Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993 TAG: 9301250262
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
HOMELESS NEED MORE THAN A BED
TO THEIR credit, the Wilder administration and the General Assembly have supported recent expansions of emergency shelters for Virginia's homeless. Regrettably, this has not been enough to make a dent in the problem.For the sixth consecutive year, the homeless - as measured by state organizations that serve them - increased in 1991. Nearly 8,000 more people sought emergency shelter than in 1990.
And of those who sought it, nearly 36,000 - an increase of 33 percent over 1990 - were turned away, despite the fact that there were more emergency beds available. The data-collectors say they expect another increase in homelessness when 1992 figures are in.
These distressing numbers should underscore the obvious for state government: While emergency shelter continues to be a pressing need, it is more important to invest in programs that can prevent and reduce homelessness.
Total Action Against Poverty's Transitional Living Center in Roanoke, for instance, provides not just shelter but long-term case management - counseling, referrals for education, job training and housing assistance - for the homeless throughout Southwest Virginia. It is the only agency in this area offering this service.
The Transitional Living Center, however, must turn away two of every three individuals who come to it for help - not because it doesn't have space for them, but because it doesn't have enough funds to operate at full capacity.
The center is able to provide its full range of services - including beds and food - for a mere $24 per person per day. But this bargain, in terms of returning the poor to homes of their own and to more productive lives, is denied many people who need it because public and private support for the program is inadequate.
Now, a reminder or two about Virginia's homeless. They're not all bag ladies and bums and social misfits - not by a long shot.
According to a survey by the Virginia Coalition for the Homeless, 36 percent of those who sought space at state shelters in 1991 held jobs. But they simply didn't earn enough money to pay rent, much less make house payments. Thirty-six percent of the state's homeless are children.
At the current session of the legislature, the coalition is asking for $1.9 million to support homelessness-prevention programs and comprehensive transitional and residential-treatment programs such as TAP's center in Roanoke.
This funding is urgently needed. These programs are hurting. Many have lost federal funds. (Federal support for such programs was shamefully reduced by 80 percent during the Reagan and Bush administrations.) Many have also been set back by drop-offs in private contributions - ordinarily their mainstay for meeting the required local match for federal funds.
The coalition's report on increasing homelessness also bolsters the case for a Virginia Earned Income Tax Credit, as recently recommended by an anti-poverty commission headed by Lt. Gov. Don Beyer.
The income-tax credit is aimed at helping working-poor families with children. It would do much to ensure that these families have enough disposable income to avoid eviction from their homes.
Clearly, this alone will not solve the poverty problem in Virginia. Other steps are needed - to stimulate job creation, to end school-funding disparities, to expand training opportunities, and to strengthen children's health programs, to mention a few.
But until the governor and the legislature take meaningful steps to address root causes of poverty, there will be no end to the number of emergency shelters for the homeless that will be needed.
And no end to the suffering of the men, women and children who crowd those shelters if, indeed, they are lucky enough to get in.