Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Here's what they found.
More than 200 volunteers spread across Fairfax County last week and registered 462 chronically homeless people. The volunteers held a debriefing and presented a report of their findings on Monday at the Jubilee Christian Center in Fairfax. Here's what they found: People who are chronically homeless must have lived on the street for more than one year or three times in the last four years. "We learned that chronic homelessness comes in many forms for many reasons," said Pam Michell, Executive Director of New Hope Housing, "and each story is unique and each solution is unique but that all solutions require stable affordable housing and supports and people who care." On Feb. 25, 26, and 27 the volunteers counted, photographed and collected …
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Volunteers are visiting homeless at camp sites this week at the crack of dawn.
(Editor's Note: In cased you missed it, earlier this week hundreds of volunteers fanned out across Fairfax County to get locations and health information from the homeless population. Here's our story, which was published on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013) "Boy, when you guys said 6 a.m., you weren't kidding," said Chris P. from behind his plywood front door at a campsite along Eisenhower Avenue near the border of the City of Alexandria and Fairfax County. There was a harvest moon Monday morning, and it was cold, about 32 degrees, and dark. Five Fairfax County volunteers walked into Chris's campsite near Interstate 495 and Eisenhower Avenue with flashlights, hot coffee and clipboards. "Good morning! Hello!" said volunteer Joe Drach as he walked …
Thursday, February 21, 2013
It's part of the county's plan to end homelessness by 2018.
Fairfax County will be abuzz next week when volunteers spread across the area to gather data on the county's homeless population. They will gather individual histories, names and will take photographs, as part of the county's 10-year plan to eradicate homelessness. "We want to put 150 of the county's homeless in housing in the next three years," said Sherry Eddlekamp, the South County corridor volunteer captain. "We don't want the homeless population to think that we are locating them to let the police or authorities know where they are, and I know that's a big concern for them." Eddlekamp will direct more than 50 volunteers in the endeavor. "The purpose is to get our homeless off the streets and get them the help that they need," she …
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Plan would house 150 homeless over the next three years.
Fairfax County is joining a national initiative to provide housing to the area’s chronically homeless population. During a meeting of the Board of Supervisors Human Services Committee this week, representatives from the county’s Office to Prevent and End Homelessness detailed the struggles of people who live on the streets and in the woods of Fairfax County. About 350 people in the county face chronic homelessness. That’s an increase of more than 100 people since 2010, said Dean Klein, director of the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness. These residents have been homeless for years and have had no success with other county programs, said Klein. In many cases, the county’s chronically homeless suffer from serious mental and physical …
