Doubts Linger Despite Board Action Over Homeless Site
Ashburn Residents Cite Breach of Trust

By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 25, 2007

For the past decade, November has brought an onslaught of work for Joy Trickett, who in the fall is usually meeting with donors, recruiting volunteers and getting ready for the busy holiday season.

This year, though, the chairwoman of Good Shepherd Alli-ance's board of directors has been mired in a controversy that she says has drained some of the holiday cheer from her nonprofit homeless advocacy organization.

"It's been a very trying time," said Trickett, who has been volunteering and working for the Christian-based organization for about a decade. "We really were blindsided by all of this."

She and others have spent the past few weeks trying to tamp down anger about the group's plans to move its headquarters into a building formerly occupied by a roofing company in Old Ashburn. The group bought the building in the hope of consolidating its Leesburg offices and Sterling thrift store into a single complex.

But it has faced opposition from neighbors and county officials, who said the building is not the right place for a homeless service organization. They especially objected to a plan to allow the homeless to drop in, take a shower, do laundry and have a meal before returning to the streets.

On Tuesday, the Loudoun Board of Supervisors voted to take over the drop-in component, agreeing to run it out of Good Shepherd's office on Sycolin Road in Leesburg to prevent it from moving to Ashburn.

But that decision has hardly reduced tensions between Good Shepherd, the county's oldest and largest homeless advocacy organization, and Ashburn residents who say the group has irreparably betrayed their trust.

"What they've done here has just soured their reputation," said Kent Clizbe, one of hundreds of residents who have publicly registered opposition to the Ashburn move. He and others have accused Good Shepherd of intentionally keeping quiet about the project, knowing that it would upset residents concerned about safety and property values.

Good Shepherd was founded by a pastor and former Loudoun County supervisor, who in 1983 opened the doors of his house to homeless teenage boys, Trickett said. The pastor later began negotiating with developers to run his shelter out of abandoned homes slated for demolition, she said.

Today, the group has three homeless shelters and an annual budget of more than $1 million, of which $80,000 came from county coffers this year. The Volunteers of America and the Salvation Army also run homeless shelters in the county.

Good Shepherd had run into some difficulties recently even before the Ashburn dispute, including a stabbing at one of its shelters last year and an after-hours assault at its Leesburg office in February. Also last year, the organization abruptly shut down its shelter for men and its cold-weather emergency shelter, leaving a void in services for single homeless men.

The group also has stumbled with its county permits. Although Good Shepherd operated its cold-weather shelter in its Leesburg office for three years, it had not finished getting the zoning permits. Last week, the group was chastised by the county's zoning department for illegally erecting a tent on its Ashburn property.

Good Shepherd officials said they have decided to refocus their mission away from men and toward women and children, a change that has worried some county officials.

"I'm getting more and more concerned with GSA's mission and what you say you want to do versus the actions that you're taking," Supervisor Bruce E. Tulloch (R-Potomac) said during Tuesday's board meeting.

But supporters of the group note that for most of its 24-year-old existence, Good Shepherd has operated without incident -- and without a penny of county funding. This year, about 90 percent of the people it served found permanent housing, Good Shepherd officials said. By the end of the year, it will have served 4,000 homeless people over the course of its existence.

Good Shepherd can't handle the county's growing homeless problem by itself, said Nicholas Graham, a volunteer spokesman for the group. He said he welcomes the decision by the county to pick up the drop-in center duties to help ease the burden on the organization.

"Clearly the GSA is filling an absolutely vital need in the county, one that is not going away anytime in the near future," Graham said. He said the county is approaching a "homeless and housing crisis" because of the spate of home foreclosures in recent months. This year, the organization will have turned away an estimated 700 people from its shelters, he said.

Good Shepherd officials made a number of changes last week to the design of the Ashburn building to foster goodwill with the community, Graham said. They decided to remove showers, a lounge and a locker room that some residents said was evidence that the organization planned to operate a drop-in center covertly at the site.

The group also reached out to the Ashburn community, meeting with three homeowners associations last week, Graham said. He noted that the group publicly announced the Asburn project in June and said, "The intent of the GSA was always noble and meaningful and good."

Opponents said they are not swayed by the group's recent efforts.

"Given the way they have conducted themselves, I won't believe anything they say unless it is in writing," Ashburn resident Melanie Bancroft said.

Trickett said she is disappointed with the way the community and the county have treated the Good Shepherd Alliance.

"We didn't let the county down; maybe the county let us down. That's a horrible thing to say, I know," she said. "For 24 years, this group has done this work, and now it's time for the government to step up and take on some of these responsibilities."