A Charity Finds Itself in Dire Need

Frey said that he did not realize how dire the situation was and that he and Haywood explained to the group's leaders that it was too late in the budget cycle for immediate help. He said the organization was told the county could probably help in September, once it had seen whether there was any unspent money in the budget.

Haywood said he promised to follow up regarding "how and if we could consider any kind of funding. We did not make any commitment on the timing at all."

In late April, as its bank balance dwindled to zero and its landlord threatened eviction, the ministries group gathered its staff and supporters and, carrying banners emblazoned with WFCM's name, walked into a county board meeting as the board prepared to vote on its fiscal 2008 budget.

Supervisors reacted angrily when presented with documents showing the predicament and the group's earlier warnings that it would close imminently if it didn't get financial assistance.

WFCM's leaders assumed that Frey had already shared their plight with board members.

"We didn't know that they didn't know, and they didn't know that we didn't know. It was horrible," said the Rev. Patricia B. Deavers, president of the group's board.

The supervisors laid into the group. Supervisor Gerald W. Hyland (D-Mount Vernon) wanted to know why the rent had soared.

Connolly expressed annoyance that the information was coming so late.

"Unfortunately, we are faced with having to have eleventh-hour meetings and discussion the day of the adoption of the budget," Connolly said at the time, upset with county staff and the group. "And I don't think that's an acceptable way of proceeding."

Penelope A. Gross (D-Mason) criticized the group's board. "If you are a board of directors, you have a fiduciary responsibility not to let a nonprofit get in this situation," she said.

Frey said other supervisors' responses angered him. "Their reaction was on a very personal level," he said in an interview. "It was all personalities and personal pique."

Since that disastrous board meeting, WFCM leaders said, the county has done little to help it, despite the group's efforts to get its fiscal house in order.

It has laid off 12 staff members and terminated its contract with the county for its emergency and residential assistance programs, for which it was to receive $190,000 in the current fiscal year. The organization said it could not afford to pay the overhead to run the program.

The nonprofit slashed this year's budget from a projected $790,000 to $304,000 and negotiated a 50 percent rent reduction with its landlord, which dropped the eviction threat. With the staff down to four people, volunteers are filling jobs they once performed. The pantry, the clothes closet and the transportation service continue to operate.

But county officials said the group has not gone far enough in reforming its finances and has resisted the county's efforts to effect further changes.

"If they're not willing to work with the county -- it's a free country," Connolly said in an interview. "They can get assistance from someone else."

Frey, on the other hand, while acknowledging problems between the county and the organization, backs Western Fairfax Christian Ministries' request for a cash infusion.

Although the organization "needs to tighten up," he said, it will cost the county more because its clients will end up on the doors of other area nonprofit groups or in the hands of county social workers.

County officials said they plan to reassign the two contracts for residential and emergency assistance to other nonprofit groups. In the meantime, families needing assistance are being referred to other organizations.