"You couldn’t tell which of those gathered in Charlottesville’s First Presbyterian on Tuesday slept in a car or the woods that night.

They mingled unobtrusively among advocates who tried to identify and find patches for the cracks in the system, and keep the homeless out of literal and stereotypical boxes.

A January survey found 156 homeless in the region, including 25 adults and eight children with no place to stay the night the data were collected.

The Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless expected only 40 people at its “Homelessness in a World Class City” forum; 120 agency representatives, advocates and officials - and a half-dozen people who said they were or had been homeless - showed up to find answers.

Among them were Robert Underwood, a veteran awaiting heart surgery who lives in a van; Lynn Wiber, who has cycled into, out of, and back into homelessness; and Wil Stoughton, who has for two years lived with his dog, Moonlight, in a shack he built at an off-ramp of the U.S. 250 Bypass.

“I’m not really looking for a handout. Just a hand up,” Stoughton said into a microphone at the end of the forum, speaking shyly from his chair to the curious crowd.

The general conclusion was that more must be done: more cooperation and communication among agencies that provide homes and mental health services, more education of the homeless population on what’s available, more shelters - and fewer rules.

“I think our mindset needs to change some,” said one woman at the break-out group assigned to address the street population. “It’s our mentality that’s warped.”

Many in the group recognized that some homeless people will continue to choose to sleep in makeshift camps or on the street, no matter what services are available.

“For me, I just, I prefer to live in the woods,” Stoughton said. Besides, he added, shelters don’t have space for his dog.

Police on Friday were looking for Stoughton to ask him to move his camp off University of Virginia property. Stoughton on Tuesday met a UVa representative who said she would work with him and the police to give him time to gather his belongings and dismantle his camp.

Underwood took a moment in the hallway to offer a remedy for desiring a drink to Stoughton, who is battling alcoholism.

Underwood said any homelessness option must be long-term. He and others iterated the need for a safe space with no prerequisites, just a bed, no questions asked, with mental health, substance abuse and employment services available if people want them.

Faith-based groups may step up to fill that need. For the past 18 months some have met to try to create a new shelter option. They hope to have by fall a system to provide warm beds all winter.

The proposed system could patch a hole: There is no option between the no-alcohol rule of the Salvation Army and the must-be-drunk criterion of the Mohr Center, an inebriate shelter and long-term detox center.

“We think we can work all this out. We think this is a solvable problem if people are willing to be part of the solution,” said Sam Massey, pastor at First Presbyterian. And though there are some who never would take advantage of a shelter, he said, the option should be there. He hopes at some point to be able to assure that no area resident freezes to death.

Most attendees were vague about what they personally could do next. But one man said that if First Presbyterian opened as a shelter, his carpentry firm would build them a shower.

Others promised to advocate more for a “living wage” and recruit volunteers to offer companionship and conversation to soup kitchen diners, and one woman said she would look into renting a Belmont house to the homeless.

Al Hughes with the Virginia Employment Commission said the One Stop Career Center would look into opening its computer lab to teach homeless people new skills.

“This was more encouraging than I thought it would be. People are finally starting to see that there is a real need,” Lynn Wiber said. Wiber had been one of the 41 percent of surveyed homeless people with jobs, then she found a place to live. But she just lost her job, she said, and will be homeless again by the end of the week.

The forum could help the area get more federal funding. The coalition each year applies to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and an organized effort to combat homelessness in all its forms will make the city a better candidate, said Evan Scully, director of the Homeless Management Information System." (Elizabeth Nelson, The Daily Progress, March 30, 2004)

Contact Elizabeth Nelson at (434) 978-7245 or enelson@dailyprogress.com.