THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 19, 1996 TAG: 9607190481
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 79 lines
Ray Reynolds stands over a roller tray half-full of glossy white paint, a 2-inch brush dangling from his hand.
``Are we really supposed to paint today?'' he asks.
``Just take a little paint, Ray,'' says Maria Santos. ``Here, you can do it,'' she urges, taking a step toward him.
Reynolds, 43, who was homeless until this week, is persuaded. He dabs the brush into the paint and begins spreading it onto the marred and discolored kitchen wall of the Coleman Place apartment that is his new home.
Santos this week helped Reynolds and another homeless man move into the front half of the duplex. By month's end, the building will house eight men. The Virginia Beach advocate bought the property with some of more than $20,000 donated by people from Hampton Roads and across the nation.
Last month, the 47-year-old Navy wife and mother of four opened a group home in Virginia Beach for homeless women and their children.
On Saturday, 30 supporters of Santos and her non-profit ``Love and Caring for the Homeless'' will converge on the Norfolk house at 1544 Palmetto St. to ready the back apartment for use.
The dingy, mildewed interior with its broken, boarded-up windows presents a real challenge. But it's one Santos' fans will gladly take on. That is, as long as she bakes some bread.
``I asked them, and they said I'd have to cook for them,'' Santos explained. ``I said, `OK,' but then one of them told me, `They just want your bread.' ''
Santos, who's been feeding Virginia Beach homeless on the streets with her homemade Portuguese bread and soup for more than two years, began actively advocating for the homeless after she came upon a ragged old man curled up on the pavement behind a convenience store. She took the encounter as a sign from God.
Now, the determined Portuguese immigrant is thinking about buying another Norfolk duplex for men, and she dreams of a ``campus'' for homeless women and children in Virginia Beach. And, she says, there's a woman in Newport News who would manage a home there.
``I have been praying and praying,'' Santos says when asked about what limits she has set in her bid to aid homeless people. ``I have no limits, no. I have this vision that comes. The Lord said he would open houses in different places. The Lord wants me to do this.''
Chwight Olige, a 16-year-old neighborhood youth, is helping Reynolds paint. It's a good thing Olige is so tall, says Reynolds, because he'd never be able to reach the ceiling the way Olige can.
Reynolds is only too happy to put down the paint brush to talk. He's a self-described evangelist and writer and says that he has wandered around the United States helping folks for 17 years. He's a Virginia Beach native and graduate of Cox High School.
Gwen Miller has been watching Reynolds work. She's Santos' manager at the Virginia Beach residence, which now houses three women. Miller came to Virginia Beach from Memphis, Tenn., in June, bringing her three teenagers with her. But a temporary living situation with a relative ended abruptly, and her children returned to Memphis.
Miller stayed on, living in a truck, until she crossed paths with a woman at the Christian Broadcasting Network who directed her to Santos. Santos is a part-time prayer counselor at CBN.
The other resident of Santos' new Norfolk home is at work. Santos says he'll set a good example for Reynolds - teach him the value of good work habits and the rewards to be reaped. A home of his own, for example.
She is certain, she says, that Reynolds will change his life. MEMO: For information, call 471-3234 ILLUSTRATION: MIKE HEFFNER photos, The Virginian-Pilot
Gwen Miller surveys the setting of a home for men being refurbished
in Norfolk. Miller manages a similar site for women in Virginia
Beach. Until recently, Miller herself was homeless, but she was
directed to Maria Santos and her blossoming shelter system.
Maria Santos, left, listens to Gwen Miller talk about the progress
being made on a shelter for homeless men being fixed up in Norfolk.
Miller manages a similar facility for women in Virginia Beach.
Santos would like to see a larger place for women and children open
in Virginia Beach.
KEYWORDS: INDIGENT PEOPLE HOMELESS SHELTER by CNB