THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 10, 1994 TAG: 9410100034
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICK K. LACKEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
When 20-year-old Sharonda Morris learned in a hospital emergency room last May that she was pregnant with triplets, she sat down and cried.
She was holding down two jobs - at a fast food franchise and a motel - to support herself and her 2-year-old daughter, Tania.
She was a hard worker, a former boss said. But doctors told her she had to stop working to protect the triplets' health, and hers.
She had saved about $500, she said, but with no salary coming in, the money didn't last long. Her situation was becoming desperate when a social worker referred her to The Dwelling Place, a nonprofit emergency shelter for families that occupies two large houses on West 37th Street.
When she heard the words ``emergency shelter,'' she envisioned a large room with little beds crammed together.
What she got was a private room with a private bathroom and communal kitchen and living area.
``It's just like being at home,'' she said. ``The staff are supportive. You can talk to anyone about anything.''
She has applied now for subsidized housing, but her needs are great. She is six months pregnant.
``After I leave here,'' she vowed, ``I will come back and volunteer my time. I never thought about being homeless until it happened. They help you mentally, physically and emotionally.''
The father of her daughter, Morris said, is in jail in Long Island. The father of the triplets, she said, is in jail in Norfolk. She is on her own.
Normally, a family may stay at the shelter up to 45 days, but Morris's stay has been extended.
The Dwelling Place opened in 1986 to provide shelter for homeless families.
Last year, 175 families, a total of more than 600 individuals stayed there an average of 40 days. The Dwelling Place can hold up to 14 families at a time, but 1,200 requests for shelter were denied last year for want of bed space.
``Families are the hidden homeless,'' said Patricia Manthey, the shelter's executive director, ``and children are the unrecognized victims.''
A U.S. Conference of Mayors report in 1987 said 37 percent of the homeless were families. By 1990 the conference reported more than half of the homeless were families. A 1992 Norfolk study showed 64 percent of the city's homeless were families.
The typical family at the shelter is a mother with two or three children and no church or relatives to fall back on.
``It's a hard world out there,'' Manthey said. When she has placed ads for night managers for the shelters, jobs that pay $5 to $6 an hour, she has gotten 40 to 50 applications. Half of the applicants have college degrees, she said, and some have postgraduate degrees.
Every year, she said, it gets harder for the heads of families to find jobs and shelter.
The Dwelling Place provides counseling and preschool. It staffs both houses 24 hours a day. The Dwelling Place reports that it costs $12.64 to shelter one child one day, $48.02 per child for a week of pre-school, $56.40 to shelter a family each night and $396.50 to shelter and counsel a family for a week.
The Dwelling Place's annual budget is about $240,000, most from donations.
``We see many of our families become stabilized,'' Manthey said.
This year, for the first time, The Dwelling Place is a United Way Agency. The shelter is certified for this year and next as a Level II agency, meaning that the only United Way money it will receive is money that donors designate on their pledge forms to go to The Dwelling Place. Beginning in 1996, the shelter is to receive money from the general United Way fund.
For those seeking to help Morris or the shelter, call 624-9879. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Richard L. Dunston, Staff
Sharonda Morris, pregnant with triplets, and her daughter Tania
Brown, 2, live at The Dwelling Place, an emergency shelter for
families.
KEYWORDS: UNITED WAY by CNB