THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 30, 1995 TAG: 9511300437
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LEWIS KRAUSKOPF, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
A four-month appeal to the Department of Housing and Urban Development ended this week, leaving a shelter for abused and homeless families out in the cold.
Samaritan House learned that HUD won't give it the lease extensions it requested, leaving the organization with a good chance of losing eight of its 10 houses.
``We're not happy with the outcome,'' said Ellen C. Ferber, the executive director for Samaritan House. ``We feel that they (HUD) have not realized the impact on a local level. We have asked for three to five years to replace those houses and we don't feel that's an unreasonable request.''
HUD granted Samaritan House extensions for two of the five houses the nonprofit organization targeted for purchase. As it stands, the leases for three shelters used for transitional housing will expire in summer and the leases on five emergency shelters will end in the spring of 1997.
HUD officials said the extensions should provide enough time for Samaritan House, which provides services for 200 abused and homeless families in Hampton Roads, to raise the money to buy the homes.
``The information indicated that they stand a good chance (of raising the funds),'' said Bill Burnham, HUD's Richmond coordinator for the program that supplies the leases. ``That's a reasonable amount of time to get the money together. We haven't slammed the door shut by any means.''
But Samaritan House, which already turns away nine families for every one served, does not have the funds to purchase the homes, Ferber said.
``I think the decision, unless there's a lot of money from another source, means that 100-150 families have to be out on the street because Samaritan House has no place to put them,'' Ferber said.
Samaritan House would have to raise about $450,000 for the five emergency shelters and $552,000 for all eight properties.
``It's a substantial sum of money to raise,'' Ferber said. ``We've demonstrated we could do it, but there isn't a nonprofit (agency) that could raise that money in a year to a year-and-a-half.''
Samaritan House discovered in June that its properties were in peril. At the time, HUD revealed that it would no longer allow its regional offices to exceed national guidelines for a program that allows for 10 percent of the department's inventory to be leased to nonprofit agencies for $1 a month. The Richmond office, which administers properties in Hampton Roads, already exceeded that 10 percent limit, meaning that it would be unable to lease any more to nonprofit agencies until those guidelines were met.
Samaritan House, one of nine organizations in Hampton Roads affected by the HUD change, was told it would not be allowed to renew its leases.
Now, Samaritan House is looking for other appeal routes, possibly through state legislators, and concentrating on fund raising.
``We're going out and getting the community involved,'' Ferber said. ``We're trying to go out and save the shelters however we can.''
KEYWORDS: HOMELESS SHELTER by CNB