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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991                   TAG: 9104120318
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN GALAX/ HOMELESS HOSTEL SURVIVES

IN GALAX, the only shelter for the homeless between Tazewell and Roanoke won't be forced to close its doors after all. That's good. But the story goes beyond the zoning dispute that, at least for now, has been settled in favor of the Hostel of the Good Shepherd.

The shelter, owned by the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd next door and supported also by the city's United Methodist Church and the local United Way, typically has seven or eight residents on a given day. Extension last month of its conditional-use permit had been thought routine.

But it also is in an established, stable residential area of Galax. After some neighbors complained of noise, litter and other problems, the city's Planning Commission tied 2-2 on extending the permit for another year. This week, however, the commission with all members present agreed 5-2 to extend it.

Along the way, a myth or two about homelessness may have been punctured.

One myth is that the homeless are all of a kind, and an unpleasant kind at that.

In fact, said shelter officials, some of those it has served are people made homeless by fire. Some are women, often with children, who are fleeing abusive husbands. Drugs and alcohol aren't tolerated at the hostel, and permanent living quarters are found for 93 percent of the guests. Over one three-month period, according to a check made for the commission by Police Chief B. R. Melton, no instances of hostel-related complaints were filed with the police.

Another myth is that homelessness is solely a big-city problem. Perhaps it is more visible in cities. Certainly, efforts to address the problem - with Galax a notable exception - have been more visible in Roanoke, Southwest Virginia's only city of size, than in the rest of the region.

But figures in another report to the Planning Commission are revealing. Of the 255 people who have been guests at the shelter since it opened, 156 were from Galax and adjacent Grayson and Carroll counties. There's no reason to think the problem is any less severe in the rest of rural Southwest Virginia.

Before coming down too hard on the Galax Planning Commission for its initial hesitation in renewing the permit, and on the neighbors for disliking the shelter's presence near their homes, other Southwest Virginians should ask themselves what they and their own communities are - or are not - doing about homelessness.

by CNB