DATE: Wednesday, October 1, 1997            TAG: 9709300419

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: Neighborhood Exchange 

SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   58 lines

ACCESSIBLE HOUSING, EVEN THE PROPOSAL, INSPIRES MAN GRASS-ROOTS EFFORT CREATES OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE DISABLED

Want to know about the power of possibility? Ask Thomas C. Hopkins.

Hopkins, 42, born with cerebral palsy, has spent much of his life depending on others to help him through his days.

A couple of years ago, he learned that a nonprofit, grass-roots community group was forming to develop an apartment complex accessible to people with mobility impairments.

Apartments would feature extra-wide hallways, roll-in showers, radio paging to attendants, and handicapped-accessible kitchen counters, stoves, electric switches and plugs.

All that made Hopkins think how different things could be for him.

He joined the effort, although he did not know whether he'd ever live in the proposed 25-unit complex to be built near Norfolk's Wards Corner. He still doesn't know because applications cannot be accepted for several months.

But, excited about the sense of opportunity, Hopkins appeared at a public hearing to help persuade Norfolk officials that the complex was needed.

Maybe more importantly, Hopkins began learning to do more for himself, mostly the daily tasks of grooming and dressing. Also, his confidence grew about taking bus trips around town.

Hopkins, now renting in Portsmouth, smiles a lot before answering questions about what the new apartments would mean. He envisions his life continuing to improve.

``I'll go out when I want to. I'll go to church more . . . I'll meet more people,'' Hopkins said, his mouth straining to form the words. ``It has been needed for many, many years.''

He'd also have a home convenient to friends with whom he'd share his interests in personal computing and listening to classical music.

And Hopkins would be living near the Talbot Park neighborhood where he was raised.

There, his parents took close care of him. After Jackson and Sophie Hopkins died, their son moved in with a cousin, Marge Streicher.

Streicher began urging and teaching Hopkins to fend more for himself. ``But I think you could safely say that it's the knowledge that these apartments would be built that has pushed him,'' she said. ``It's the dream of it.''

The Accessible Housing Corp. of South Hampton Roads, with a volunteer board of directors mainly of local people with physical disabilities, has a $1.4 million federal grant for development. The group has raised another $250,000, and there would be subsidies to help low-income people with rent. Groundbreaking may be in November, followed by 10 to 12 months of construction. MEMO: For more information about the nonprofit Accessible Housing

Corp. of South Hampton Roads, call retired Navy Capt. Robert A. Horan,

481-3358, or e-mail rhoran(a)erols.com

Story ideas for this column. Call Mike Knepler, 446-2275. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Thomas C. Hopkins

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