DATE: Tuesday, November 18, 1997            TAG: 9711180282

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   71 lines

BEACH HOMELESS CENTER SURVIVES CONTROVERSY, OPENS LATER THIS MONTH HOMELESS ADVOCATES WERE DIVIDED OVER USE OF FEDERAL GRANT.

Starting later this month, the homeless will have for the first time a city-sanctioned day center where they can shower, wash their clothing, receive counseling and find transportation to overnight housing.

The Lighthouse Day Services Center, which stands behind the city's new Second Police Precinct on 17th Street, will serve as a staging area for the Winter Shelter Task Force, an association of churches and homeless advocates who for 10 years have provided shelter for the homeless during the winter.

More than three years after receiving an $800,000 federal grant to aid the homeless, the City Council is expected at its meeting today to sign a lease that will give control of the newly built center to the Volunteers of America.

The center's construction was mired in controversy earlier this year when homeless advocates found themselves divided over the use of the federal money.

The debate centered on whether it was best to spend the money building a dormitory and discontinue the use of churches to house the homeless during the winter or to build a day center and serve the homeless in ways that stop short of providing overnight shelter.

The issue was resolved through a compromise. Instead of building a dormitory, advocates agreed to keep the church network intact while dedicating the day center to meeting other pressing needs of the homeless.

To that end, the new day center will have common meeting space, showers, a laundry and a small kitchen, said Deborah Maloney, director of homeless services for Volunteers of America.

By placing the center on city-owned property, the center also sidestepped any not-in-my-back-yard debate that so often follows the homeless.

``The location is excellent,'' Maloney said. ``It's central to serving the homeless and it will be very user-friendly and easy to get to for people who need its services.

``We think it will encourage a lot of drop-by visits,'' she added. ``One of the best things about this building is that it is a response to the faith community and the nonprofits' cry for better homeless services.''

The 3,000-square-foot building was expected to cost about $700,000, an amount that another prominent homeless advocate, Richard Powell of the Judeo-Christian Outreach Center, decried as extravagant.

Powell has long advocated spending part of the original $800,000 grant on a dormitory for the homeless, while using the rest to renovate the outreach center into a day center.

The Judeo-Christian Outreach Center operates one of the region's more successful soup kitchens and is widely known for its ability to stretch small sums a long way. But it also comes under occasional criticism for its ``tough love'' approach to caring for the homeless.

Andrew M. Friedman, the city's director of the Department of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation, said the new day center will likely cost far less than the $700,000 originally estimated, although how much is still uncertain.

He said the final figure won't be known until construction is completed. On Monday, workers were installing lights and attending to last-minute details. A formal dedication will take place Dec. 7, but the building is expected to be operational before then.

Some of the grant money will be spent on a new 15-passenger van, which will supplement the existing fleet of vans needed to transport the homeless to various churches that participate in the winter shelter program.

It remains unclear how the rest of the money will be spent.

``This building is a major step forward,'' Freidman said. ``It's filling part of an objective for people who have worked for the homeless for 10 years. It will enhance services for the single homeless population that have been sheltered by churches for many years.

``It's not necessarily what everyone was looking for, but it's an enhancement.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Deborah Maloney KEYWORDS: HOMELESS SHELTER

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu