HOMELESS POURING INTO PUERTO RICO

Capital's Tourism, Welfare Net Draw Them From Other Areas

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- They sprawl beside the jewelry shops and posh
boutiques along San Juan's cobblestoned streets, ragged and dirty men and
women with hands outstretched, begging for money and food.

In just two years, the homeless population of San Juan has risen from about
1,000 to more than 6,000.

More than three-quarters come from the U.S. mainland or elsewhere in this
American Caribbean territory, seeking work or help from homeless programs.
They come -- and stay -- for a reason.

''I've got a pretty good life, for a bum,'' said Joseph Norwood, 52, who
sleeps under the stars in the balmy climate and earns up to $50 a day
weaving palm fronds into grasshoppers and roses for passing tourists.

Norwood came from San Diego to escape police warrants for petty crimes. He
first tried to live on other islands in the Caribbean, but found them too
expensive or too poor.

San Juan gave him a welfare net that offered treatment when he developed
arthritis in his spine several years ago. City programs helped him kick his
drinking habit. Tourists provide his bread and butter.

'Quality Of Life'

Such people have always come because ''the quality of life for the homeless
is better,'' said Orlando Gotay, an official at the mayor's office.

San Juan, which boasts a restored colonial city, Spanish forts and designer
outlet shops, is the only Puerto Rican city with thousands of tourists and
outreach programs offering meals, beds, drug rehabilitation and counseling.

It's also a major drug-trafficking port. The U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration estimates that 30 percent of South American heroin and
cocaine bound for the mainland ends up staying in Puerto Rico, with a lot
going to the street people.

''I've slept in toilets, been in and out of the hospital . . . Still I kept
up with the crack and the speedballs,'' said Virginia Fernandes Ríos, 52,
who came here 10 years ago with her family from New York City. Her marriage
later collapsed and her children cut off contact and moved away.

City-Sponsored Rehab

Fernandes Ríos is sober now, after the city sponsored her rehabilitation.
But she is still on the streets. ''My dream is to have my own home again,''
she said.

The city program for the homeless has a budget of $5 million, which is up
300 percent from last year but barely enough to deal with the problem, said
its director, María Luisa Rivera.

''It's a bandage over a wound that just gets bigger,'' Rivera said. "The
more work we do, the more homelessness we find.''

The program provides overnight shelter for 152 people. It also pays for
about 1,950 people in drug rehabilitation and more than 800 in
psychological counseling.

There also are dozens of private organizations and church refuges, but many
people live on the streets.

Next to the tourists off the cruise ship, they look shipwrecked --
wild-eyed and loose-jointed.

Shop Owners Worry

Many shop owners worry the upsurge in the numbers of homeless is
threatening an already fragile souvenir trade.

''It's a real nuisance. They steal from the shop and scare away the
customers. The drug addicts, the open sores and the dirt -- you know,
tourists are uncomfortable when they see it,'' says Guillermo Rodríguez,
owner of an art gallery, La Galería de la Calle Cristo.

Not all in the tourism business are as concerned.

''It is an eyesore. But many people don't find the shelters an acceptable
alternative,'' said Erin Benítez, executive vice president of the Puerto
Rico Hotel and Tourism Association.

"Fortunately, we don't have the hassle factor of people being pushy.''

Ninety-three-year-old Carmen Rivera holds her leathery hand open in her
lap, in passive supplication.

Partially blind and lame, she says she has lived on the streets for 15 years.

She has no family, and has fallen through the social security net.

''It is OK here,'' she says, smiling as she waits for a donation.

"It's warm, and people take care of me.''