
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 14, 1990                   TAG: 9003143037
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

HOMELESS

RESPONDING to criticism (and a lawsuit) charging that past tallies have failed to include perhaps millions of poor people, the federal government as part of the 1990 census will undertake a count next Tuesday night of homeless Americans.

In Roanoke, the heads of several agencies that help the homeless plan to cooperate. But not David Hayden, the defrocked Mennonite minister who operates the Justice House apartments in Roanoke for formerly homeless people.

Inevitably, he says, the effort will result in "a gross undercount." And the result of an undercount, he says, will be a reduced government emphasis on providing low-cost housing.

Therefore, he says, the doors of Justice House will be (a) open to homeless people on the night of March 20-21 and (b) closed to census workers.

Thereby ensuring that any undercount will be a tad more inevitable.

Thereby ensuring that any undercount will be a tad grosser.

Thereby ensuring that any government emphasis on low-cost housing will be a tad more reduced.

Some have called Hayden a prophet. In this instance, it seems, the prophecy in which he deals is the self-fulfilling kind.

by CNB