Area Churches and Volunteers Seek More Permanent Solutions to Housing the Homeless in Winter
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Shortly after 6 p.m. on a recent Thursday, the first of two busloads of homeless adults pulled up at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Falls Church. As church volunteers checked on bubbling dishes of jambalaya and roast turkey in the ovens, others set out fresh vegetables and snacks on long tables while their guests signed in and staked out places for their sleeping bags.
The routine has been repeated at churches across Fairfax County this winter. Coordinated by a nonprofit organization and funded partly by the county, two dozen churches have taken turns providing food and shelter for those who don't have anywhere warm to go at night.
This year's Hypothermia Response Program ends March 31. Galvanized by the firsthand experiences of the 1,500 church volunteers who prepared the food, ate with and watched over the homeless as they slept, participating organizations are seeking a more lasting housing solution for their wintertime guests.
"We all know that the hypothermia program is not the answer," said Jim Brigl, chief executive of Fairfax Area Christian Emergency and Transitional Services Inc. (FACETS), the county nonprofit group that has coordinated the hypothermia program. "The answer is permanent shelter."
The aim of the initiative is Fairfax's growing population of homeless, which rose 6.5 percent to 2,077 people in 2006, according to the latest figures from the county's annual one-day canvass. Of that increase, 934 were single adults, a 17 percent jump from 2005.
Those are the hardest to help, county officials and church volunteers said. Some, afflicted by mental illness and substance abuse problems, avoid county-run shelters and live outdoors year-round. Others are overwhelmed by personal or health crises.
Many are people who "for whatever reason, are alienated from family and society," said Gerry Poje, a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax, which is hosting a summit meeting next week for county leaders, nonprofit organizations and the churches, hoping to forge something more permanent for the future.
This is the second year for the Hypothermia Response Program, which was launched after three homeless people died of exposure to the cold in the winter of 2004-05. The county contributed $150,000 this year.
Those who have volunteered their time contributed something else and gained something.
The program "has been a transformative experience for those who participated in it," said Gerald E. Connolly (D), chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. "So much so that they have been powerful advocates on this issue."
Organizers say they are hoping to use the momentum generated by the program, and the zeal of volunteers, to raise $1.25 million to purchase condominium units for permanent housing.
After that, they want to raise additional funds to purchase buildings for use as low-cost efficiency apartments, traditionally known as single-room occupancies, Brigl said. Fairfax has only one such building, operated by the county's Department of Housing and Community Development.
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.
"Let me see if we need to pull some of these casseroles out," said Alfie Rulis, 60, the church's education director, as she washed grapes in the kitchen for organist Andrea Boudra, 28, to add to the fruit salad.
Church volunteer Genie Davis, 77, peered in the oven. "You might want to turn the oven off and leave them in."
About 100 Holy Trinity members, half the church's active members, pitched in for the week's worth of meals and accommodations, Halpern said.
Four long rows of tables with white paper tablecloths were piled with snack bags, platters of vegetables and pretzels. Room dividers bisected the sleeping areas, and the guests' sleeping bags and blankets, cleaned each week, were lined up along a wall.
The church's choir room had been set up as a TV room, and a classroom was converted to a "store," where guests could pick up washcloths, toiletries, clothing and books.
Another classroom had been designated the "snoring room," for the noisy sleepers.
Guests received breakfast in the morning before being bused back to the Lamb Center.
Before dinner, they hurried to grab their sleeping bags and stake out a place. Against the walls was the favorite spot. Some rolled out their bags and stretched out to grab a short nap before dinner.
"This is where I am," called one regular to another woman pulling a wheeled suitcase, who was in the hypothermia shelter for the first time.
Church volunteer Ed Grove, 66, sat at one table and talked to a woman huddled in a black overcoat about her federal government work experience.
"Some of your basic skills are portable," he told her.
Eddie Robinson, 65, a former trash collector who has been homeless for several years, nibbled on pretzels as he waited for dinner. Usually he sleeps outside, even in the winter, he said. It's been good to spend the winter in a warm place with hot food, he said. "The people on the streets need to be in a shelter like this."
Deb Haynes, 37, an at-home mother who helped coordinate the church's sheltering program, reflected on the way helping out turned into a mission and the idea that there is more needed than a single night of help.
"To be honest, I was scared," Haynes said. "But, of course, in the first 10 minutes of the first night, I was like, 'Okay, these are my neighbors.' "
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