THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 19, 1996 TAG: 9605190093
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Maria Santos wants everyone to come to a celebratory picnic Saturday. Everyone.
She's not worried about whether the loaves of Portuguese bread and donated fried fish she plans to serve will feed the multitude. She puts her voluminous faith in God to provide.
Santos is rejoicing because she closed Friday on two buildings she will use to shelter homeless people. The purchases of a Coleman Place duplex in Norfolk and a four-bedroom Salem Road ranch in Virginia Beach were made possible by donations from hundreds of Hampton Roads residents as well as many from across the nation.
``I will bake the bread all day, and a North Carolina pastor gives us all the fish we need,'' Santos said. ``Some way he has a lot of fish.''
Neither is the 47-year-old Portuguese immigrant concerned about where the money will come from to pay the $120,000 mortgage.
``I trust my God,'' she said. ``I believe people will donate. I have faith in my God.''
Already, the Navy wife and mother of four is receiving an average of $1,000 a month on behalf of her nonprofit ``Love and Caring for the Homeless,'' said Tom Swoope, a real estate agent with William E. Wood, who has joined Santos' board of directors.
When Santos ran into Swoope, her dream of doing more than feeding the homeless on the streets began to become reality.
But the metamorphosis from a cocooned idea to the winged butterfly of fact has not been easy.
``It's the devil we've been fighting with,'' Santos said.
``Satan gets in there and kicks up his feet,'' Swoope added.
An earlier mortgage deal fell through, so Santos and Swoope found another lender and went out on a limb, putting their own homes on the line.
Finding the right bank was as uncanny as so many other incidents in Santos' two-year effort.
Swoope was sitting behind his desk mulling over the unraveling of the March mortgage deal when a card dropped from his desk drawer. It was the card of an old friend, Allen Monette at First Home Mortgage Corp. Since he has known Santos, Swoope keeps an eye open for heavenly messages and messengers, so he phoned Monette, who put him in touch with Leland Simons at Princess Anne Bank. Within two weeks a new deal involving no down payment and a low-interest rate was struck.
Collateral for the house at 2804 Salem Road house is the duplex at 1544 Palmetto St., for which Santos paid $11,000 in back taxes Friday. She got $3,000 of it from her fellow parishioners at Rock Church. The remaining $8,000 was given by a close associate of Swoope, who insists on remaining anonymous.
``God knew,'' Santos said of the financial negotiations.
``The Lord knew,'' she said of the $15,000 already collected in donations that the bank required to be put in escrow.
The $925 monthly payment does not include insurance. Also needed is money to pay for utilities, a riding lawn mower and a trimmer.
Santos plans to give shelter to eight men in the Norfolk home and a number of women and their children in the Virginia Beach residence. ``It will be better for the children there,'' Santos said. ``They can run and play.''
Co-signers were needed for the nonprofit's mortgage because it is a new organization. Swoope and his wife, Jackie, and Santos and her husband, Frank, didn't hesitate. They pledged their own homes.
In recent weeks, others have come forward to help.
Beds were donated by a Newport News woman, and daily food needs will be met by a Chesapeake restaurateur.
Santos has learned to wait, she said, for God's will to be fulfilled.
``He's testing me. But listen, we asked for beds, we got the beds.
``Thank the Lord.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Maria Santos is rejoicing at her recent good fortune in being able
to close on two buildings she will use to shelter those in need.
by CNB