage support.

In all, over $500,000 has been given for the shelter, including anonymous donations, federal grant dollars and large checks from Forest Hill Church, St. Matthew and St. Gabriel churches, and United Way of Central Carolinas.

As a result, the site will now remain open until December 2012, when new shelters will be launched by the Charlotte Rescue Mission and United Family Services.

"I'll admit that I didn't know how the community was going to feel when they heard us talking about bringing in 50 ladies," admits Deronda Metz of the Center of Hope.

"The worst case would have been some sort of public protest."

Experts say that Charlotte has a homeless population of more than 6,000, including a 36 percent increase last year in the number of homeless families.

Metz speculates that complaints about the overflow shelter have been avoided because the 50 women spend only their nights in the Elizabeth community. During the day, they're taken back to the Center of Hope to conduct job searches, attend classes and get medical care. Some also have full-time jobs to go to, though they don't make enough yet to move out of the shelter, Metz says.

Monte Ritchey is president of the Elizabeth Community Association, and he says the group may help recruit volunteers for the shelter through its newsletter.

He is not aware of any complaints raised about the shelter and says that's because Elizabeth already has an unusual mix of incomes.

"We have apartments that rent for $500 and a handful of homes sold for over $1 million, and in some cases they are right next to each other," he says. "I'd say it's a pretty tolerant neighborhood."

The association is scheduled to hear a presentation about the shelter in September from the Rev. John Cleghorn, who made the shelter possible by offering the use of an education building at Caldwell Memorial Presbyterian Church.

He is also credited with reaching out in the community for partner churches, after learning the Salvation Army had raised enough money to keep the shelter open through 2012.

He says that means the church can make long-term plans, including nightly shelter programs on resume-writing, interviewing skills, how to dress, financial literacy and creativity classes like jewelry-making. Volunteers with expertise in those areas will lead the classes, he says.

"I've always believed that Charlotte was the kind of place that comes together when there was a need," he says. "In this instance, these partners are responding with what they can: money, space or volunteers."

Jill Aleong, manager of volunteer services at CMC-Mercy Hospital, is coordinating the effort. Partners so far include the hospital, St. John's Baptist, Hawthorne Lane United Methodist, Covenant Presbyterian, St. Martin's Episcopal and Matthews Presbyterian.

"This is something where we can make a difference, even if it's on a small level," she says. "We're trying to help the people in our own backyard, and maybe that will inspire others to help someone else."

Amy, 46, is among the homeless women who appreciate the effort. She says she lost her job as a chef and came to the shelter in March, after her three-year marriage dissolved over financial squabbles.

Her goal is to be out by the end of September, after recently landing a manager trainee job. She did not want to give her full name.

"These people here know we are struggling and that our lives have changed," she says, starting to cry.

"I feel I've been put to the test, and it's showing what I'm made of. Here, they are helping me move forward."