Sue Capers has been a tenacious advocate for homeless Virginians, volunteering full-time on behalf of the Commonwealth’s poorest residents.
Sue Capers passed away on October 11 at the age of 90 and came from a middle-class Ohio family with a cool, collected attitude, was maybe an odd advocate for low-income Virginians. Due to her deteriorating health, Ms. Capers had by this time mostly cut off communication with the group.
She relocated to Austin in 2015 to be close to her two oldest kids, where she passed away at a memorial care facility. According to his daughter Melissa Capers, Alzheimer’s disease was to blame.
Colleagues give tributes to Sue Capers
“I remember at one point she said lawmakers would call her and beg her to tell people to stop calling because they would be bombarded with calls day and night,” “ What really happened to the state was lawmakers finally caved because they couldn’t take the heat anymore. She did it with homelessness funds, credit to labor income tax and minimum wage She just came back year after year, organized the troops around the state and didn’t give up until lawmakers gave in.
Tousignant
Sue Capers Working in Richmond and then Alexandria, she led one of the first statewide organizations dedicated to ending homelessness; successfully lobbied for state funding to resolve the issue; and championed measures to help break the cycle of poverty, including a working income tax credit and increases to Virginia’s minimum wage.
The early 1980s saw a rise in homelessness in Richmond and other American towns, and Ms. Capers, who was approaching 50, threw herself into volunteer work. She assisted in setting up shelters and social assistance organizations like Emergency Shelter Inc., which is now known as HomeAgain, and SRO Housing of Richmond, which was motivated by rooming housing and is now known as Virginia Supportive Housing. the person that Ms. Capers and additional volunteers observed in New York.
She founded what was formerly known as the Virginia Coalition for the Homeless to advance her advocacy work, serving as its director and sole full-time employee while working without compensation. Since there was hardly any data available on the number of homeless people in Virginia and how shelters were addressing their needs, Ms. Capers created her own database by contacting shelters through the phone book and word-of-mouth, compiling the data, and sharing the annual report with legislators and state agencies.
Several organizations have recognized Ms. Capers, including the Virginia Poverty Law Center and the Fannie Mae Foundation, which in 2008 gave her their John Kent Shumate Jr. Lawyer of the Year Award.
Personal life
Sue Capers Marriage to Carl Traylor, And then they ended their relationship in divorce.
After that, In 1954 she married William T. “Bill” Capers III, an Air Force pilot and public relations officer whose assignments led them to reside in Europe and Latin America.
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She lost her husband in 1998. She leaves behind her daughter, who lives in Porto, Portugal, as well as two additional daughters from her second marriage, Rebekah and Cathey Capers, both of Austin; Nick Traylor, a son from his previous marriage, who lives in Dayton; a sister; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Sue Capers was born in Dayton, Ohio on November 10, 1931. His Zodiac sign is Scorpio. She holds an American nationality and she belongs to the white ethnicity.
Sue Capers’s father died while she was a baby, so she and her older brother were raised by their mother and extended family members, including her granddaughter and maternal grandmother, and aunt.