It can be off-putting at first.
A well-dressed man pulls up in a City of Norfolk van, rolls down the window and asks if anyone would like a cold bottle of water.
Many of the people - dressed in T-shirts and long pants, lying in shaded parks and usually homeless - seem surprised by the handouts from the city. But as temperatures rose into the mid-90s, a cool drink was hard to turn down.
“I don’t really get enough water during the day,” said Steve Mason, sitting beneath a shady tree in Town Point Park on Wednesday. “This tastes real good.”
For the second time this week, teams of volunteers from the Departments of Human Services and Public Health, along with Norfolk’s Downtown Ambassadors, loaded up cases of water and patrolled the city streets to help people in need.
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