We appreciate Andy Prutsok’s passionate response to hearing the news about six evicted families from the Suffolk Shelter and yet, it is a pity that a vital community newspaper such as the Suffolk News-Herald still does not take the time to gather its facts before writing a story. In this brief letter, let me answer several issues in the Wednesday article, your Friday editorial and your Sunday commentary.

As you write in Sunday’s commentary (Nov. 28) Ms. Robinson &uot;was in a little panic of sorts&uot; being three hours from deadline without staffers when she heard of the Shelter evictions. One may conclude that was a significant contributing factor to the articles poor content.

In the Wednesday article authored by Ms. Robinson, quoted extensively from an email from Leonard Horton that was sent to the Shelter earlier in the day on Tuesday, there are the following quotes.

Quote A: &uot;Horton requested that the shelter board reconsider the decision at its meeting last (Tuesday) night.

Quote B: &uot;Terry Miller, executive director of the shelter, was unavailable Tuesday night.&uot;

In Ms. Robinson’s haste to write the article, she did not put the information together in her own mind that the reason Ms. Miller was unavailable on Tuesday night is because she was in the regularly scheduled meeting of the Shelter’s board of directors with Leonard Horton as guest? The meeting began at 5:30 p.m. and ended at 7 p.m.

I was in the office until 5:20 p.m. on Tuesday and Ms. Robinson did not call for me. I telephoned the shelter immediately after the board meeting to retrieve messages and there were none for me. The staff member on duty reported that Ms. Robinson had telephoned the Shelter and gotten a quote from her and said she (Ms .Robinson) would call me at home on Tuesday evening. There was no message for me to call and there were no calls made to my home on Tuesday evening. I also came into the office on Wednesday morning, and there we no messages for me from anyone. (This can easily be proven by pulling phone records). Further, I routinely give my cell phone number to reporters so they can contact me if necessary. I had already given it to three reporters earlier in the day (WVEC-TV, John-Henry Doucette, and Ed Lebow) and they had used it to get clarification on several issues.

Ms. Robinson (or any other reporter from the News-Herald) was welcome to attend our meeting. One reporter each from The Daily Press (Ed Lebow) and The Virginian-Pilot (John-Henry Douchette) were in attendance. However, since your commentary states that &uot;all the news staffers had left for the day&uot;, your newspaper was at a disadvantage. Your paper was unable to ask relevant questions or hear the dialogue between the Shelter’s Board, its Executive Director and the City’s Director of Social Services. You were also not present to watch Mr. Horton be extended an invitation to become a member of the Shelter’s Board of Directors, to accept the request (or his representative if his time will not allow), and to be voted and accepted unanimously.

Quote attributed to Steve Herbert: &uot;… the city contributes more than $100,000 annually to the homeless shelter…&uot;

The City’s allocation to the homeless shelter for the current fiscal year (July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005) is $33,000. We received payment this past July. Last fiscal year’s allocation was $32, 025.

Quote from your Sunday commentary: &uot;… it seems as if the only time we ever hear of wholesale shelter evictions is around the holidays, conveniently giving shelter staff some time off.&uot;

Please find and forward to me news articles since October 2000 that discuss Shelter evictions as you say, &uot;around the holidays,&uot; or any shelter evictions in the past four years.

Quote from your Sunday commentary: &uot; The girl said the baby’s father had just given her $250 to put down on an apartment, mighty big of him, I suppose, in lieu of taking full responsibility fro what he had helped create.&uot;

First, you should refer to the female as a young woman; not a girl. Second, the statement denigrates the young man. There is no certainly that he is the biological father of the baby and the young woman consistently declined or suggestion and recommendation to get a paternity test. Third, the young man has stable and fruitful employment and simply is not willing to be used by this young woman. It is commendable that he is attempting to assist with the baby’s needs, while recognizing that his future is not with this particular young woman who is not trying to improve her life in a meaningful and long-lasting manner.

There are significant problems with the thesis of your Sunday commentary and the argument that it proposes. You write, &uot;As prosperous as Suffolk is, there’s no reason any child should not have a roof over his or her head and food to eat…And if it requires additional funding to see to it that children are never turned out, then we need to find a way to see to it that it (Suffolk Shelter) gets it.&uot;

There is a significant body of research that supports the contention that tossing money at a problem does not fix it…regardless of the type of problem. What does funding have to do with parents not taking responsibility for their actions? Are you advocating that we evict the parents and keep the children? Are you advocating that we disregard the integrity of our procedures and &uot;tried-and-trueness&uot; of our rules? Are you advocating that we use hard-earned donor funds to take care of people who are not attempting to take care of themselves?

This morning at 10:50 Joice Whitehorn, Assistant Director of Social Services, telephoned me and asked if we would consider taking some of the families back into the Shelter. Ms. Whitehorn was conducting due diligence, as we do here, in an attempt to assist these &uot;hard to serve&uot; clients. Since last Tuesday, she and others at Social Services who are trying to help six families have experienced many, and in some cases, more of the same abuses that we did from the families.

If is unseemly and inappropriate for us to &uot;air tenants’ dirty laundry&uot;, and therefore, we choose to allow desperate people to say untruths about is. Just because they say it does not make it so. You as the community newspaper should know better than to accept anyone’s words-especially emotional ones at face value.

The Suffolk Shelter for the Homeless has served women and families since Oct. 16, 1991. We invite everyone to visit the shelter and ask questions about its operations. Our policies are painstakingly explained to and discussed with tenants at check-in. Each signs expectations and requirements daily. Expectations and requirements are posted in each guest room. We give tremendous thought to each decision made relative to a resident and it is not only short-sighted, but simply silly, for anyone to conclude that we take the drastic step of eviction just so Shelter staff can have a day off.

You have not visited the Suffolk Shelter in my tenure as Executive Director. Enclosed is our most recent brochure (another will be completed in January, 2005). We invited you to come, tour the facility, and examine our rules and intake procedures. Perhaps after you see the integrity in our facility and operations, you will do due diligence to ascertain balance in your next article.

Terry L. Miller is executive director of the Suffolk Homeless Shelter.