THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607180391
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 84 lines
A Norfolk neighborhood that likes to think of itself as on the way up is opposing a proposed facility that could help folks who have bottomed out.
The planning commission must decide Aug. 22 whether to back a zoning change that would allow The Salvation Army to open a homeless shelter at the corner of Tidewater Drive and Virginia Beach Boulevard.
The City Council would then consider the change.
The organization's Hampton Roads command said Tuesday that it will move forward with plans to buy the Comfort Inn and renovate it to provide short- and long-term shelter and rehabilitation services to as many as 195 individuals and families who have no permanent address.
The group hopes to close on the property by October.
Community leaders are against the plan. They contend that the proposed facility would bring together homeless from three cities and lower neighborhood property values.
Andre Fenwick, president of the Barberton Civic League, said his group does not ``like the kinds of people who are going to be brought in. Though some may just be down on their luck.''
Fenwick, who said he also spoke for Attucks East and Attucks West residents, cited the hard work in bringing the neighborhood up from where it had once been.
``There were a lot of initiatives, and we don't need to upset the balance, and the city can't afford it either, because residents will leave,'' he said.
The Salvation Army's local chapter serves people in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake as well as Norfolk.
The group has $2.2 million of the $3.5 million needed for the project. The money was raised though the Center of Hope campaign launched five months ago.
John Brewington, The Salvation Army's advisory board chairman, said Tuesday that opposition to the plan is based on misinformation.
He said the group's 19th Street shelter, which serves as many as 40 homeless men each night, is inadequate. Last year, he said, 81,000 individuals were helped at the shelter, but others were turned away due to lack of space.
The proposed facility would offer space for social services, child care and job training.
The Salvation Army applied for rezoning of the property from commercial to conditional institutional earlier this month.
``The Comfort Inn is in the ideal location for us to provide the services the community needs,'' said Capt. Rick Mikles, commander of the Hampton Roads chapter of The Salvation Army. ``The price is right, the need is immediate and we have invested thousands of dollars already in locating here. We will not walk away.'' Mikles said The Salvation Army has agreed to pay $2.2 million for the property.
Ulysses Turner, Norfolk School Board chairman and owner of Atlantic Apartment Rentals on Church Street, said the community already has ``more than our fair share of low-income people. . . . It's wrong to compound those numbers.
``The housing authority (Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority) assured us that this would be a good, strong growth community,'' Turner said.
Turner, who lives in Ghent, said the city should provide the same protection for the Church Street area that it provides for Ghent. He mentioned Chesapeake and Virginia Beach as better places for a residential training center for the homeless.
Stanley Glaser, president of Stanley's Home Furnishings, also is opposed to the plan. He was part of an entourage of business and civic leaders who expressed their concern to the City Council about a month ago.
``It seems like we're the orphans to downtown Norfolk,'' Glaser said. ``No matter what the downtown does, we're not included. Church Street merchants are part of the downtown, but when there are parades, lighting, we're not notified.''
Glaser said shelter residents would engage in panhandling during the day.
``I think it will bring undesirable people, and as permanent residents, they'll become eligible for schooling, ADC, every plan that we have,'' Glaser said. ``Why should Norfolk lose valuable tax property? How about Chesapeake or Military Highway?'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
The Salvation Army wants to convert the Comfort Inn, at Tidewater
Drive and Virginia Beach Boulevard, into a homeless shelter.
Graphic
KEN WRIGHT/The Virginian-Pilot
CENTER OF HOPE
SOURCE: Salvation Army
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm] by CNB