FRIEND TO HOMELESS LEAVING DEDICATED SHELTER EMPLOYEE IS MOVING ON.

Byline: ERIC LEACH Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY -- For the past decade, John Purvis has been helping homeless people find shelter on cold, rainy nights and even has offered some of them jobs.

He has gone beyond the call of duty directing the Public Action to Deliver Shelter program, friends say, offering overnight stays from October to April at six churches and the Simi Valley Knights of Columbus hall.

Now Simi Valley's Samaritan Center, which sponsors the PADS program, is scrambling to find someone to replace Purvis, who recently announced his resignation.

``It's time for me to move on to something else,'' he said.

Purvis is a writer and building contractor and took responsibility for the homeless shelters on a volunteer basis in 1995, eventually getting paid $1,200 a month without benefits for the part-time winter job seven nights a week.

``He's been very dedicated,'' said Virginia Nelson, director of the Samaritan Center, which offers food, showers, laundry services, clean clothes and counseling to homeless people in Simi Valley during the morning hours, Monday through Friday.

Nelson said Purvis has been going to the shelters seven nights a week during the winters from 7:45 p.m. to 11 p.m. to check in homeless people seeking refuge, making sure they have had tuberculosis tests and sometimes helping them with their individual problems.

``He does intakes on all the clients, and if a volunteer doesn't show up, he spends the night there,'' she said. `` ... He's a great person. ... There was a lady who came in one night with her children, and John and his wife gave one of the children a birthday party. The little girl was just overwhelmed.''

Without a replacement, the program could be in serious jeopardy, she said.

``If we don't have somebody put this together, we won't have any kind of winter shelter program here,'' she said.

Purvis said that during the 10 years he has been coordinating the shelter program, he has seen homeless people drift in and out of the area, with some coming back year after year.

``I've watched some people age, very dramatically in some cases,'' he said. ``Some of them die, an average of about a person a year, from the effects of drug or alcohol abuse, or exposure. You catch people in very unique situations.''

He recalled a couple from Idaho who came to a Simi Valley shelter a few days after the man had open-heart surgery.

``At the other end of the age spectrum, we've had babies about 32 months old,'' he said, noting that about 100 people register in the shelter over the winter, staying from one night to the whole season. `` ... I felt like Diogenes walking around holding up the lantern to anyone who needed a home for the night.''

Although he doesn't know exactly what he will do next, he said he feels an obligation to help others.

``My wife and I were foster parents for a while, then I moved into helping the homeless,'' he said. ``The object is to leave the world a little bit better place and help people along in some sort of situation.''

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HOW TO HELP

People interested in more information about the Public Action to Deliver Shelter program in Simi Valley can call Virginia Nelson at [phone].

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