Life’s margin growing thin

Charlottesville Daily Progress
Published: May 4, 2008

A homeless shelter will close in Charlottesville.

A trailer park will shutter in Fluvanna, creating new homelessness.

And all at a time when recession and rising prices are making life tougher for people on the margins.

Those economic pressures are also making it tougher for people who would help them.

In Charlottesville, a heroic struggle to save the Hope Center apparently will end in failure.

The homeless shelter was judged by the city to have been operating illegally. The Board of Zoning Appeals could have ordered the shelter to shut down, but instead granted a delay so that operators could seek a variance from City Council.

But that goodwill gesture won’t be enough.

Pastor Harold Bare of Covenant Church of God and his son Josh took over the shelter when the organization that had founded it collapsed late last year. They and their church, plus other churches and individuals, have poured thousands of dollars into keeping it open.

Even if the Bares had won the variance from Council, they would have needed more money from somewhere in order to keep the shelter open.

Then came more bad news. The shelter couldn’t continue in the same manner as before. Even if it won the variance, even if it found more money for operations, still that would not be enough.

More money would be needed for upgrades to the property, in addition to operations.

A city inspection showed that the shelter was running without necessary safety features, such as a sprinkler system.

The Bares say they can’t afford all that.

So they will close the center at the end of this month, affecting up to 40 people who shelter there.

In Fluvanna, owners of the Zion Crossroads Trailer Park will close it at the end of October.

The trailer park is home to some 30 low-income families. Some say they don’t know where they will go, or how they will afford other housing. “A whole lot of people around here are going to be on the streets,” said Keith Carter, whose grandmother lives there.

Owners said they could not afford the $500,000 to $750,000 it would cost to upgrade the park’s private wastewater treatment facility to meet new state standards. Those standards go into effect in November. They are part of Virginia’s efforts to protect the Chesapeake Bay — and its tributaries — from pollution.

It’s hard to argue with the intent of the regulations. Homeless people ought to be protected from the horror of dying in a fire, just as much as any other group of people staying in a facility where sprinklers are required.

The bay should be protected in order to preserve its long-term life and health, and the livelihoods of those who depend on it.

But these ultimate goals have had immediate and disheartening consequences. They have hurt two groups of people who have few resources of their own and few choices.

They have hurt the most vulnerable among us.

Doesn’t that always seem to be the way things go?