THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 13, 1995 TAG: 9511130052
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 151 lines
``I don't want to go back,'' says Tina Harper softly, looking at the floor as she gets ready to move her five children and their meager belongings out of a motel room.
``But I told the kids that if it comes to that, if I'm going to lose them, we'll go back.'' The 31-year-old mother of six speaks with a deep sigh that hints of what it was like in West Virginia, where her 14-year-old son remains.
``They depend on me so much, and I have to let them know I'm strong enough to pull through.''
The family became homeless early last month when Harper, who works as a maid at an Oceanfront hotel, could no longer afford the rent on a Virginia Beach townhouse. They moved into a motel room at the Oceanfront, and on this day they are packing to move in with a friend.
For now, at least, the six of them will sleep on the floor in one room of the small apartment. It's not the best arrangement, but it beats what they came from, Harper says.
The Harper family is, in fact and by definition, homeless. But as far as a new nationwide survey is concerned, they do not exist. The federally funded survey is designed to find out what services are available for the nation's homeless people and to find out how many are using them.
Though federal officials insist the study will not result in a ``count'' or even an overall estimate of homeless in America, some local grass-roots advocates worry that federal dollars eventually will be doled out based on skewed statistics and an erroneous picture of the homeless. At best, they say, the $4.1 million project is a waste of taxpayers' money.
Advocacy groups at the national and state levels, however, are guardedly hopeful about the survey, the first since 1987 that has set out to define the characteristics of the U.S. homeless population and measure the quality of the services they receive.
The Harpers' case won't be part of the statistical record because the single mother and her children are among what advocates say is a large population of invisible homeless - those who, for one reason or another, are not getting help.
Tina Harper hesitates to turn to the city's Social Services Department in her struggle to keep her family together. She fears her children would be taken from her and put into foster care if social workers find out she can't provide a home for them. ``That's what I'm scared of - losing them.''
That is a common fear among homeless women, and a valid one, says Brenda McCormick, executive director of Mothers Inc., an advocacy group for the poor and homeless in Virginia Beach. McCormick says she knows of cases in which homeless mothers turned to the city's Social Services Department for help only to have their children put into foster care.
Harper has sought help from Mothers Inc., which is trying to raise enough money to put the family up in a motel again until she can get back on her feet.
What Tina Harper doesn't want to go back to is what she describes as an abusive, alcoholic ex-husband in West Virginia. After 10 years of putting up with the beatings, she says, she finally left five years ago, and they are now divorced.
She moved to Virginia Beach because her brother lived here. Soon she fell in love with another man. For several years, while the two lived together, Harper was able to stay home and take care of the kids. But earlier this year, when the relationship disintegrated, she was left with more bills than she could handle - and another child.
She went to work, earning $5 an hour as a hotel maid and, for a while, was able to make ends meet. But when the summer tourist season ended, her hours were cut back. Over the past two weeks, for example, Harper says she has worked just 28 hours and her take-home pay is not enough to allow her to care for her family. She also gets $346 a month in food stamps and a $92 Social Security check, her child-support payment provided through a disability benefit for her ex-husband. He was classified totally disabled after a car accident at age 18, when an arm was severed, then reattached. Harper says she doesn't understand why he was considered totally disabled. ``I don't see it. He beat me with it.''
``We need help,'' she says. ``It's not just me - there's lots more out there.''
Lots more, it seems, who may not get a chance to be heard in the nationwide study on homelessness.
The data collection phase of the study began about three weeks ago, when Census Bureau personnel started phoning 5,000 service providers. National coalitions for the homeless provided the calling lists. In February, the project is to wrap up with personal interviews with 3,000 homeless people around the country. Participants will be paid $10 for a 45-minute session.
The survey was commissioned by the federal Interagency Council on the Homeless. Information will be gleaned from 76 targeted metropolitan and rural areas - including Hampton Roads - and returned as raw data to the 12 federal agencies that will pay the bill.
``It's not designed to produce a count of homeless,'' Census Bureau statistician Annetta Clark says. ``The goals are to identify providers and to know what services are being offered. Then we'll talk to clients. It's not a count of homeless. It's about the types of programs and services.''
Brenda McCormick sees it differently.
``I don't care what they're calling it - it's just a replay of 1990,'' says McCormick. She describes her advocacy group's work as ``hit-and-miss guerrilla warfare'' in support of the poor and homeless.
In March 1990, the Census Bureau counted homeless people in shelters, coming up with a tally of about 225,000. The one-night project, known as ``S-night,'' was a response to complaints from national homeless coalitions that the bureau's 1990 census figures would be inaccurate because homeless people were excluded from the count.
McCormick charges that these figures were then used to allocate federal funds to municipalities to support services for the homeless. As a provider of such services, McCormick says she will boycott this new survey - and she urges others to do the same.
``They already know the number of beds,'' she says. ``They're paying for them. They're doing it to say there are fewer numbers of homeless so the country doesn't know what foul shape it's in. It's just the tip of an iceberg.''
McCormick estimates that the homeless who receive services - soup kitchens and shelters, for example - represent only 10 percent of the nation's real homeless population.
Alice Taylor, director of ministries for Norfolk's St Columba Ministries, agrees the new survey could be just a ``replay'' of 1990. But she will cooperate in providing data because, ``if done properly, and if done to justify to the federal government that funds are desperately needed to help the homeless in America, then it's a big step forward in homeless prevention.''
Richard Powell, director of Virginia Beach's Judeo-Christian Outreach Center, also will cooperate with the new survey. But he thinks it is ``ridiculous,'' and he says he will send a letter to federal officials telling them so.
The project is an example, he says, of ``how taxpayer dollars are wasted. They should let local governments take care of homeless projects.''
At the state level, reaction is cautiously supportive.
Sue Capers, public policy coordinator for the Virginia Coalition for the Homeless, says the survey would be ``good, if it means the administration is taking homelessness seriously.'' But, she says, ``If it's a replay of 1990, they're wasting time and money.''
National advocates are similarly cautious. Nan Roman, vice president of programs and policies for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, calls the new study ``a positive step to assess where we are in terms of service delivery. 1990 was an attempt to count segments, but this is an attempt to assess service delivery.''
Laurel Weir, policy director for the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, says ``good things could be accomplished'' by the study, but that would depend ``on how well it is carried out.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
The Virginian-Pilot
Tina Harper and her children - including, from left, Sarah, Janet,
Amanda and Matt - are homeless. But for purposes of the survey, they
do not exist.
KEYWORDS: HOMELESS INDIGENT by CNB