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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."
Date published: 4/1/2007
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