ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 12, 1997 TAG: 9704140031
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS THE ROANOKE TIMES
The Montgomery County homeless shelter in Christiansburg has structural problems that puts its future in question.
Under the best circumstances, Montgomery County's community shelter can only accommodate one out of four homeless people who ask for refuge at the small two-story frame house.
Now, officials have told two families at the shelter they may have to move out because the building is unsafe.
"It's not right for a homeless shelter to evict homeless people," said Teresa Maxwell, who has been living at the shelter since November with three of her children.
Maxwell said she's "fuming." But Jeanne Howard Roper, a longtime volunteer for the homeless and a member of the Community Shelter's board of directors, called the controversy at 710 Roanoke St. a misunderstanding.
There are safety concerns about the structure that may force the shelter to be closed either temporarily or permanently, Roper said. The board won't know the building's future until an engineering review is completed.
While that review is under way, tenants of the shelter may have to move out, at least temporarily. The Community Shelter board would pay for up to a 10-day motel stay and help the families find other housing if the shelter has to be repaired or closed, Roper said.
The board has no intention of abandoning its clients, Roper said.
Board member Allison Vila attended an emergency meeting Thursday night to discuss the shelter and heard the message differently. She understood the board to say that after the 10 days were up, residents of the shelter were on their own.
A single parent and former resident of the Community Shelter, Vila resigned from the board after the meeting, saying the decision was unfair to tenants.
After an initial review of the structure on Friday, Community Shelter Executive Director Amanda Griffeth told Maxwell the shelter was in better shape than originally believed, and that moving out might not be necessary after all.
The episode does serve to illustrate a larger truth regarding homelessness, Griffeth said. "I don't think the county is really aware of the extent of the problem."
On average, about 400 people seek emergency assistance for shelter each year in Montgomery County. The three-apartment Community Shelter is the only local facility of its kind, she said.
Families live rent-free at the facility while they work toward independence. There's no limit on the length of their stay. Griffeth said the average occupancy is between two and four months.
The shelter is always full, Roper said. Other homeless people are put up only temporarily in motels.
Maxwell, 33, first lived in a Shawsville motel when she moved here from Texas last fall. While living at the shelter since November, she's been working full time as a convenience store clerk and trying to fix up a trailer, a process that's taken longer than she expected.
The possibility of suddenly being evicted and put back "out on the curb" frightened her. "If we could put our lives together in 14 days, we would have done it. Living here isn't our idea of paradise," she said.
"She's been a very hard-working resident, kind of a hero to us. We have no ax to grind with her. I think she took it the wrong way," Roper said of Maxwell.
Officials were alerted to structural problems when furniture legs began to sink into the shelter's floor recently. Roper said the emergency board meeting was called Thursday to discuss contingency plans while the structure was being evaluated.
"We had to assume the worst and make plans for any eventuality," Griffeth said.
Until that information is available, the future of the shelter - and its occupants - will be uncertain, she said.
Other problems plague the current facility, which was remodeled and opened in 1991. Griffeth said it's not only too small, but poorly located. Shelter families often have small children, and busy Roanoke Street isn't a safe for them. Also, the shelter isn't near public transportation.
There's been some preliminary talk about finding a larger building for the shelter. Roper said the board wants to have a new facility that will house as many as six families by the year 2000.
That may be a challenging goal for the Community Shelter, a nonprofit volunteer organization with one employee (Griffeth) and an annual shoestring budget of $48,000.
The Community Shelter is financially supported by the United Way, private donations and some government funds.
A few years ago, Roper said homelessness was a fashionable issue that drew more public attention and concern that it does now. "But the problem goes on," she said.
Blacksburg High School students are planning a benefit for the homeless on April 18, called "Out of the House - the Great American Sleep Out."
Overnight they'll be experiencing conditions familiar to the homeless, learning about the scope of the issue locally and raising money for social services organizations like the Community Shelter that serve the homeless.
For more information about this event, call Miche Tentor, event coordinator, at 953-7089, or Debbie Christian, associate pastor at Blacksburg Baptist Church, at 552-3869.
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/THE ROANOKE TIMES. Community Shelter directorby CNBAmanda Griffeth tells (from left) Teresa Maxwell, Allison Vila and
Stephen Maxwell (Teresa's son) that a preliminary examination of the
structure (in rear) indicates they may
not have to move. color.