The 100,000 Homes Campaign is a national movement of communities working together to find permanent homes for 100,000 of the country’s most vulnerable and chronically homeless individuals and families by July of 2014. Click here to watch a video.
Why the Campaign…
- Homelessness is an urgent problem in the Fairfax-Falls Church Community.
- In 2008 Fairfax-Falls Church nonprofits, faith communities, businesses, individuals and local governments came together to adopt the “10-Year Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.”
- Already this community partnership has generated results, decreasing the homelessness rate by rapidly moving families and individuals into housing with services. However, those experiencing chronic homelessness have been harder to help.
- That’s why the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Partnership on ending homelessness is joining the 100,000 Homes Campaign. The campaign provides concrete, innovative tools and infrastructure that will help us put a real face on homelessness.
- We can solve homelessness…with your help.
Registry Week Completed
462 Homeless Living Outdoors Interviewed during “Registry Week,” an Intense Effort to Document Fairfax’s Chronically Homeless Men and Women
Click here to watch a video and learn how volunteers felt about this experience.
More than 200 volunteers spread out across Fairfax County on February 24-27. Here in the Reston/Herndon area 60 Reston Interfaith volunteers and staff surveyed homeless people living in encampments in the woods, the North County Hypothermia Prevention Program, and the Embry Rucker Community Shelter Drop-In Program. Staff and volunteers connected with unsheltered adults and conducted health assessments of these individuals, resulting in more than 106 interviews during the first-ever “Registry Week,” a component of the 100,000 Homes Fairfax Campaign. The findings will be used to create profiles of people to ensure that each homeless individual is counted and that their progress in finding housing and services can be better tracked.
Key findings from Registry Week—which were released during a community debrief at Jubilee Christian Center attended by the partners, Congressman Gerry Connolly, Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova, and a number of other members of the Board of Supervisors—include:
- Nearly a quarter were between 18-34 years old
- The largest number of interviewees (151) were found in the Route 1 corridor
- More than three-quarters of interviewees were male
- “Unable to pay rent/utilities” and “job loss” were by far the most cited reasons for homelessness
- 10 percent were veterans
- Nearly half were employed
- 40 percent had a physical disability
Media Coverage
100,000 Homes Registry Video Summary, Jerry Ferguson of Fairfax Public Access
Despite strides, Northern Virginia still grappling with homelessness – WTOP – March 11, 2013
Putting a Face on Homelessness – The Connection – March 7, 2013
Fairfax County Homelessness Survey – Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce – March 6, 2013
Welcomed Into Their ‘Homes’ – The Huffington Post – March 6, 2013
Homeless Surveyed Sheds New Light on Critical Issue – Fairfax Times – March 5, 2013
Hundreds of Volunteers Catalogue 462 Chronically Homeless People in Fairfax County – Lorton Patch – March 5, 2013
Registry Week Finds Nearly 500 Live Outdoors – Reston Patch – March 5, 2013
Finding Homes for the Homeless in Fairfax County – The Washington Post – March 4, 2013
Life in the Shadows: Searhing for Centreville’s Homeless – Centreville Patch – March 1 , 2013
Putting a Name and Face on Chronically Homeless – The Connection – February 28, 2013
Volunteers Help to Put a Face on Some the Homeless in Fairfax County – NBC4 News – February 27, 2013
Fairfax Homeless Population Subject to Vulnerability Study – WAMU News – February 26, 2013
Fairfax County Registers Chronically Homeless – Lorton Patch – February 26, 2013
Fairfax County identifies, registers its homeless – ABC7 News – February 26, 2013
Reston Interfaith to Survey Area Needs – Reston Patch – February 23, 2013
New Approach to Helping Chronic Homeless – The Connection – February 22, 2013
Program Puts a Face on Homelessness – Fairfax Times – February 22, 2013
100,000 Homes Takes Aim at Local Homelessness – Falls Church News-Press – February 21, 2013
Fairfax County to Register Chronically Homeless – Lorton Patch – February 21, 2013
Homeless, Not Hopeless – Reston Connection – February 12, 2013
New Campaign Will Help Fairfax Homeless – Lorton Patch – January 27, 2013
Congregational and Community Sponsorship and Volunteer Opportunities
An immediate connection to permanent supportive housing can ensure that over 80% of homeless individuals remain housed. Your support during Registry Week could include sponsoring the training dinner or volunteering to do the registry outreach.
Once the most vulnerable are identified, Reston Interfaith and partners are offering additional opportunities to help which will include mentoring or providing companionship, financial sponsorship of furniture, first-month’s rent, security deposits or helping with rental sustainability for those transitioning from homelessness to permanent homes.
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