In N.Va., Let Down By a Rising Economy

Many communities are trying to do something. Arlington County, Alexandria and Fairfax have plans to increase affordable housing and services to "end homelessness" by the middle of the next decade. Many offer eviction prevention programs and other services.

Nonetheless, nearly every major jurisdiction has a waiting list for family shelter beds. Advocates in Fairfax estimate that, on any given night, dozens of families are on waiting lists for shelters where they can stay for extended stretches. Among Arlington, Prince William and Loudoun counties, nearly 3,000 people were turned away from temporary shelters last year.

Recent zoning battles in nearly every Northern Virginia locality have also slowed efforts to expand services this year, complicating attempts to serve the growing needs during the harsh winter months.

The availability of shelters in the Maryland suburbs, where most homeless people are single, is mixed. In Montgomery County, officials said they have been able to house all of the families and single adults who have come looking for help; in Howard County, waiting lists have grown to as many as 200 people.

Advocates for the homeless said Messick and Willingham's experience illustrates cracks in the system: There are generally no specific shelter services for childless couples. Willingham was told several times that she could get on a list for a guaranteed place to stay for several months if she had her 2-year-old son, who is living with his father, with her.

"There are lots of these couples out here, and this is one of the populations that easily slip through the cracks," said Pam Michell, executive director of New Hope Housing Services in Fairfax.

Bumping from shelter to shelter started to wear on Messick and Willingham by the middle of this month, but day jobs were popping up. Messick started a job scheduled for three days a week, and Willingham was getting bites on work at a hospital. They hoped they would find a home by summer.

"All these years, I looked at people walking around here, and I never knew what they were doing," Messick said one evening after dinner at the emergency shelter. "They were homeless, and I never knew it. Now I am that guy."

But he sounded hopeful: "People tell us, because we're trying hard, it won't take us long. We're both able-bodied. So I believe them."

He unrolled his sleeping bag. The church was about to show a movie, and then it was lights out.