Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 17, 1995 TAG: 9503170019
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A survey conducted in January by the city manager's Committee on the Homeless showed a 45 percent increase from two years ago in the number of homeless living in city shelters.
But the most dramatic finding, committee members said at a news conference Thursday, was the significant increase in the number of women and children without permanent housing.
``The number of homeless, and the faces, are changing,'' said Deanna Myers, a committee member who was homeless herself four years ago. ``Increasingly, women and children have no place to call home.''
Thirty-one percent of the homeless people interviewed for the study were women, compared with 26 percent two years ago and 8 percent eight years ago. The number of children in homeless shelters has doubled.
Why?
``We see women who have been working, trying to hold a family together, trying to work and take care of everything at home, the children,'' said Ellen Brown, director of Total Action Against Poverty's Transitional Living Center.
``Finally, they just give up and have to quit working. Then, of course, the family has no income and they end up homeless.''
Homeless women also include single mothers who are on welfare or relying on not-so-reliable child support, Brown said.
``You just can't live on [Aid to Families with Dependent Children],'' she said. ``Women on AFDC, even in public housing, cannot afford to live on $230 a month.''
Since the 1987 release of a city report - ``No Place to Call Home: A Study of Housing and Homelessness in Roanoke, Virginia'' - a committee of residents, health and human service providers, clergy and city government representatives has conducted surveys of the city's homeless every two years.
In the 1987 survey, an average of 122 people were living in Roanoke's homeless shelters each night. This year's survey found an average of 281.
The committee's latest survey was conducted in January by teams of committee members and volunteers from agencies, institutions and organizations, including the Radford University School of Nursing and the Council of Community Services.
The teams spent a week interviewing residents at six emergency and transitional shelters during the day and night; the homeless who were living in abandoned buildings, cars and under bridges; and those in the Roanoke City Jail and Blue Ridge Community Services' Residential Detoxification Center.
They found that:
n41 percent of people interviewed had school-age children;
nAn average of 52 children under 18 were in shelters each night, compared with 25 in 1993;
329 beds were available in shelters, up from 121 eight years ago;
78 percent of the homeless were Roanoke residents;
Transportation was the most frequently identified need;
Slightly less than one-third of the homeless had completed high school.
``Another alarming statistic was that 19 percent of the homeless contacted during daytime interviews said they planned to seek a location at night not designed for such purpose, such as an automobile, an abandoned building or outside some place,'' said the Rev. Frank Feather, committee chairman.
``With the increases we are seeing and the unknown that we will be facing as a result, perhaps, of welfare reform and other cutbacks, we need to be prepared for a greater need of services,'' Feather said.
The survey reflects a close, but not precise, portrait of Roanoke's homeless population. Glenn Radcliffe, Roanoke's director of human development and a committee member, said to identify an actual count would have been ``difficult at best and almost impossible to ascertain.
``Therefore, we directed our attention to those who rely on emergency and transitional shelters.''
The committee concluded, in part, that preventing homelessness should remain a top priority.
Moreover, ``the community's passion and caring must be commended and encouraged,'' Feather said. ``Without the financial support of the community, without all the volunteer hours that are necessary, this whole plan would begin to unravel.''
by CNB