ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 9, 1996 TAG: 9608090071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RESTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
WITHOUT A PHONE, the homeless cannot communicate with the world. But that's now changing in Northern Virginia.
Sheila Carter has no place to call home, but at least she has her voice mail.
Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile, a cellular telephone company, donated a voice mail system to 16 homeless shelters in Northern Virginia on Thursday.
Lack of a telephone puts Carter and others living temporarily in Northern Virginia homeless shelters at a disadvantage when applying for jobs or looking for permanent housing, shelter managers say.
``It helps the homeless separate themselves from the stigma of being homeless,'' said Gary Schulman, a company executive.
Shelter residents get individual electronic mailboxes, which are monitored by social service workers.
``It's going to be helpful for me,'' Carter said. ``I'm a nurse, and I work through an [employment] agency. If they have jobs for me and I don't get the message, then I don't get the work.''
Callers hear a generic message.
``The caller doesn't hear `such-and-such a shelter' when the [shelter] receptionist picks up the phone,'' said Carla Taylor, director of the Embry Rucker Community Shelter in Reston.
Shelter residents also don't have to worry that their messages will be lost or that private information will circulate among other shelter residents, Taylor said.
Politicians joined Bell Atlantic executives at the Reston shelter to tout the program as a way to help the homeless break out of poverty.
``In these times of tightening government budgets, the private sector is increasingly being asked to support communities,'' U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said.
Many of the 2,000 shelter residents with new access to voice mail receive welfare payments, and are required to find work under Virginia's year-old welfare overhaul.
Carter, a welfare recipient, said she plans to stay at the Reston shelter a few more months.
``I'm trying to get on my feet,'' she said.
Bell Atlantic has donated similar voice mail systems in other states on the East Coast, Schulman said.
The Virginia system will be available to residents in shelters in Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties, and in Alexandria, Manassas and Falls Church.
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