Leesburg Park May House Shelter

County Considers Where to Keep Homeless Warm

Leesburg officials are considering opening an emergency warming center at a building in Olde Izaak Walton Park, the latest twist in a three-month-old search for a place to house Loudoun County's homeless on cold winter nights.

Town Manager John Wells said Thursday that the building, an annex occasionally used for activities sponsored by the town's Parks and Recreation Department, might be the most promising option for an emergency shelter. Wells said he is working with county agencies and social service organizations to determine whether it could serve that role. The town leases the building from a private owner.

The Town Council on Tuesday night considered an ordinance that would have permitted worship centers to serve as emergency shelters in severely cold or hot weather. That would have allowed the Elijah Gate Christian Center in Leesburg to operate a warming center for up to 30 people in the basement of its building on Harrison Street. But after several residents objected to such a center being operated in a residential area, the council instead approved a resolution to open a town government building to the homeless on cold nights.

Council members discussed the Ida Lee Park Recreation Center as a possible site. But Wells said Leesburg officials have since determined that that center can be used only for recreational purposes, in keeping with the agreement under which Lee's family donated the property to the town.

Wells said Leesburg officials will do whatever is necessary to ensure that the county's homeless have a warm place to stay this winter. "We certainly want to be ready before the weather gets cold," he said.

The search for an emergency shelter began in September when the Good Shepherd Alliance, a Christian nonprofit group, said it no longer would let the homeless sleep in its Leesburg office on Sycolin Road on cold nights, as it had done during previous winters. The group, which operates five year-round homeless shelters in Loudoun, said the office was not large enough to serve the growing number of people needing a place to stay. In the absence of an alternative site, the alliance has continued to let the homeless sleep at the Sycolin Road building, although that use of the building violates town zoning regulations.

Meanwhile, a coalition of county government officials, nonprofit groups and social service leaders -- known as the Loudoun Continuum of Care -- has been looking for a more suitable location.

It appeared the coalition had found a building in Lucketts, the Loudoun Field Center at Glaydin, to serve as an interim shelter to be run by the Salvation Army. But staffing problems arose, and it is unclear when that facility might open, officials said last week.

Social service activists and government officials have said that Leesburg, because of its central location in the county, is the best place for an emergency shelter.

At Tuesday's Town Council meeting, several residents objected to a Harrison Street shelter, saying they feared for the safety of neighbors.

Summerfield Tillett III was one of those speakers. "I'm not too enthused with the idea of having a shelter in a residential area. It shouldn't be around homes," Tillett said in an interview last week.

Those concerns led Leesburg Mayor Kristen C. Umstattd to propose that town staff consider using government buildings that are not in residential areas.

The Olde Izaak Walton Park annex building is not near any homes, Wells said. Town staff members are also considering the option of using unleased space at Leesburg Executive Airport.

Umstattd said she agrees with those who say the shelter should be in Leesburg.

"A good portion of people who need shelter in Loudoun are in Leesburg, and it makes sense to have a facility in Leesburg, from the county's perspective," Umstattd said.

"We want to make sure that people don't freeze in town," she said. "We want to make sure they have places to go. By the same token, we don't want to have worried neighbors."

The council will discuss the issue at its Jan. 8 meeting.