ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601150006
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Twelve-year-old James Matthew Adams shyly holds out a picture he's drawn carefully with pencils.
A log house sits atop a hill, smoke billowing from a stone chimney. A pile of logs waits at the back of the little house to add to the fire. And a field stretches to a fence, which is flanked by tall trees.
It looks like a nice place to live.
``This is what I love to draw - houses and trees,'' he said proudly.
But for now, Matthew, as he's called, doesn't know what it's like to live in a house of his own. For the past three months, he and his family have been living in the Salvation Army's transitional housing center. Before that, his parents rented a place until the bills got to be too much to handle.
Living at the Salvation Army doesn't bother Matthew, he's quick to tell you. But ask him if he'd like to live in his own house someday. Ask him if he'd like to have his own bedroom.
``I always dream about it,'' he said matter-of-factly.
Kids at school tease him about where he lives, said Matthew, a seventh-grader at Buford Middle School. He shrugs it off.
``They laugh at me and say stupid stuff,'' he said, rifling through a stack of papers in the tiny bedroom he shares with his 10-year-old brother, John. ``They say, `What are you? Poor or something?' I just ignore them.''
``It doesn't bother me that much that I live here,'' he continued. ``When the kids at school make fun of me, I don't say anything.''
Kids at school also make fun of the other children who live at the center, he said. He doesn't know why. The center, after all, is just a place where families can live - six months at a time - while they work to get themselves back on their feet and back into their own places.
Matthew and his family - mother Roberta Williams, stepfather Felton, and brothers John and 16-year-old David - moved to the Salvation Army's Center of Hope in September. His sister, 19-year-old Tanya, is in college.
``The rent and utilities where we were were getting out of hand,'' Ms. Williams said. ``It just got to the point where we couldn't handle it.''
Both parents work. Ms. Williams, 45, a Louisa County native, is a contract processor. Felton, 51, is a maintenance worker for the Salvation Army and hails from Georgia. The family has lived in Charlottesville for the past 10 years.
And it is, at times, difficult living in transitional housing, Ms. Williams said.
``There's really not a lot of privacy,'' she said. ``Knowing it's temporary helps.''
Matthew spends his days much as he always did. He wakes up in the morning, goes to school and heads to the Salvation Army's after-school program in the afternoon. At night he does his homework and enjoys one of his favorite programs, ``Seinfeld,'' on television.
``Out of the four, Matthew's the most loving, the one who's the most helpful,'' she said. ``Sometimes there are bad moods, and I think this living here could have something to do with it.''
Sitting in the lounge of the transitional housing center, just outside the tiny two-bedroom apartment he shares with his family, Matthew does appear shy at first, but quickly warms up as he talks about his favorite thing to do.
``I love to draw,'' he said, his eyes lighting up as he flips through a folder of artwork he's done. ``I love art.''
Charcoal, watercolors, papier-mache - he creates his masterpieces using anything he can get his hands on.
He draws houses, aliens, spaceships, even portraits of himself. He pays attention to details, down to the locks and hinges on the fence in his picture. His favorite artist is Leonardo da Vinci. And everything he draws is from his imagination, he said.
``That's what I like doing,'' Matthew said. ``Drawing from my mind.''
On Matthew's dresser in his room is a fat paperback titled ``The Agony and the Ecstasy'' by Irving Stone, a biographical novel about Michelangelo. Not too shabby reading for a 12-year-old. His mother brags about his steadfast position on the honor roll.
Living here ``definitely hasn't hurt his grades any,'' she said.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 linesby CNB