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Area has few low-cost housing alternatives

February 11, 2008 12:16 am

If she moves into a house, Melissa Rutherford-Gipson plans to spend the first week in the kitchen.

Her 9 and 12 year old children have already requested their first meals.

Hunter Rutherford, the oldest, would love chicken enchiladas. His younger sister Shayla wants roast with mashed potatoes.

Those home-cooked dinners aren't on the near horizon.

The family, which also includes dad Jarrett Gipson and baby Desiree, lives in the Thomas Jefferson Motor Lodge off U.S. 1 in Fredericksburg. The five have lived in four area motels in the past year, and Rutherford-Gipson said this is the best one: It has fresh paint, room for the kids to play outside and a full-sized fridge.

It does not, however, have a working stove.

Rutherford-Gipson sometimes walks to Bottom Dollar, trekking down and across U.S. 1 with all three children. She buys pork chops and green beans to cook on hot plates.

Many evenings, the family eats dinners dropped off by local churches. Or they go out for fast food, when Rutherford-Gipson comes home too exhausted to cook or even think about dinner.

There's not a lot of money left over for food. Rutherford-Gipson works long shifts at a restaurant in Dumfries. Three nights a week, she works overnight.

"I'm going to work brainboggled, thinking, 'Am I going to make enough or not?'" she said.

Her husband, Jarrett, works part-time as a handyman and is looking for jobs. The couple pays about $1,000 a month in rent at the motel--more than the cost of an apartment. But they have no money for security deposits and have bad credit.

When they first got evicted from their apartment just days before Christmas 2006, the family tried to get into the region's homeless shelter, hoping to save money for a down payment on another place.

But the Thurman Brisben Center was full. And there is no other shelter for families in the area.

The problem, say those who work with the homeless, is the lack of lower cost housing. The area's government-funded Section 8 housing developments have long waiting lists and there are few transitional housing programs in the area.

Three local task forces have been created, but so far, no affordable housing projects have come about.

"What are these task forces going to do?" said Erik Nelson, senior city planner for Fredericksburg. There's been a lot of talk but no additional housing.

Rutherford-Gipson said most of the services her family receives come from the public school system. Hunter and Shayla attend Stafford County schools, because federal rules require public schools to keep homeless students enrolled even when they move.

It's aimed at reducing interruptions in the school year, said Lisa Von Dohlen, lead social worker for Stafford County schools.

Her school district has given the family clothes, Christmas presents, toiletries and towels--"necessities that become luxuries when you're in a bind financially," Von Dohlen said.

Schools provide free breakfast and lunch and offer transportation across county lines.

Lead social workers in area schools say teachers, social workers, guidance counselors and administrators often go above and beyond to give students extra academic help, counseling and more.

Von Dohlen helped one family put up a temporary roof to prevent them from becoming homeless.

Children living in motels, shelters or doubled up in houses with relatives often have more academic, behavioral, health and emotional problems. Giving them services in the schools can prevent or solve some of these problems.

"This isn't about sympathy," Von Dohlen said. "This is about giving kids--through education--the opportunity to break out of the cycle of poverty."

But the educational system can't solve the underlying problem.

"Affordable housing is way beyond the schools' ability to solve here," said Lisa Dolan, lead social worker for Spotsylvania County schools. "And that's what we're dealing with. There are people who just don't have the basics."

National homeless advocates hope two federal bills will help. The legislation will ask the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to consider people like the Rutherfords and Gipsons homeless. Now, the agency does not. Only those in shelters or on the streets are homeless.

"Ask 100 people about the homeless and they'll say schizophrenics, disabled veterans, et cetera," Von Dohlen said. "They're not going to picture a working family with children. And those children are homeless, and they have no choice to control that situation, and if we as citizens of the richest nation in the world aren't outraged by that, then we need to take a long, hard look at ourselves."

Amy Flowers Umble: 540/735-1973
Email: aumble@freelancestar.com