Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 30, 1994 TAG: 9412300118
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As a young woman, Gladys Steele hung out in the streets, befriending those who called the streets home.
Steele knew the homeless - their stories, their needs, where they slept. She assumed, unofficially, the task of looking after Lexington's homeless.
In late 1986, as temperatures dipped and Lexington residents and government types looked to help the city's homeless, Steele surfaced, officially offering to open a small shelter called ``Gladys' House.''
The shelter has provided a place for Lexington's homeless from November through March, when days and nights can become too cold for street living.
Steele, 57, said she had a difficult time opening the shelter this year. She had spent much of late October and early November recuperating from two surgeries.
She missed the traditional Nov.1 opening date, yet managed to open two weeks later, taking in five homeless people.
But early Christmas morning, all five - plus Steele, who also lived at the shelter - were left without a home.
A fire, which started minutes before midnight on Christmas Eve in an upstairs bedroom, damaged the shelter. Though the fire was pretty much contained to one room, the rest of the shelter sustained smoke and water damage, said Kenneth Hall, Lexington fire chief. The electrical meter had to be pulled and the electricity shut off, he said.
``It ruined everything the guys had upstairs,'' said Steele, who has moved into her mother's home in Lexington. ``Sheetrock in the kitchen ceiling came down. All of my clothing was ruined.''
The shelter's volunteer group - the Gladys' House Shelter for the Homeless Inc. - took the residents to a Lexington motel. Volunteers paid for the rooms, which the motel offered at a reduced rate, said Farris Hotchkiss, president of the group's board of directors.
Steele doesn't know when the house will be repaired.
The volunteer group has offered to take residents to shelters in Roanoke and Staunton if they cannot make other arrangements in Lexington, Hotchkiss said.
``Our main concern is for the homeless people, particularly at night,'' he said. ``If these people didn't have the shelter to go to, they would literally be out in the cold.''
Friends dropped by to visit Steele on Thursday, just to see how she was doing. Steele said she ``got real emotional.''
``Why? It's being without a home,'' she said. ``We're without a home.''
by CNB