HOMELESS CONSULTANT HELPS POOR GET REFUNDS

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

DATE: SUNDAY, February 7, 1993                   TAG: 9302070074
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON                                LENGTH: Medium
HOMELESS CONSULTANT HELPS POOR GET REFUNDS - AND A NEW START
George Schiavone is tax consultant to the homeless.
Homeless himself, Schiavone is helping others like him file tax returns - and collect the refunds many didn't know they were due.
"A lot of these people are falling through the cracks," he said.
The National Coalition for the Homeless estimates that as many as 80 percent of homeless adults hold part-time or temporary jobs, and have state and federal taxes automatically withheld from their meager paychecks.
"The taxes get taken out from the first penny," said Schiavone, a soft-spoken former lecturer in management at Boston University, the University of Massachusetts at Boston and Roxbury Community College.
He said he became homeless two years ago after suffering real estate setbacks and now stays at the Mission Shelter in downtown Boston.
"When you're talking about withholding taxes from homeless people, it's a classic example of adding insult to injury," Schiavone said.
Schiavone, 44, whose office is a table hidden in the stacks of Boston's public library, helped one client who earned about $3,000 last year as a day laborer. Because his income fell below the minimum on which single people must pay taxes, he was due a $442 refund of the state and federal taxes that were taken from his paycheck.
"There's this huge chunk of folks who aren't taking advantage of what's out there for them," said Paul Heimer, volunteer coordinator at the Alexandria, Va., Community Shelter and the founder of the Homeless Income Tax Self-Help Initiative.
With a small cadre of volunteer accountants, lawyers and accounting students, the initiative helped 143 homeless people in the Washington, D.C., area get $90,185 in refunds last year - an average of $630 each.
"That's just the tip of the iceberg," Heimer said.
He said $630 can buy a fresh start for a homeless person.
"It means out," said Heimer. "In four to six weeks, when the check comes, somebody can get out of here."
Schiavone agreed. "I don't think it's too farfetched to make a connection between getting that refund back and getting a new start."
Advocates said there are virtually no other programs targeting homeless people for help in filing income tax returns.
"It's a shame that we're not doing more about it," said Bill Faith, director of the Ohio Coalition for the Homeless. "But next to nothing's being done in a lot of places."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB