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

DATE: SUNDAY, August 21, 1994                   TAG: 9408210033
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

YWCA'S NEED FOR SPACE LED EATERY TO OWN PLACE

Was the organization still around? (Yes.) Wasn't it part of the YMCA? (No.) Is that the building where Howard's Soup Kitchen is? (Not anymore.)

"People are less likely to ask those questions now," O'Neil said.

True, possibly, for the first two questions. But people still may wonder where Howard's Soup Kitchen went, and why.

One of O'Neil's first actions as the Y's executive director was to reclaim street-level space leased by the restaurant. When Howard's lease expired in 1990, it was not renewed.

"We needed additional program space," O'Neil said. "We needed all the square-footage available, access to the kitchen area, space to run our after-school and day care program."

The YWCA had leased that portion of the building for years as a money-making venture. But it had become less so over the years, said Griffith Dodson, the YWCA's legal adviser since 1965.

"I don't believe that helped [the YWCA] at all," he said. "The lease that they had was not financially advantageous. It just ate them up."

Howard's Soup Kitchen resurfaced two years after it closed at the YWCA, in a building on West Church Avenue in downtown Roanoke that owners Jerry and Eddy Howard bought and remodeled.

Looking back, leaving the YWCA location probably helped more than hurt the business, Eddy Howard said. Still, the manner in which the restaurant was forced to close soured him a bit.

"But it turned out for the best," he said. "We own our own building now. We won't be pushed out again. What we do, it'll be for the business, not for someone else to boot you out when they feel like it."