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Friday, November 30, 2001 Concerns over building prompt eviction of homeless clientsBy MICHAEL HAUN | News-Journal Staff Writer DELAND — Bob Miller found himself sleeping in the woods after an on-the-job injury put him out of work. But for nearly three months, the one-time commercial fisherman has called the House of Love his home. He said the makeshift shelter on South Clara Avenue has helped others like him get back on their feet. "They take the stress out of the everyday. Where am I going to find food, where am I going to find shelter," he said Thursday afternoon. Miller is asking himself those same questions again after city officials forced him and more than a dozen other people out of the two-story house. DeLand fire inspectors determined Tuesday that the building was not safe. By that afternoon, everyone was ordered out. "We hate to do it at Christmas time, but we don't want to one day pull four or five bodies out of there either," said DeLand Fire Marshal William Wilkins. "It was very unsafe. If anything ever did happen, people would not be forewarned." Wilkins said inspectors found, among other things, kerosene heaters stored inside the wood-framed house, which had no smoke detectors or fire extinguishers. Some appliances also had faulty wiring, Wilkins said. Carolyn Lane, pastor of the Miracle Deliverance Outreach Center, opened the shelter to the city's homeless about 18 months ago. She works full-time as a nursing assistant and used her own money to pay much of the house's $750 lease. Lane said she understood why the house was shut down, but wished city officials had given her and the 20 members of her small church more time to relocate the people living there. "They said the house wasn't a safe house," Lane said. "We know it's an old house, but it beats living outside." Lane and other church members opened their homes to some of those staying at the House of Love. Others, like a middle-aged woman named Kathleen, said she'll be out on the streets until she can find another place to stay. Lane said she hopes she can find another house soon to shelter the former residents of the House of Love. Officials with the Neighborhood Center of West Volusia — the area's primary shelter — said they've seen their number of clients rise dramatically in recent weeks. Executive Director Robert Barbieri said his agency has seen a 23 percent increase in requests for food or shelter compared to this time last year. The Neighborhood Center doesn't have any room for more people right now, Barbieri said. Another charitable group helped Sherrie Thomas and her four children find a local motel to stay in for the remainder of the week. The 30-year-old waitress from DeLand had been living in the House of Love since July. "I knew I could come here and get my life together," she said. "It was a place where I knew me and kids would be safe." She said she plans to move into a home of her own in January, and hopes to scrape together enough money to stay in the motel until then. "It takes two incomes nowadays to raise a family and have a home," Thomas said. "This was just temporary shelter until things came through for us." |
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