THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9503310290
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Twenty private attorneys will provide pro bono legal services for Hampton Roads homeless if and when their human and civil rights are threatened, according to Brenda McCormick, director of Mothers Inc.
When called upon by the Virginia Beach non-profit advocacy group, the attorneys will advocate through the courts for homeless individuals and families to assure that their rights are not violated, McCormick told the Homeless Advisory Committee on Wednesday.
The committee is charged with planning how best to make use of a $800,000 federal grant earmarked for the homeless. The group has delineated a homeless shelter and service center to serve about 100 people, including a limited number of families, but has yet to decide where such a facility would be located.
McCormick plans to submit a grant application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for some of the $900 million that HUD plans to give out nationwide. She wants money to help homeless adults and children pay for prescription drugs and emergency dental care.
McCormick also seeks funding to hire two homeless people for outreach to other homeless individuals and families to link her organization and about 1,250 homeless people who Mothers Inc. contends are not availing themselves of systems already in place. Many of these homeless people - hundreds of them children - sleep in the woods, in abandoned cars and other places unfit for habitation, McCormick said. Others are left with no permanent or secure address when they take temporary shelter with friends or families, she said.
McCormick told the committee that the $1.5 million non-cash resource her application represents in attorneys' services would add leverage to their own grant proposals. Mothers Inc. will include in its grant application a 20-page continuum of care narrative being used by other Virginia Beach non-profit groups that seek grant money.
McCormick, who has worked with the area's homeless for 10 years, told the Homeless Advisory Committee, ``since there is no mechanism in place to protect human and civil rights of the homeless - something we've asked for for 10 years now, and, since they say, `If you want something done do it yourself,' we've put together a program'' to address the gaps in care for the homeless.
Other organizations are applying for portions of the HUD funds. Volunteers of America and Judeo-Christian Outreach, for example, are writing a joint grant application to operate the proposed shelter and services center.
The human and civil rights of the homeless are jeopardized by the systems designed to help and protect them, McCormick said. She cited instances of homeless single mothers' children being taken from them by social services simply because they were without a permanent address.
``Their kids were removed,'' said McCormick. ``Their fears were justified.'' She contends that violation of their human and civil rights is the major reason why so many homeless families and individuals do not now ask for help from social services and homeless programs.
``They would not be in the political position they're in if they had active legal voices,'' McCormick told the committee.
Deborah Maloney, who runs VOA's Winter Shelter Program for the city, told McCormick that her organization is ``working on a pool of attorneys'' and has ``pharmacy donation of medicines'' lined up. In addition, she said, the group has three dentists it works with to see that homeless obtain needed care.
But McCormick contends that expecting service providers to obtain legal help for those whose rights are in jeopardy is ``like having the fox watch the hen house.'' And provisions for prescription drugs and therapeutic dental care has not been dealt with adequately in the past, leaving a wide gap in the continuum of care for homeless, McCormick said.
The services of the 20 attorneys comprises ``a separate piece,'' said McCormick. ``It's a regional problem.'' by CNB