ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thousands of homeless people in Virginia are being turned away from emergency shelters this winter because the buildings quickly run out of space, particularly on cold evenings, advocates said Wednesday.
Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke, wants the General Assembly to double the state funding for shelters - from $1.75million to $3.4million - to help make up for recent federal funding cuts and increasing demand for space.
He'll pitch the request to a legislative budget committee later this week.
``Many localities were able to fill the breach, and some were not,'' said David Rubenstein, director of the Virginia Coalition for the Homeless. ``Shelters are very much under siege ... and are scrambling for money almost all the time.''
Homeless advocates said federal funding for Virginia's homeless shelters was cut approximately 25 percent last year. Other sources of funding are also drying up.
The Crossroads Shelter in Wytheville closed last year after funding from a local company was eliminated. The operators are trying to gather enough money from public and private sources to reopen.
``It's bad when you see the same people on the streets day after day with obviously no place to stay,'' said June Kress, president of the shelter's board of directors.
Emergency Shelter Inc. in Richmond had to turn away about 5,000 people last year, and director Janice Fatzinger said demand for its 60 beds is increasing.
``The scary shift we're seeing now is an increase in the number of women with extremely small children,'' she said. ``We'll call other shelters and put them up in a hotel for a day if we have to. Sometimes they sleep on a couch here.''
There are about 250 shelters with more than 4,400 beds in the state. The latest survey by the Virginia Coalition for the Homeless found that the shelters housed 53,624 people in 1994 and turned away people 40,413 times.
In 90 percent of the cases, the reason for denying refuge was lack of space. Some people were kept out because they were drunk, on drugs or had behavior problems.
``There are essentially no new beds now,'' Rubenstein said. ``There is a growing but largely invisible population of homeless going without shelter, particularly in the cold weather.''
The 1994 survey found that 67 percent of the funding for Virginia's homeless shelters came from private sources, 11 percent came from local governments, 9 percent from the state and 14 percent from the federal government.
An example of how state funding can help is demonstrated at Hope House in Fredericksburg. The transitional housing center used a state grant last year to buy an apartment house across the street to increase its capacity from nine to 14 families. But Hope House still has a long waiting list.
``We get calls every day from people hoping to get in,'' director Diane Schobel said.
Ironically, the Roanoke area Thomas represents has been able to house all of the homeless looking for a place to stay, shelter directors said. Also, the largest shelter is privately funded through a coalition of churches and has no interest in getting state taxpayers' money.
``The people who support the Rescue Mission should do it intentionally and cheerfully, and not everyone pays their taxes cheerfully,'' development director Joy Sylvester-Johnson said from her office in Roanoke.
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB