nonprofit

Arlington County Fair adds free activities and plans to donate surplus profits

By James Jarvis
Scenes from the 2022 Arlington County Fair (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

When the Arlington County Fair kicks off next week, attendees can expect to see more free activities.

After receiving financial support from Arlington County and several businesses, including a $15,000 donation from Amazon, the Arlington County Fair Board decided to increase the number of free indoor and outdoor activities, Matt Richard, the chair of the fair board, told ARLnow.

The fair also plans to donate leftover proceeds from ticket sales to local nonprofits. He said the two changes are reflected in the fair’s new theme: “A Fair for All.”

“We’d like to think of the fair as a place where everyone can gather, no matter their background or their socio-economic background,” Richard said. “We want people to feel like this is an opportunity for anyone to come here and be part of this event… This is fair for everyone, and we’re going to do everything in our power to continue to make it fair for everyone for the years to come.”

The fair at Thomas Jefferson Community Center will run from Wednesday, Aug. 16 to Sunday, Aug. 20.

Some of the new free outdoor activities include the Go Bananas Performance & Family Dance Party, scavenger hunts, mini golf and live music. Free activities indoors include a display of portraits from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Bingo, a popup park with yard games and an interactive robotics demonstration.

Richard noted the board decided to channel any surplus funds into a new community endowment fund, set to be announced during the opening ceremony at 5 p.m. next Wednesday.

“We’re also going to give some of that money back to the Arlington community by way of identifying some foundations in the community or nonprofit organizations in the community that can benefit…they’re not going to be large dollar amount donations. We don’t have a lot of money. But basically ways to show that the community gives a fair and fair gets back to the community,” Richard said.

Entry to the fair is free but attendees can pay for attractions, such as rides, food and pie-eating contests. Ride tickets, $1.25 each, can be purchased on-site or online.

New District Brewing will also serve its last beers at the fair after officially closing its taproom in May.

Due to ongoing construction at the Arlington Career Center, the fair’s shuttle stop has been relocated this year. Instead, attendees can park at the county government headquarters garage at 2100 Clarendon Blvd and take the shuttle service from there.

The shuttle operates continuously, starting 30 minutes before the fairgrounds open until an hour after closing.

Alternate parking can be found at the Faith Lutheran Church at 3313 Arlington Blvd — a nearby pedestrian bridge leads directly to the fairgrounds. Additionally, parking that is accessible for people with disabilities is available at the front left lot of the Thomas Jefferson Community Center.

Local nonprofit ensures safe and healthy housing for community members

By Anya Wareck
1/6

A small cohort of dedicated volunteers is stepping up to help support low-income homeowners, performing home improvements at no cost.

Since 1988, the nonprofit Rebuilding Together Arlington/Fairfax/Falls Church has worked to ensure low-income homeowners in Arlington and elsewhere in Northern Virginia have safe and accessible living spaces.

The group, a branch of the national organization Rebuilding Together, is based in the city of Fairfax but lends support to area nonprofit housing organizations, including Choice. Respect. independence, which aids people with disabilities. Last year, the volunteers spent 6,924 hours helping repair 100 homes across the region, according to the nonprofit’s website.

Volunteers are often involved in multiple projects each week, ranging from installing grab bars to new dryers. Typically, these projects involve a team of five volunteers and are completed with a budget of $500 or less.

Daphne Lathouras, communications manager for the local nonprofit, shared an anecdote with ARLnow from one homeowner who said, “I’ve been going up and down these stairs for 57 years and I can’t believe the difference two handrails make.”

Recently, in Arlington, volunteers also helped renovate a new building for the Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center, which has recycled more than 3 million pairs of eyeglasses for people in need.

Rebuilding Together’s local Northern Virginia affiliate heavily relies on the dedicated work of volunteers, some of whom provide year-round support.

“The key [to our success] is the incredible volunteers,” Lathouras told ARLnow.

The local organization receives funding from several sources including the Arlington County government, faith and corporate partners as well as individual donors.

“I want to thank the wonderful group with hearts of gold that came to my aid when I really needed it,” a homeowner said when giving feedback to the organization.

Additional information, as well as the volunteer sign-up link, are available on the nonprofit’s website.

Arlington police can now refer kids to restorative programs outside the juvenile justice system

By Jo DeVoe
A police officer plays a game of pickup basketball with local kids in 2018 (Flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf)

(Updated at 2:10 p.m.) A new youth program could divert youth who commit misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies from the juvenile legal system.

Arlington police will be able to refer offending juveniles to local programs aimed at holding youth accountable outside of the court system, according to a press release from the Center for Youth and Family Advocacy (CYFA).

“Community-based diversion is critical to community policing because it recognizes young people’s capacity for change,” the organization said in a statement. “Community-based diversion also reduces the possibility of collateral consequences arising from legal system involvement, which can have lasting, and often unexpected, effects on a youth throughout their life.”

CYFA works Arlington County’s juvenile court services unit to provide a variety of youth-led programs, through which kids who acknowledge wrongdoing can make amends and rejoin their communities.

It offers programs such as “Youth Peer Court,” in which trained teens occupy the roles of prosecutor and defense attorney, judge and jury and help develop a plan the juvenile follows to repair the harm he or she committed.

Now, police will be able to refer kids to that program and another, in which kids learn how to facilitate conversations about issues impacting teens by those harmed and those doing the harm.

The nonprofit says its new partnership with ACPD, in the works since 2019, is a “radical change” in how Arlington County addresses delinquent behavior in kids and prevents them from being involved in the formal juvenile legal system.

Until recently, for instance, police officers were in Arlington Public Schools. The intent was to maintain school safety and provide mentorship, though there were community concerns that the school presence resulted in racial disparities in juvenile arrests.

For the police department, the CYFA partnership is a new way to stay involved in the lives of children without involving the full weight of the courts.

“ACPD recognizes that using restorative justice programs for particular incidents involving youth provides an opportunity to divert youth from the criminal justice system while still holding them accountable for their actions and providing persons who have been harmed an opportunity to be actively involved in the resolution of their case,” department spokeswoman Ashley Savage told ARLnow.

The two organizations will work together to educate locals about how to also utilize these two programs when police are not involved, CYFA says.

The nonprofit says the partnership advances the aims of the county’s Police Practices Group, which suggested more than 100 ways to reform policing in Arlington.

“It creates space to reframe police response from adversarial to solution-focused and provides an opportunity to shift cultural and societal reliance on police resources,” CYFA said.

In a Facebook post, the organization provided a “shoutout” to several officers within ACPD for their work to stand up the program, as well as to Chief Andy Penn and Deputy Chief Wayne Vincent “for their tremendous work on strategic planning.”

The organization additionally thanked County Manager Mark Schwartz and the Arlington County Board for supporting its efforts.

Flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf

Arlington college student donates 12 inches of hair to charity

By Anya Wareck
1/2

When the pandemic hit, Arlington resident Matt White, like many others, could not get a haircut.

He noticed his hair grew quickly and, rather than cut it, he decided to challenge himself and see how long he could grow it out.

“At some point, I realized it could definitely be long enough to donate,” White told ARLnow.

Last Wednesday — almost three years after his last haircut — the 21-year-old went to his mother’s hair salon, Magnus Opus, for a long-anticipated haircut. Hairdresser Clinton Jones tied it into a long, 12-inch ponytail and snipped it off.

White sent his hair to Children With Hair Loss, a nonprofit that donates wigs made with human hair to children and adolescents suffering from medically-related hair loss. Picking the organization was an obvious choice for White because of a family friend who also donated her hair there.

Leading up to the haircut, White said he was excited to see how long his hair had actually grown — four inches longer than the nonprofit’s donation minimum.

Dealing with longer locks, however, had its challenging moments, he admitted.

“The hardest part of the process is when your hair isn’t long enough to go into a ponytail but too long to stay out of your eyes,” White said. “For those with short hair — it can be a challenge, and it can feel quite weird — but you will get used to it pretty quickly.”

New bike shop in Lyon Park to host grand opening event Saturday

By Anya Wareck
New Velocity bike shop
Interior of the storefront (photo courtesy of John McClanahan)

Velocity Bike Cooperative is hosting a grand opening for its new Arlington location this weekend.

The location at 2647 N. Pershing Drive has been serving customers for a few months, but will formally celebrate its opening on Saturday, June 10. The event will include a ribbon cutting at 11 a.m. and giveaways.

“During Saturday’s celebration, we will offer a 20% discount on bikes and accessories,” said John McClanahan, a volunteer for the cooperative. “Giveaway items will include socks, shirts, caps, and basic tune-ups with pickup at Arlington. And, we’ll offer coffee, water, juices, and small pastries.”

Founded by John Patterson and Christian Myers in 2009, Velocity aims to foster an inclusive biking community through “affordability, education, and embracing the fun of riding,” according to its website.

The new Lyon Park location is its second location; the first is at 2111 Mt. Vernon Avenue in Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood.

Velocity’s storefronts facilitate sales, bike donations, bike education, as well as do-it-yourself and full-service repairs. Regular shop hours in Arlington are Tuesday-Friday from noon to 6 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

New funding will boost effort to plant trees in disadvantaged neighborhoods

By Jo DeVoe
Trees in Arlington (staff photo)

EcoAction Arlington just got a $60,000 boost from the Arlington branch of the NAACP and the Mormon church in its efforts to plant trees in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Last year, the environmental advocacy group announced its plan to plant trees in 10 neighborhoods where the canopy is thinner than elsewhere — areas generally less wealthy and more diverse than Arlington’s leafier enclaves. The 2022 announcement coincided with a $50,000 donation from Amazon.

The initiative, dubbed the Tree Canopy Equity program, aims to raise $1.5 million to fund planting 250 trees twice a year, for the next five years — or 2,500 trees total. Last week, the NAACP announced it had selected EcoAction Arlington to receive the money through a strategic grant and partnership with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“Arlington has a 10-year life expectancy difference amongst its neighborhoods, and this donation will create focus and provide much-needed tree canopy in places that have, for decades, been left out of the conversation,” NAACP Branch President Michael Hemminger said in a statement. “For years, EcoAction Arlington has been a committed partner in the furtherance of our mission, making them a natural fit for why we selected this non-profit as the recipient.”

To date, EcoAction Arlington has raised $239,000 from individuals, corporations, nonprofits, foundations and the state of Virginia, executive director Elenor Hodges tells ARLnow.

“That’s got to be a record for us in most money raised in shortest amount of time,” she said. “We’re truly grateful to the NAACP and looking to them as a true partner.”

The money funds outreach needed to find residents, apartment buildings and organizations interested in planting trees. It also pays for shrubs — trees are paid for through the Arlington County Tree Canopy Fund — and, in some cases, water.

Hodges says she is excited to use support from a foundation to pay community members to do the outreach work, similar to a model used in Wards 7 and 8 in D.C.

“This community work takes people, time and money, so we want to pay people and professionalize it,” she said.

This spring, volunteers planted 215 trees and 110 shrubs across the 10 neighborhoods, particularly in Penrose, Green Valley and Aurora Highlands, she said. Shrubs provide the benefits of trees and are ideal for people without the space for a tree or who are not ready to add one to their yard.

The 10 neighborhoods being targeted have a lower average tree canopy than Arlington County as a whole, according to one study funded by some members of local environmental advocacy groups, including EcoAction Arlington.

Based on imaging from 2021, a consultant found that trees cover 33% of land — excluding the Pentagon and Reagan National Airport — down from 41% on the same land six years ago. The 10 neighborhoods, meanwhile, have a canopy coverage average of 22.6%.

The neighborhoods and their canopy levels are as follows:

  • Arlington View, 17%
  • Aurora Highlands, 22%
  • Buckingham, 21%
  • Columbia Heights, 28%
  • Glebewood, 29%
  • Green Valley, 24%
  • John M. Langston Citizens Association, 19%
  • Long Branch Creek, 24%
  • Penrose, 23%
  • Radnor/Fort Myer Heights, 19%
Tree canopy in Arlington by neighborhood (via Arlington Tree Action Group)

The absence of trees makes a neighborhood hotter and Arlington’s hottest places are along the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor and near Reagan National Airport, per a study by Marymount University.

Study authors say this is because concrete and asphalt absorb heat and radiate it back into the environment while neighborhoods in North Arlington have more trees and gardens to soak up that sunshine.

(more…)

Goodwill and AHC propose new affordable housing, new store and child care

By Jo DeVoe
1/5

Goodwill of Greater Washington and AHC Inc. are teaming up to build affordable housing above a new second-hand store and donation center on S. Glebe Road.

DC Urban Turf first reported the news.

The national nonprofit has not embarked on something like this before, writes land-use attorney Andrew Painter, in application materials filed with Arlington County.

“The proposed redevelopment would be the first such project for the organization as it seeks to further its nonprofit mission and values,” Painter said. “The proposal will also deliver a modern and efficient retail store and donation processing center for a successful nonprofit organization that provides important services and benefits to Arlington County’s disenfranchised populations.”

The nonprofit proposes to demolish the existing store at 10 S. Glebe Road in the Alcova Heights neighborhood and build a five-story, mixed-use building. There will be a Goodwill retail store and child care center on the ground floor, a donation processing center on the second floor and 128 apartments above that.

