Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 16, 1990 TAG: 9006180183
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KIM SUNDERLAND NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
United Way of Montgomery County and Radford approved its largest grant of $8,250 to Virginia Mountain Housing for its effort to get plumbing and bathrooms to lower-income people.
Other grants and emergency allocations went to four more local agencies seeking to sustain their programs or to statrt new ones.
"Because we've raised more than what was requested, the extra money is used for grants and emergencies," said Annette Clark, executive director of United Way.
More than $420,000 has been allocated to 32 groups for 1991. Another $20,000 will be passed on for grants and emergency money.
Virginia Mountain Housing, a non-profit housing development corporation, is using the grant to help low-income residents get running water.
"The problem is that there are too many people with incomplete indoor plumbing," said Janaka Casper, Virginia Mountain Housing executive director. He said home-repair volunteers brought the situation to his attention.
There are about 4,000 houses in rural and suburban areas of the New River Valley that do not have complete indoor plumbing or bathrooms. More than 1,100 of them are in Montgomery County, according to a survey compiled by the Virginia Water Project.
Using "slop jars" and outhouses are part of everyday life for the people in those homes.
Virginia Mountain Housing will use United Way funds to identify those who need indoor plumbing. It is the first step toward an application for state funds from the Indoor Plumbing Program.
The plumbing program will allocate $5 million over two years to improve indoor plumbing for low-income people, said John Baker, program administrator.
Baker said 200 to 300 projects will be completed each year, but "this isn't going to be a big enough impact."
An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 homes in Virginia are without indoor plumbing.
In Montgomery County, Casper already has a list of 23 people seeking help. He is asking $200,000 from the Indoor Plumbing Program.
United Way also approved grants for Virginia Tech's Resource and Referral Service and for Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
The Resource and Referral Service, which supplies information on child care, child-care centers and home-care providers, received a $1,000 grant for its Blue Ridge-Allegany Child Care Initiative.
The initiative, undertaken with the Council of Community Services in Roanoke, will try to extend services to eight counties and five cities.
Overall funding will come from the Virginia Council on Child Day Care and Early Childhood Programs but was contingent on fee funding, which United Way will supply, said Ann Francis, director of Resource and Referral.
Big Brothers and Big Sisters, which pairs an adult friend with a needy child, received a $750 grant for equipment and $4,500 in emergency funding to help finance its sexual-abuse program.
Emergency money also went to Literacy Volunteers of America's chapter, whose three-year start-up grant has expired. The group made "several different requests to United Way" for replacement funds, said treasurer Kim Martens.
Martens said the $5,500 may be used for the "Beginning With Books" program.
by CNB