THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230315
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 131 lines
When Winter Shelter Task Force volunteers talk about providing the homeless with more than a place to sleep and a hot meal, they think of David S. Ward and how close he is to freedom.
Tall and thin, with a long gray beard that suggests a weariness well beyond his 50 years, Ward fell hard from a middle-class life in Virginia Beach's Haygood Point. Once he was a married computer programmer and systems analyst for a government subcontractor. He had two sons and, generally, life seemed pretty decent.
Then came the terrible shocks - unemployment, divorce, frustration - one piling up on the other. The final blow came when his 13-year-old son killed himself.
``I didn't handle that very well,'' he said Tuesday evening as nearly 40 other homeless men and women sought shelter from frigid weather at Wycliffe Presbyterian Church.
How better to help someone like Ward regain his life is at the heart of a 2-year-old debate over the homeless in Virginia Beach that will come to a head Tuesday at City Hall.
The City Council was awarded an $800,000 federal grant in 1995 to help create solutions, but the money has remained unspent. How to spend the money comes down to a choice between two competing proposals, submitted by the Judeo-Christian Outreach Center and the Winter Shelter Task Force, which is run with the Volunteers of America.
The council's choice would not eliminate the efforts of either group, but would certainly expand one group's resources.
Dozens of local churches and synagogues support both the task force and the outreach center financially and through volunteering time and labor. But if forced to choose how to spend the $800,000, many religious leaders say the task force's plan offers a more comprehensive approach.
Ward would be better served, they contend, by sleeping in churches during the winter and getting the expanded counseling and support services proposed by the task force rather than the stability of a year-round shelter that Judeo-Christian seeks to build.
Joanne M. Schihl, director of social ministry at Church of Ascension on Princess Anne Road, has been active on the issue almost from the beginning. Schihl, who has worked with both the Volunteers of America, which is leading the task force's efforts, and Judeo-Christian Outreach Executive Director Richard H. Powell, favors the task force's approach.
``I find the VOA to be more professional,'' she said. ``They're working toward improving the whole person in terms of self-counseling, taking them where they are and trying to give them some self-esteem or helping them out with medical and dental problems. They're very professional.
``It appears that Dick Powell warehouses people, gives them a place to stay and that's it,'' she said. ``He won't take them if they're not looking for a job, or in Alcoholics Anonymous or working their way up. But many of the folks we see are really not at the point in their lives where they can do that.''
Ward agrees with that assessment. Working with the task force's counselors, Ward said, he has begun to deal with the pain is now confident his homeless days are nearing an end. He hopes to land a job he heard about at Canon in Newport News.
``I wish the money were going to what I thought it was originally intended, a full-time shelter,'' Ward said. ``However, the task force idea is a good use of the money. It's needed. I prefer this one to that of the Judeo-Christian Outreach Center.''
Ward, while not an opponent of Powell, said that Powell's approach to caring for the homeless is a bit too strict to benefit the full range of people who become homeless.
Among the homeless community, Powell's center is widely admired and occasionally criticized for being too strict with people who have fallen through the cracks. Yet Powell's program, which is supported by a range of local churches and civic activists, runs one of the area's busiest soup kitchens.
Everyone associated with the debate agrees that the area would be worse off if either group were diminished in some way.
Powell proposes, basically, that the $800,000 be used by his center to build a new shelter at 15th Street and Parks Avenue near the Oceanfront. Powell would then move the base of his operations from Virginia Beach Boulevard to the new facility.
The task force plan proposes to purchase a smaller, 3,000-square-foot home, renovate it, and use it for a day center - where the homeless can shower, wash their clothes, and receive counseling.
Powell argues that while the task force's plan has merit, it fails in one major way: It does not provide more beds for the homeless.
The Rev. Bruce D. Tuttle, of the Lynnhaven United Methodist Church on Little Neck Road, says it's a valid argument.
His church provides services for the homeless during the week between Christmas and New Year's as part of the task force's efforts.
``We're well aware of the need for a shelter,'' he said. ``We take meals to the Judeo-Christian center six times a year. I'm a friend of Dick Powell's and I like what he is proposing, a shelter outside the control of the city. I think he would do a good job with it.
``The main objective, I think, is to provide as much bed space as we can,'' he said. ``How we do it is important, but we have to provide that space. Dick runs a tight ship. Those who use it have to abide by stringent rules.''
The Rev. Richard T. Mooney of Church of the Holy Family on Great Neck Road is philosophical about the proposed solutions.
``The Winter Shelter Task Force proposal seems like the more practical suggestion, but it certainly is an imperfect one,'' Mooney said. ``We are glad to be of service. In a better world, the city would have worked a little harder for these folks. In a still better world, our society would not be trying to abandon this problem.''
He said his church would continue to support both programs.
Hazel F. Whitney, an elder at Wycliffe Presbyterian Church where Ward and others have been housed overnight this week, said that it is important to focus on the original purpose of the volunteers.
``Whatever we do, we need to make sure that we cater to those folks most in need,'' she said. ``There are many people on the street who, because of health or addiction problems, are unable to respond to conditions for acceptance into the Judeo-Christian Outreach Shelter. If we push everything under one roof, we will not cater to those people.''
Ward points to all of the services the task force has provided him.
``After all the problems I encountered, I sort of backed out of life and let things happen to me. Being around the Winter Shelter, they taught me to take responsibility, that it was up to me to turn things around.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT photos
The Virginian-Pilot
David S. Ward, center, talks with other men at Wycliffe Presbyterian
Church, where he has been staying this week. Ward, who fell into
homelessness from a middle-class life, has worked with the Winter
Shelter Task Force counselors, and believes he is on his way to
regaining his life. ``The task force idea is a good use of the
money,'' Ward says. ``It's needed.''
Faye Hinton, left, Vivian Price, center, and Evelyn Cason serve beef
vegetable soup to the homeless at Wycliffe Presbyterian Church in
Virginia Beach. The women are members of the Mount Zion A.M.E.
Church.
KEYWORDS: GRANT HOMELESS INDIGENT VIRGINIA BEACH CITY
COUNCIL