THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504270147
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Sometimes, the human faces of the homeless become blurred under the mounting pressure to provide them help.
Take, for instance, the following scenario: A single mother and her two young children have taken refuge in a homeless shelter. The mother, under pressure to provide for her children is under stress and, in frustration, ends up beating her children. The shelter's service provider, also under pressure to serve increasing numbers of the homeless, responds by ejecting the family from the only temporary home it has instead of providing counseling for the mother and protection for the children.
This is an example of the type of situation the Homeless Advisory Board hopes to prevent by having in place guidelines for those who run and those who use a proposed new permanent homeless shelter. The board's standards subcommittee met Wednesday to discuss how best to protect the human rights of the homeless.
``The reality is day-to-day. . . sometimes this gets lost,'' said Eunice Whitehurst, of the city's Social Services Department.
Whitehurst was responding to a call from Mothers Inc. director Brenda McCormick to have rules in place to prevent such counterproductive scenarios.
Charged with deciding how the city may best utilize $800,000 in federal grant money for the homeless, the full board has defined a 24-hour shelter, which would sleep as many as 100 people, including several families. Where it would be located remains undecided.
Andrew Friedman, director of the city's Department of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation, also expressed concern that rules be in place to prevent shelter users from being ejected for petty reasons.
``We can't be proscriptive or write the encyclopedia of all events, but we can put in due process and give general guidelines'' for human rights, said Dennis I. Wool, director of the Community Services Board.
Wool also suggested that an ``external ombudsman'' act as watchdog for the human rights of sheltered homeless. He also suggested that there be a penalty for violating the rights of a homeless person.
Also of concern to the subcommittee are guidelines on who may use the shelter.
``We want the severest cases to get services,'' said Teresa Stanley, who heads the Interfaith Council.
Joanne Schihl, who represents the Church of the Ascension on the subcommittee, expressed concern that the homeless now being served in the city's Winter Shelter Program continue to get help in any permanent shelter. A coalition of city churches now provides sleeping quarters and food on a rotating basis as part of that program.
Friedman agreed on the importance of putting in writing who would be eligible to be served and under what circumstances.
On the other hand, said Wool, it will be important to have in place guidelines that would prevent those who can afford housing from using the shelter. For example, he said, access to a shelter should not include a college student trying to save money during summer employment.
Eligibility and behavior requirements and human rights guidelines will be drafted by the subcommittee, which will meet again next Thursday. by CNB