THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 22, 1995 TAG: 9502210097
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
The most pressing need of Virginia Beach's growing homeless population is a daytime place where they can shower, store their belongings, use the phone and receive and send mail, according to a group studying the issue.
The ideal facility would make use of existing city services to help homeless people move into the job market, said Mary Kay Horoszewski, who heads a program subcommittee of the Homeless Advisory Committee. Residents of such a facility, she explained, might constitute a ``labor pool'' to help defray costs of keeping the place up - janitorial and landscaping work, for example.
In addition, the homeless need a site where they can get counseling and job training, and, ideally, such a facility would also be a place where they could sleep, Horoszewski told committee members last week.
While the full committee seemed in agreement that a facility should address the daytime needs of the homeless, there was disagreement about sleeping arrangements. Some said that they don't think that the city should try to provide sleeping quarters for the city's large and diverse homeless population. That need, they contend, is already being met by churches who now, and for the past five years, have provided a place for the homeless to sleep on a rotating basis during the winter.
But some on the committee said church members are tired of providing shelter.
``Where we're stuck - we agree on a day-service facility with emergency beds for overflow and cold nights - is which way to go, the degree of church involvement,'' said David Sullivan, regional vice president for Volunteers of America, which oversees the church shelter program.
Deborah Maloney, program director in Virginia Beach, agreed with Horoszewski that any new facility proposed should include overnight accommodations.
Three homeless men told the committee last week that, while the greatest need is for a daytime service site, a facility that also provided sleeping quarters would be best.
The committee, which is charged with developing recommendations for the City Council on how the city can best make use of its $800,000 federal homeless grant, also is grappling with how far they can go in meeting the needs of a diverse population.
``Overnight, 24 hours and services 365 days a year - think hard and realistically about what you propose,'' cautioned Andrew Friedman, director of the Department of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation. ``The original vision was for a facility to serve the single homeless population.''
At the same time, though, Friedman held out hope that the city might get an additional $900 million in federal funds from Housing and Urban Development. That could be ``the opportunity to fund what you want to happen at a site,'' Friedman said.
``There are a lot of people out there none of us are serving,'' added Horoszewski, executive director for Virginia Beach Community Development Corporation. ``There are all kinds of situations,'' including homeless families and those with substance abuse and mental health issues.
The group's site subcommittee will meet today to begin deliberations on where a facility might be located.
The advisory group plans to have its recommendations ready for City Council by July 4. Once approved by the council, the plan would require final approval from the federal government.
KEYWORDS: HOMELESS SHELTER by CNB