Homeless Families

Clothing, diapers, food and a rent-free house are among the donations that have been offered to Viola Jones, a homeless woman whose daily odyssey through city streets with her three children was detailed recently in The Sun.Yesterday, the donations were still coming in: dishes, blankets, toys -- and three baby strollers."

Renovations to turn two vacant buildings at Rosewood Center in Owings Mills into transitional housing for up to 23 homeless Baltimore County women and their children are scheduled to begin next week.The center, similar to units operating in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel County, will offer women and their youngsters housing while they receive guidance and job training.Drug counseling and other services to prepare them to enter the work force also will be offered, said Frank W. Welsh, county director of community development.

WESTMINSTER -- Candace Reynolds has had plenty of problems in her short life, but if Carroll County's homeless shelter for families shuts down, her problems will multiply."

Jacqueline King never thought that happy stories like hers really happened. Being homeless with three children had made her rather cynical."Being in a situation like this makes it hard to believe in fairy tales," Ms. King said. "It actually makes things look kind of hopeless."Although she says it still seems like a dream, Ms. King and her family will be sent on a special shopping spree Wednesday at the March Mammoth Sale, sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Vendors have arranged the shopping spree for the family and are donating desperately needed clothing items.

It's the last night for "the Night Thing": "The Arsenio Hall Show" closes shop, with enough momentum and special guests to make it one of the evening's two highlights. The other: an "Edith Ann" cartoon on ABC.* "Edith Ann: Homeless Go Home." (8:30-9 p.m., WJZ, Channel 13) -- Jane Wagner, Lily Tomlin's writer and creative partner, has taken one of Tomlin's broadest characters from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and fleshed her out beautifully, in animated form. Tomlin's muddy Edith Ann voice is as telling as ever, and the jokes and story lines in "Homeless Go Home" are as wry and clever as the title itself.

The only shelter in Carroll County where needy families can stay intact has enough money to stay open until the end of June, says an official of the agency that operates the facility.Lynda Gainor told members of the Carroll County Children's Council yesterday that enough has been donated to keep the shelter functioning until then.Ms. Gainor is deputy director of Human Services Programs of Carroll County Inc., which operates the shelters. She said the agency is soliciting donations from the community in an attempt to secure the $32,000 necessary to continue shelter operations.

It used to break Muriel Moore's heart each day to turn away homeless women, often with children in tow, from the Baltimore Rescue Mission shelter in East Baltimore.The shelter could only hold about 15 women and children, and had to turn down more than 700 requests for shelter last year.Yesterday, Mrs. Moore, who runs the women's section of the shelter, helped preside over the opening of a significant new addition to the mission's stock of beds. The new, narrow four-story building in the 1200 block of East Baltimore Street will eventually sleep 80 to 90 women and children each night.

Barbara Parker, a homeless woman from East Baltimore, walked into Dudley Beauty School with her hair hidden under a purple scarf. But when the 38-year-old left the school yesterday, she had curls and felt good about herself."

Up to 30 Howard County families - including many living in homeless shelters and motels - could get federal rent-subsidy vouchers later this year because of confusion over the amount of available funding for the $8-million- a-year federal Section 8 program, county housing officials said. More families on the county's housing waiting list also could get vouchers, said Sam Tucker, Section 8 coordinator. Tucker and Leonard S. Vaughan, the county housing director, said Howard is rushing to spend money that officials just learned they have - but without overextending the program for next year.