Homeless Program To Provide More Than Warm Beds
Hypothermia Relief Expands Scope
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 13, 2007; Page VA21
The Hypothermia Response Program was launched three years ago after three homeless people died from exposure in winter 2004-05. Several dozen county churches take turns through March 31 providing food and support for those who don't have somewhere warm to sleep.
"As wonderful as it is to sleep on a church floor, it's not a house," said Jim Brigl, chief executive of Fairfax Area Christian Emergency and Transitional Services (FACETS), one of the nonprofit groups coordinating the hypothermia program.
This year, instead of moving to a different church each week, the mid-county hypothermia program is operating out of the county Human Services building in Seven Corners. Next month, churches will open for overflow, Brigl said.
The centralized structure is similar to that used in the hypothermia programs in the northern part of the county, which Reston Interfaith coordinates, and in the southern portion, which New Hope Housing coordinates. In those programs, churches bring food and volunteers to a central site instead of moving homeless people to a different church each week.
Nonprofit leaders say centralization saves money and is more efficient because fewer people need to be transported.
They also say that many people who use the hypothermia program are the hardest to help. Some have substance-abuse problems or mental illness; others are overwhelmed by personal or health crises.
To link them with health services in Fairfax, a county-funded van offering medical care makes the rounds of hypothermia sites. Mental-health counselors and other experts refer those who need it to medical care.
Hoping to push the county to find more permanent housing, participating churches have formed an advocacy organization, Faith Communities United for Housing. More than 100 people attended a recent Board of Supervisors meeting to urge supervisors to create an office to address homelessness.
As a step in that direction, nonprofit groups that coordinate the hypothermia program say they are renting almost a dozen apartments, into which they have placed some of those who use the hypothermia program.
FACETS expects to rent five apartments. New Hope Housing has moved people, including a woman who was living in a bus shelter on Route 1, into four rented apartments, said Pamela Michell, executive director of New Hope.
The nonprofit groups are using a housing-first model, which, unlike traditional housing models, places people into permanent housing immediately and then sends in case managers to help find such services as mental-health care, substance-abuse treatment and job training.
"We all know that [the] hypothermia [program] wasn't the answer," Brigl said. "It was absolutely necessary and vital work, but it's not the answer. We've got to find a way to find permanent housing for people."