THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603030050
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ELIZABETH SIMPSON
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Independence.
Every woman who walks through the doors of the Samaritan House is looking for it.
It's just a distant dream, though, when you get hit by your spouse and you want to leave but you don't have money or a place to stay.
A 25-year-old Norfolk woman named April talked with me last week about looking for independence. A year ago her husband roughed her up, then excused the slugfest by calling it ``playing around.''
She didn't want to play anymore.
But she didn't feel secure enough to move out on her own. She had a job, but no car. A steady income, but no savings. The will to leave, but no place to stay.
So she and her daughter moved into a Samaritan House shelter in Virginia Beach, a place where homeless families and victims of domestic violence can live for up to 45 days.
The shelters are not fancy places, but they are comfortable, functional and safe. They don't stand out as shelters, but blend into neighborhoods of townhouses and single-family homes. ``It was like a home away from home,'' April said. ``You're not worried about getting beat up, or put out, so you can think about getting out on your own, about starting over.''
Counselors at the Samaritan House helped April save some money, find a place to live and write a list of goals for herself.
``I have never asked them for anything since, because they already did plenty for me. They gave me a place to rest my head until I could get on my feet, and that was enough.''
The folks who run the Samaritan House, who specialize in teaching women independence, are in the midst of learning one such lesson themselves. For the past five years, the Samaritan House has depended on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to lease them eight of their 10 shelters for $1 a year.
But like a lot of government programs, HUD is cutting back. As of March 1997, the $1-a-year deal will be history.
The people who run the Samaritan House have become achingly familiar with the sense of dependency well-known by the homeless people who walk through their doors.
It's how you feel when the same government that used to give a helping hand to the poor and the desperate pulls back. When the public cries ``personal responsibility'' when a social agency asks for money.
But instead of quitting, the people at Samaritan House are applying the same lessons of independence they teach women. They want to buy the eight shelters, and they need $500,000 to do it.
Just as Samaritan House lends a hand to homeless families, the community needs to help Samaritan House become more independent.
The thought of owning the shelters sends executive director Ellen Ferber dreaming about designing them to better fit the clients' needs: ``It would be extremely liberating,'' she said. ``It would be the best feeling in the world.''
While the $35,000 raised since the fund drive began last month is short of the goal, it's been enough to bolster Ferber's faith in people. ``There's still a core goodness in people, that's what the response has told us.''
by CNB