All of the units will be offered to households earning between 30-60% of the area median income for a period of 30 years, though the exact unit mix will be finalized during the financing process. About three-quarters of the affordable apartments consist of 2-3 bedroom units.

The units units will be available for a single person earning up to $63,300 and a family of four earning up to $90,420, according to the county.

AHC, which Painter says is Arlington County’s largest non-profit affordable housing developer, is its joint development partner and will oversee the apartment side of the building’s operations once construction is done. AHC will also choose the operator for the child care center.

“AHC hopes to replicate the success we’ve had in other communities,” AHC spokeswoman Jennifer Smith tells ARLnow. “That means bringing a mission-aligned childcare partner to the new Goodwill site, with priority enrollment for onsite residents and Goodwill Greater Washington employees, then availability to the larger community.”

Parking for residents, childcare, employee and overflow customer parking will be located in a 152-space underground garage. Retail, visitor and future resident parking will be in a 16-spot surface parking lot.

In preparation for the temporary closure of the S. Glebe site, Goodwill is currently negotiating a lease for an alternate donation drop-off location close by. That is expected to open in 2024.

Meanwhile, Painter says, Goodwill encourages its customers to shop or donate at its 20 other area locations, including a store on Columbia Pike.

Nonprofit with Arlington ties offers camping and hiking trips for teens who have lost a loved one

By Jo DeVoe
Teens and tweens explore the outdoors through Hope for Grieving Families (courtesy photos)

A nonprofit with ties to Arlington is offering free outdoor hiking and camping adventures for D.C.-area teens and tweens grieving the loss of a loved one.

Hope for Grieving Families is partnering with the educational nonprofit Outward Bound to send up to 30 tweens and teens on a one-day ropes course adventure and a group of eight to 10 high schoolers on a seven-day expedition in the Appalachian Mountains.

The deadline to apply for both programs is next Friday, May 19.

The program does not aim to provide counseling, but rather, an opportunity for teens to befriend feeling similar emotions.

“The friendships that have blossomed between these teens are so amazing,” Tara O’Brien, the executive director of Hope for Grieving Families, tells ARLnow. “It makes you feel like you’re doing something that means something, that is still impacting these families’ lives.”

In a press release, the nonprofit said one in 13 children will lose a parent by the time they are 18 and one in five will lose someone close to them by 18 — and that these children will experience grief differently than adults.

“For kids who have faced the immensely painful loss of a parent, sibling, or other loved one, the chance to connect with each other out in nature is an unforgettable, healing experience,” O’Brien said in a statement.

“Our participants learn from our guides and from one another, building resilience and self-advocacy skills,” she continued. “Most of all, these trips are an opportunity for grieving children to just experience some fun again, alongside other kids who are going through the same journeys of loss and healing.”

Jason Alford, of Outward Bound, says research shows most children who have experienced loss benefit from peer-to-peer support.

“Children can experience comfort from having others who understand grief and loss. Without a peer support group, children can feel anxious, isolated and overwhelmed,” he said in a statement. “Our expedition program with Outward Bound was designed with these evidence-based insights in mind.”

Hope For Grieving Families says it is the D.C. area’s only organization providing “family-focused grief programming” aimed at giving people new, positive memories and experiences after a loss.

Its founder, Becky Wagner, lives in Arlington and the nonprofit serves many from North Arlington and Northern Virginia more broadly, O’Brien said.

Clients come to the organization for a range of reasons, O’Brien tells ARLnow. Many have lost someone to suicide or a car accident, while for others, family members died after a bout with cancer.

“The thing that bonds them all is that they all understand they’re going through a grieving process,” she said. “They might not talk about the grief but they all understand what they’re going through.”

The nonprofit focuses on creating fun experiences for teens processing their grief. O’Brien says it is sensitive to current events that may trigger that grief, such as a recent shooting at a mall in Allen, Texas.

(more…)

More than 1,000 people received homelessness services last year in Arlington

By Jo DeVoe
A sleeping bag and roll of toilet paper in an alcove of the elevated walkway in Rosslyn (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Arlington County says it provided assistance to 1,070 people who were experiencing homelessness or at risk of losing housing last year.

This number is five times higher than the number of people found living outside or in a shelter one night in January 2022. One night last winter, as part of the “point-in-time” count, 182 people did not have permanent, stable housing, according to a new report on homelessness in Arlington.

The recently released report says the larger figure more accurately captures the portion of the population experiencing homelessness in Arlington.

