Shelter helps area homeless try to keep cool
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By Candace Sipos -- csipos@nvdaily.com
WINCHESTER -- Willis Stoneberger was a carpenter for 25 years. For more than 12 of those, he worked for North American Housing Corp. on Strasburg Road, but people kept telling him that he had the skills to work on his own. He finally made the leap, and was thankful for it -- he was bringing home much more money, so he happily stayed in that role for 12 more years.
Now he stays at the St. Stephens Church shelter on Chase Street at night and at the Congregational Community Action Project most days when the organization is open, Monday through Thursday until 3 p.m. He has been homeless for four years.
A Front Royal native, Stoneberger is diabetic, bipolar and suffers from depression and neuropathy, a condition that causes pain and numbness in the hands and feet. After losing his last major job when the condition got in the way of his work, he hasn't found much employment since. Hot and humid weeks like this one have not been kind to him or the rest of the homeless population in the area.
"There's no place for us to go," Stoneberger said. "If it wasn't for CCAP, a lot of us homeless people would be in a terrible way. It's terrible for us right now, but CCAP -- it's a huge help."
But resources at the all-volunteer organization are limited, and the homeless population seems to be growing. John Nadzan, food chairman and vice president of operations at CCAP, said there has been a steady increase in numbers since the beginning of the year, and more people are coming in just to get out of the heat.
"The point I want to make is we're getting five new people today, six new people yesterday, 10 the day before," Nadzan said, continuing to list the data. "We average 10 people a day new."
At one point, the organization averaged about 320 people per week. The week before last, it helped 430 people.
CCAP had to lower the amount of food items per family from 15 to 12. Its food bank is getting low and it's beginning to run out of bread and cakes by the end of the week, which is unusual. Before, Nadzan would give farmers the leftovers for their animals.
"That's the whole thing in a nutshell," Nadzan said. "The economy is hurting. It's showing with us, and this heat don't help matters."
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