
DATE: Wednesday, May 28, 1997               TAG: 9705280497

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  122 lines

FORMER HOMELESS FAMILY EARNS A HOME WITH HARD WORK AND CHURCHES' HELP

Three sites, eight months and dozens of sleepless nights later, Janet Graham is finally getting a home of her own.

Whether she can ever shed the stigma of being homeless is another matter.

Norfolk homeless advocates eager to give down-on-their-luck families an incentive to get ahead are banking she can.

Despite ``not in our backyard'' resistance from some Ocean View residents, organizers of a pilot program to build ``rent-to-own'' single-family homes for once-homeless families broke ground last week on their first house. As the program's first ``graduating'' homeowner, Graham hopes to move in by September.

Frustrated with what they believe are harsh restrictions imposed by the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority in securing federal funds, program administrators vow they won't let neighborhood prejudices stop them any longer. Instead, they'll look for other sources to help foot the construction bills. Eventually, they hope to build two or three single-family homes.

``I don't want anyone upset at us, . . . but my priority is my families,'' says Thaler McCormick, director of the Episcopal Consortium for Home Ownership, the program's sponsor. ``As soon as people hear `homeless,' there are a lot of stereotypes and prejudices. They don't want it in their neighborhood. We want to show people that this is not a scary thing we're doing.''

The program was engineered a year ago by the Haven Family Center and ECHO - a consortium of 10 Episcopal churches in the Norfolk Convocation of Episcopal Churches. Initially, it intended to build the first home last September on Seaview Avenue. Thought to be the site of a crack house, the property was rundown and a neighborhood eyesore. Neighbors cheered when bulldozers leveled the site last summer, McCormick recalled.

But when program organizers approached neighbors with their plans, objections were raised. As part of the stipulations for securing federal home funds administered through NRHA, the consortium needed residents' approval to get the grant money.

That didn't happen. It also didn't happen when an alternative site was chosen on 4th Bay Avenue.

``We don't have any problem with the program, but it doesn't fit in with what we're trying to do in West Ocean View,'' said Robert P. Bayliss, former president of the Ocean View Civic League. ``It's hard to turn a neighborhood around . . . if there's too much of that kind of activity. There's plenty of other places that it would work a lot better.''

That attitude grates on McCormick, who says it is ``very stigmatizing to our families, who work very hard to get where they are.''

After some eight ``rocky months'' of trying to convince wary residents and waiting for funds from NRHA, organizers worked out a ``swap sale'' with the housing authority so they could build their first home. As part of the agreement, ECHO received a site - already designated for low- to moderate-income housing - on 8th Bay Avenue in exchange for its original site.

``We wanted to make sure whatever ECHO did or whatever we did was consistent with the wishes, desires and goals of the neighborhood,'' said Pat Gomez, director of community development for the housing authority. ``The key thing is we worked out a solution that everyone is comfortable with.''

On May 20, ECHO finally began construction at that site on a $75,000, three-bedroom home of about 1,300 square feet. According to McCormick, a ``whole laundry list'' of private contractors have agreed to volunteer about $20,000 worth of services and labor to build the house.

``It was always our intention to build housing a cut above,'' she said, ``something that would fit into the neighborhood and bring it up.''

The groundbreaking was a turning point for Ocean View homeless advocates who have worked for eight ``long'' years to find a permanent solution to homelessness in their neighborhood.

``It's incredible to me that this is really happening,'' said Elizabeth Brickhouse, director of the Haven Family Center. ``The promise of home ownership gives our families something to shoot for. If you're at a dead-end road, you quit trying. This will make the difference.''

Graham's situation is typical of most families who end up at Haven.

When her ex-husband stopped sending child support checks three years ago, she said, she went into denial. She figured the money would come.

It didn't.

So she waited. And waited some more. It never came. Finally, unable to pay her rent from her salary working full time as a publishing clerk, Graham and her two teen-age daughters were evicted from their apartment. Left homeless with nowhere to go, they turned to Haven.

It was a wake-up call of monumental proportions.

``If someone had told me a year and a half ago that one day I'd have my own home, I've have told them they were crazy,'' the New York native said. ``An apartment seemed like an impossible dream - a house was out of the question.''

But the chance of owning was not something simply handed to Graham, organizers point out. She earned it through a lot of hard work.

``This program is not a hand-out,'' McCormick emphasized. ``This is a hand up for families who are working hard to get ahead. From the moment (Graham) walked into the door at the Haven, she's done what it takes to get ahead.''

For Graham, that work has entailed working through a four-step ``continuum of care,'' graduating from emergency shelter at the Haven Center to ``transitional'' housing at nearby Morgan's Place.

Named for the late Ocean View activist, Ernie Morgan, Morgan's Place is a group of transitional apartments that serve as stepping-stone housing for families that have exhausted their stay at Haven and are working toward independent living and permanent housing.

As part of that, they undergo intense family counseling, financial planning and career guidance and work toward earning vouchers for clothing, necessities and future housing down payments.

After two years of intensive preparation, the final incentive is buying a home of their own.

``It's a very grueling program, and we're very selective of who gets in the program,'' McCormick said. ``Typically, it will take two years and four months of work to become eligible for our home-ownership program. Then it will be another two years before they actually can be in their own home.

``After they get into a home, they must purchase it within two years or their lease expires.''

Eventually, organizers hope to put two or three families a year into new homes.

But, for now, Graham's dream is taking shape.

``I've come a long way with a lot of help. In a year, I hope I'll be mowing my front yard.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot

Mindi Haugen, left, an assistant at the Haven Family Center,

celebrates with Janet Graham, center, at the groundbreaking last

week of Graham's home in Ocean View, the first in a program to help

the homeless.