In a statement, Arlington County Dept. of Human Services Director Anita Friedman said that, without Covid-era eviction prevention efforts, the number of people who received services would have been higher.

“The total number of individuals served in FY 2022 was almost identical to pre-pandemic levels,” Friedman said. “Without strong eviction prevention efforts, we would have seen many more households upended and in crisis.”

Some $20 million in local, state and federal funding helped more than 3,400 households stave off eviction, according to the county.

The report comes as Arlington County embarks on a goal to bringing homelessness down to what it calls “functional zero” for several specific demographics. That means homelessness is “rare and brief” for a given population, such as young adults, families and survivors of domestic violence.

“For those households that do experience homelessness, it is traumatic, and we remain committed to working alongside them as they return to housing stability,” Friedman said. “We will also continue to address critical gaps, including in the areas of racial equity, immigrant and refugee households, and the aging population.”

Arlington County addresses homelessness through a network of programs and services it calls the Continuum of Care, or CoC. The report says that DHS staff and nonprofit program leaders have spent the last 10 years improving how the CoC prevents homelessness and finds permanent housing for people.

For instance, through the CoC, county and community partners work together to connect people to stable housing, jobs, childcare and emergency financial assistance, and provide behavioral health services to people living on the streets — a service that helped 65 people last year.

What homelessness looks like in Arlington

Of the 1,070 who received services through the CoC, there were:

  • 744 single adults
  • 105 families
  • 36 veterans
  • 74 young people aged 18-24
  • 192 people in “chronic homelessness,” or individuals with a documented disability who have experienced at least 12 months of homelessness in one stretch or at least four times in less than three years

Excluding people in Arlington’s shelter for people escaping domestic violence, run by the nonprofit Doorways, 305 people were served in Arlington shelters. This includes 13 veterans and 25 chronically homeless individuals. The average length of stay was three months.

Meanwhile, the county report says demand for safe housing among domestic violence survivors — including individuals and families — is increasing.

Rising need for safe housing from domestic violence is on the rise (via Arlington County)

While some 165 people received shelter at Doorways, the number of people who called its hotline was much higher: advocates counseled people on domestic and sexual violence during a total of 1,039 calls, per the report. Most of the time, people leaving these situations are women.

“Domestic violence is one of the leading causes of homelessness for families, and the leading cause of homelessness for women,” the report says.

Women are also more likely to be at the head of a family experiencing homelessness, per the report. Of the families counted one night in January, women were the adult in the family 95% of the time.

Meanwhile, 78% of homeless individuals were men and 1% identified as transgender.

Gender of people surveyed in the 2022 point-in-time count (via Arlington County)

Plans to turn Reeves Farmhouse into group home head to Historic Affairs board

By Jo DeVoe
1/12

(Updated at 4:50 p.m.) After a pandemic-era hiatus, Habitat for Humanity has revived plans to turn a county-owned historic farmhouse into a group home.

Habitat DC-NOVA and HomeAid National Capital Region are propose to restore the exterior of the Reeves Farmhouse in the Bluemont neighborhood, modernize and renovate the interior, construct two new, historically compatible additions and update the landscaping.

The public would still be able to use two acres of parkland around it, including a milk shed, sledding hill and the Reevesland Learning Center gardens.

The nonprofits will be meeting with the Historic Affairs and Landmark Review Board tonight (Wednesday) to discuss plans for the home, which is more than 100 years old. Given the home’s local historic district designation, this board has the authority to review and approve major alterations, per a county report.

The farmhouse sits on the Reevesland property, notable for being the last operating dairy farm in Arlington County before closing in 1955. The local historic designation of the farmhouse and milk shed , from 2004, recognizes the property’s “architectural history and association with the rural and agricultural history of Arlington,” the report said.

“The Reevesland farmhouse is a two-story building with a stone foundation,” the report says. “The wood framing remains as underlying physical evidence of a number of additions and remodeling undertaken over more than 100 years, with the major changes occurring from 1878 to 1911.”

Arlington County purchased Reevesland in 2001 and began searching for appropriate uses for the “endangered” historic place in 2010, putting forth requests for proposals that never led anywhere. During these doldrums, some community groups suggested the county turn the property into a museum or learning center.

High renovation costs convinced the Board to move toward selling it in March 2017, despite some community opposition. Two months later, Habitat came to Arlington County with an unsolicited proposal to reuse the farmhouse for a group home for people with developmental disabilities.

It took three years, but the county and Habitat reached a non-binding letter of intent. One month after that was signed, the nation shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic and the project stalled.

