HOMELESS ENJOY FEAST ON ONE DECENT EVENING

Sheets of rain swept across the concrete plaza as they straggled in, Leonard Austin and Fletcher Jones and hundreds more men and women who heard on the street that someone was going to make a Christmas for them.

From shelters and doorways, parks and tunnels, Washington's homeless converged on the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Last night's feast for the city's homeless was no government program. Rather, it was an effort by hundreds of volunteers, more than 60 local restaurants and the Community for Creative Non-Violence to make what could be the most miserable time of year into one decent evening.

Austin said he read about the free meal in the paper yesterday.

"It's surely a wonderful thing," said Austin, 23, who came to Washington from Houston a month ago, looking for work, following a girlfriend who had already moved on. Now he spends his time at Union Station. He calls it his home.

"Every day I go to Travelers Aid there. They help me a whole lot. I think I found work for starting Monday, stockboy. I hope. But I'm having a good time while I can. I've been wanting to see the White House and the Capitol all my life. They are real beautiful."

Austin sat down to a dinner of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rice, bread, gravy and greens. And then another plate of same. And an even bigger plate of cookies and cakes. But before he and his tablemates dove in, Austin called over a volunteer.

"We can't start," he said. "This is Christmas, we should have someone say a blessing." The volunteer suggested that Austin lead a blessing for the men at his table. Austin bowed his head and mumbled something. This, he said between the turkey and the cookies, is a fine Christmas.

It was the most ambitious Christmas yet for the Community for Creative Non-Violence, which held its first Christmas Eve dinner for the homeless in a church basement eight years ago. Last night, Mitch Snyder's group filled the Great Hall of the Humphrey Building at the foot of the Capitol on Independence Avenue SW with two lines of food for about 1,000 people. They ate 1,300 pounds of turkey, 700 pounds of ham, 700 pounds of barbecued chicken and short ribs and table after table of vegetables and side dishes.

There were some especially elegant items along the way. Maison Blanche, an expense-account kind of place where dinners cost $40 per person, donated "ham with raisin sauce, green beans, grapes and money," said restaurateur Tony Greco. "And my chef and my family are here to serve."

Dominique D'Ermo, whose fancy restaurant bears his first name, gave 200 turkeys and money for a new Chevy pickup that local restaurants gave to Snyder. The group will use the truck to collect food and clothing for the homeless.

"This is the first year we have gotten together to do this, so that these people can have a good meal," D'Ermo said. "I don't think in a country like America this should have to happen. Our government is so busy giving money to Iranians that sometimes we forget what's going on in our own country."

Budget Director James Miller III announced yesterday that the Reagan administration will propose a $100 million program next year to assist the homeless. To Snyder, it is still too little.

"The administration has finally acknowledged there is a federal responsibility, but we are going to have to move far beyond $100 million," he said.

Adrianne Potter, a 13-year-old from Dumfries, said it will take more than money to help the homeless. Potter spends every Friday night, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., at the Capitol with Snyder, talking to the homeless who huddle around steam grates.

"I've given up a lot of parties to do this," she said. "People look at the homeless like they're different and they're not. I met a homeless person named Bishop and he's really nice. People would be afraid of him if they just saw him on the street, but he's really nice and it's really terrible that he has to sleep on the grate. It just breaks my heart."

Fletcher Jones is a smiling 56-year-old man, with a well-kept salt-and-pepper mustache and encyclopedic knowledge of the city's journalists and politicians. He has lived in shelters and on the streets for 10 years and spends much of his time at congressional hearings.

"My best Christmas was the year before last in Lafayette Park," he said. "We had a lot of tourists, a good cross-section of people. It was the first time a lot of us saw that people are interested in the homeless. I'm from a working-class Christian family and I never knew until I was homeless how many people there were who were in this situation, this standing still without hope. I've known men so hopeless they killed themselves. So I'm blessed, so to speak."

Finished with his meal, Jones collected his present from a room brimming with gift-wrapped shirts, longjohns and other underwear. He ripped open the red and green paper, stuffed the gift in his coat pocket, tucked his head down and stepped out into the driving rain, on Christmas Eve.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.