THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 31, 1994 TAG: 9412310319
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
Ramon Oteromartinez didn't mind having to boil water when he wanted to wash himself - at least it warmed the kitchen when he turned on the stove. And he didn't mind having to keep a blanket in the living room so he wouldn't shiver while watching TV.
But to watch his 11-year-old son suffer was another matter.
Oteromartinez couldn't let Ramon Alexander - or ``Moncho'' as his friends call him - live without heat or hot water, even though money was very tight. So a few weeks ago, he put his ``macho stuff'' aside and went to the city to ask for help.
Eight days later, the single father and his son were taking hot showers and sleeping in warm rooms.
An emergency home repair program, paid for by the federal government and administered by the city, picked up the $1,600 bill to repair the water heater and heat pump.
``I'm grateful for what they've done for me,'' Oteromartinez said.
Sharon K. Prescott, housing development coordinator with the city's Department of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation, said a relatively small grant now can save public money in the long run.
``When you can help to keep people in their homes and you prevent them from becoming homeless or having to live in life-threatening conditions, it's really money well spent,'' she said.
Many of the people helped by the program might otherwise be homeless, or suffer expensive health problems, she said. Because people must have financial troubles to be eligible for the aid, most of those larger problems would fall to the public sector to solve.
To be eligible for an emergency housing grant, the recipient must be a homeowner making less than 60 percent of the median income of Virginia Beach, or $23,950 for a family of four.
Their emergency must also be real, Prescott said. The department won't patch holes in roofs, although it will help replace roofs that are about to cave in. It bought a new water pump for an elderly woman whose well ran dry, and a heat pump for a family with a new baby and a recently laid-off dad.
Grants have ranged from $55 to $3,000, and are given out until the $50,000 annual fund runs dry, Prescott said. The $10,000 that is left now must last until the end of June.
When the city money runs out, there are a few private non-profit organizations that will offer assistance, Prescott said, but they are also pressed for cash.
Promised federal and state budget cuts are expected to threaten most housing programs; both Prescott and Oteromartinez said the emergency grants are worth keeping.
Oteromartinez, 42, said without the grant he would have had to give up his school books this semester and possibly drop some of the classes he's taking at Tidewater Community College, pushing off his dream of getting a degree in environmental management.
``I was falling behind and this really puts me back on track,'' he said. ``I just used to pray at night: Where am I going to get the money? It was affecting my classes.''
Oteromartinez said he will become a taxpayer again after he graduates next year, helping, he hopes, to support public programs that give others like himself another chance.
``I'm doing my best to become a productive citizen,'' he said. ``At that time I'll be middle class and a Republican.''
He couldn't afford to buy Ramon Alexander a Christmas present this year, although he did promise to take the sixth-grader to the movies today.
And things will be better after graduation, Oteromartinez repeats, as if convincing himself: ``I'll start giving him what he deserves: nice clothes, I'll buy him games - the necessities that a little child needs to enjoy himself.''
To remind them of the possibility of joy, Oteromartinez leaves his richly decorated Christmas tree up all the time. The candy chains have been there for more than a year, the paper angel was hung long ago.
The tree and a giant fish tank add life to Otermartinez' narrow living room, one of five rooms in his modest row house in the Pecan Gardens neighborhood of Virginia Beach. Ramon Alexander has a small room over the garage.
Their heat pump hadn't worked for about eight months before the repairs; they started to feel the cold in October.
``It was very uncomfortable, to tell the truth,'' he said. ``The happiest time was when we cooked, because it warmed up in here.''
The hardest thing about asking for help, he said, was overcoming his ``false pride'' and feelings that men should be able to make it on their own. When his son caught a cold, Otermartinez overcame that guilt.
``I had to forget about all that macho stuff and go down there and ask for help,'' he said. ``He would have suffered - that I would hate.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON, Staff
Ramon Oteromartinez couldn't stand by while his son, Ramon
Alexander, lived without heat or hot water. So he put his ``macho
stuff'' aside and went to the city to ask for help.
by CNB