Sanctuary, the Cambridge hostel and counseling service for street people, has received a three-year grant of $52,000 from an Indiana foundation. The donation represents the first multi-year grant in the brief one-and-a-half-year history of the operation.

A Surprise

The grant, from the Irwin-Sweeney-Miller Foundation, came as a surprise to Susan Sears, assistant director for administration and financial head of Sanctuary. "We were expecting something from them," she said, "because they had expressed an interest in programs run by and for young people, but we had no idea that it would be this large."

The money, which is to be spaced over a three-year period, is earmarked for staff salaries at Sanctuary's counseling service in the Old Cambridge Baptist Church on Mass. Ave., rather than for the more publicized hostel on Mt. Auburn St. The counseling portion of Sanctuary deals with young people on an individual basis, while the hostel's main emphasis is on providing a place for transients to sleep.

Sears emphasized that the grant will not solve Sanctuary's financial problems. "All this means," she said, "is that we are funded until March instead of January." She said that the funds will enable them to hire a full-time community coordinator and another fund raiser.

The grant will supply only a small portion of Sanctuary's total budget, which Sears estimated at $400,000. That amount is split evenly between the hostel and counseling operations.