Talks among the nonprofits and L’Arche Greater Washington — which will use the facilities for their core member program — and county staff about the project resumed in September 2022. DPR met with the Boulevard Manor Civic Association in January to provide an update on the project, a neighbor and a spokeswoman for Habitat told ARLnow after publication.

Plans include a two-story addition at the back of the house and a one-story addition at on the southwest side. These will increase the number of bedrooms to seven and provide access and gathering spaces suitable for people with mobility impairments.

A paved area west of the farmhouse will be expanded to provide parking and clearance for Metro Access vans that will provide transportation for future residents. It will also build a stormwater management bio-facility, which could be something like a rain garden.

A tree near the proposed two-story addition will be removed as the addition will conflict with some roots that are critical to its health. Habitat will discuss ways to mitigate this loss with the county’s Urban Forester.

In the county report, Historic Preservation Program staff say they support the project because the addition will be distinct from the historic structure and the landscaping changes will not harm the property’s setting.

“The proposed one- and two-story additions will not detract from the scale or massing of the historic farmhouse, as their designs are compatible with the existing vernacular architecture and can be distinguished from what is historic and new construction,” per a county report.

Arlington County, nonprofits nab $3M to fund homelessness prevention efforts

By Jo DeVoe
A sleeping bag and roll of toilet paper in an alcove of the elevated walkway in Rosslyn (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Local nonprofits and the Arlington County government have received $3 million in federal funding to address homelessness.

Nearly $200,000 will go to two new programs from the organizations Doorways and PathForward, formerly A-SPAN. The rest — save for about $81,000 for the county — will support existing programs provided by Bridges to Independence, Doorways, New Hope Housing and PathForward.

“This HUD funding helps ensure survivors of intimate partner violence have access to housing and additional pathways out of shelter, so that they can find healing, harbor, and hope for a brighter future,” Doorways President and CEO Diana Ortiz told ARLnow in a statement.

To date this year, Arlington has received $4.2 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to combat homelessness.

“HUD funding is a vital part of Arlington’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness,” said Arlington County’s Department of Human Services Director Anita Friedman in a statement.

“This announcement confirms that our strategic planning, policy development, and service delivery are effective and that we are changing lives for individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of becoming homeless,” she continued.

The county delivers these services in a partnership with local nonprofits called the Arlington County Continuum of Care (CoC). For more than a decade, the CoC has worked to improve the county’s response to homelessness by focusing on providing permanent housing, working with 1,070 people in 2022, per the county.

Nonprofits receiving this money will use it in one of two ways. The first, called “rapid rehousing,” places people living on the street or in an emergency shelter in existing, empty affordable apartment units. The second, called “permanent supportive housing,” combines housing with services such as health care and employment help.

The funding breaks down as follows:

  • Doorways: $127,398 for a new rapid rehousing program
  • PathForward: $1.85 million for four existing programs and $68,116 for a new permanent supportive housing program
  • New Hope Housing: $586,269 for three existing programs
  • Bridges to Independence: $289,419 for an existing rapid rehousing program

“HUD grant funding supports a broad array of interventions designed to assist individuals and families experiencing homelessness, particularly those living in places not meant for habitation, located in sheltering programs, or at imminent risk of becoming homeless,” per a county press release. “Because grants are competitive, localities must demonstrate need as well as an ability to address those needs.”

Arlington has demonstrated that ability in the past, when, in 2015, it functionally ended homelessness for veterans, according to a presentation on the county’s efforts.

That does not mean Arlington literally eradicated homelessness for former service members, however.

Rather, it means that the number of actively homeless veterans is less than or equal to the average monthly rate at which individuals and families find and move into stable housing, per the presentation. This is known as “functional zero.”

Arlington aims to reach functional zero for all populations experiencing homelessness by 2026, which would mean seven or fewer single adults and three or fewer youth and families with children actively experiencing homelessness at one time.

To reach this goal, Arlington is partnering with Community Solutions, which is a nonprofit dedicated to ending homelessness, and updating its strategic plan. As part of that process, the county held listening sessions earlier this year to discuss how homelessness affects specific population groups and hear solutions from the community.

In the presentation, Community Solutions representative Elise Topazian said Arlington is on the right track. Over the last 12 years, the Continuum of Care reduced overall homelessness by 66%, including a 52% reduction in sheltered and 90% reduction in unsheltered homelessness.

“Arlington is on the brink [of] ending chronic homelessness,” Topazian said.

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