Advocates for Loving Thy Neighbors

In recent years, the county has taken steps to deal with its growing crisis in affordable housing. In 2005, supervisors voted to earmark one penny from the county's property tax rate to preserve affordable housing.

Last month, the Board of Supervisors endorsed a 10-year plan to prevent and end homelessness in the Fairfax-Falls Church area by increasing affordable housing options and providing services to help people find stable housing.

Under the initiative championed by FACETS and the churches, homeless single adults would be offered housing using a Housing First model, which has been growing in popularity in jurisdictions across the country. Under the traditional system, families and individuals are settled into permanent housing only after they have stabilized in a shelter program and have saved enough money to move. A Housing First approach places individuals and families immediately into permanent housing, and then case managers help them find services such as job training, mental health care and substance-abuse treatment.

The Rev. Jane Halpern, pastor of Holy Trinity, said homeless people deserve better than a place on the floor, which is why she is working on an initiative to provide lasting housing. "We're just trying to do something bigger and better," Halpern said.

Connolly said he supports the Housing First approach.

"The key thing is getting people into services as quickly as possible," he said. "The longer they're in a homeless state, the worse it is for everybody."

He said the board is committed to finding funding for more single-room occupancy housing in the county, where the average two-bedroom apartment rents for more than $1,200 a month.

Finding a location could be a problem. Communities are notoriously resistant to such facilities. The Fairfax City Council is seeking a home for the Lamb Shelter, a daytime shelter that has outgrown its location in a Fairfax Circle storefront. The council was rebuffed by neighbors when it tried to move the shelter to a vacant office building it planned to purchase in the Merrifield area.

For the churches in the Hypothermia Response Program, which each provide a week's worth of food and shelter, caring for the homeless in the winter is a large undertaking. Organizers estimate that each church needs about 100 volunteers to sign in guests, set up, prepare and serve food, entertain them and supervise them overnight.

In addition to church volunteers, FACETS personnel are also on hand, as are county mental-health and medical outreach workers to assist with the sometimes volatile crowd. Even so, volunteers have occasionally had to call the police to remove a disorderly guest.

All was peaceful one evening earlier this month when Holy Trinity in Falls Church took its turn hosting the homeless. There was some grumbling among the 70 guests about the wait to sign in, but, after 14 weeks of the hypothermia shelters, they were accustomed to the routine.

"I came up seven in the draft, meaning I went," said a Vietnam veteran with a worn face and faded eyes as he scribbled his birthday. One woman in a long knitted scarf stopped to trace her fingers over the glittering cutout stars posted by the church's children on a bulletin board near the door.