Couple plans to open homeless shelter on a $625,000 property in Culpeper County
Date published: 4/1/2007
By CATHY DYSON
Mark and Yolonda Deane are so determined to help veterans who need a place to stay or someone to talk to, they plan to turn a $625,000 property into a homeless shelter.
The Deanes want to open "Compassion House" in the Brandy Station area of Culpeper County. The home is about five miles from the downtown area, near rolling hills and scenic views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Homeless veterans could live in the shelter and get job-training skills or treatment for addictions, Yolonda Deane said. Other veterans in need of counseling could come for daytime appointments.
"Soldiers will put themselves in harm's way for people they don't even know," Deane said. "How can you not have compassion for someone like that?"
Mark Deane, a contractor, built the four-bedroom house with a fireplace in the living room and a Jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom. He and his family lived there for two years, then planned to sell it to pay off bills and have a "nest egg," his wife said.
The Deanes listed the home and 10 acres for $625,000, then lowered the price by $76,000. When the property still didn't sell, the Deanes took it off the market the first of the year, believing God had other plans.
Yolonda Deane already had plenty to do, as a full-time mother who home-schools three of her six children, ages 2 to 13. But she's driven to make Compassion House a success because she believes she has a lot in common with veterans.
"I've never been through a war physically, but I feel like I've been through a war in my mind," she said.
The 43-year-old survived what she called a "brutal" childhood. She battled addictions as a result of physical and sexual abuse by her late stepfather.
As a teenager, she retaliated in anger when others picked on her. She spent almost a year in a psychiatric ward.
"People would judge me, and they didn't know what was inside of me," she said. "All anybody wants in life is the same thing I always wanted: somebody to love me."
Deane bubbled with enthusiasm as she talked about her plans for the shelter. She wants to to buy a van to take veterans to work and appointments. She'd like to fill the rooms with donated furniture, and the closets with shirts, pants and coats.
She cited stories from vastly different sources--the Bible and Hollywood--to make her points.
She and her husband are "Christian people" who believe they're serving God when they help the "least of these," as mentioned in the book of Matthew.
On a similar note, she'll always remember a line from the movie "Rambo" about soldiers wanting their country to love them as much as they love it.
Deane is proving her dedication to the armed forces by submitting a mountain of paperwork and consulting with local and state agencies.
Yolonda Deane got some ideas for Compassion House, a homeless shelter for veterans, from a meeting at VFW Post 3103 in Fredericksburg on March 1.
Virginia Department of Veterans Services officials wanted to find out how they could help the estimated 740,000 veterans in Virginia.
Service members who recently returned from Iraq had the same issues as those who fought in Korea or World War II:
The red tape of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is overwhelming. Veterans don't know what benefits they're entitled to or how to get them. Several filed paperwork, only to have it lost in a "black hole."
There aren't counseling services at convenient hours, especially for reservists who are no longer on active duty. Veterans don't want to drive to Northern Virginia for evening clinics, and can't take off during work for daytime appointments.
Most never heard of the state Department of Veterans Services, established four years ago to help veterans and their families file for state and federal benefits.
The department operates 20 field offices, including one in Quantico. For more information, call 703/630-2811 or 800/925-0640.
dvs.virginia.gov
Compassion House is seeking money, furniture and volunteers to help get the shelter started.
For more information, contact Yolonda Deane at 540/829-4955, by e-mail at Y5Deane@aol.com or by mail at Deane's Outreach Ministries, Box 85, Brandy Station, Va. 22714.
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