FAIRFAX, Va. — Homelessness is on the rise in the DMV. This month, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments released its annual count on the number of people experiencing homelessness. It showed spikes in all the counties surrounding the District.
“This year we saw one of the largest jumps we’ve seen in a while,” Tom Barnett the Fairfax County Deputy Director of the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness said.
In his role Barnett has eyes on the most at-risk people in one Virginia’s wealthiest counties.
“We are 10% higher this year,” he said. “We had a total identified of 1,310 people experiencing homelessness.”
In January, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments did its annual ‘point in time’ tally of unhoused individuals. It found 2023 numbers went up across the board in every jurisdiction.
We asked Barnett what was behind the across-the-board increase. He said the end of pandemic-related housing assistance the federal and state governments was a major part of it.
“The resources that were deployed around eviction prevention, emergency rental assistance, eviction moratoriums,” he said. “These were all helpful in preventing people from becoming homeless.”
“Some of it is definitely the amount it costs to live comfortably in Fairfax County,” Makayla Wise from the nonprofit FACETS said.
FACETS is a group focused on fighting poverty in the county. In her role at FACETS, Wise works with people experiencing homelessness. She pointed out one of the core problems her clients notice is housing.
“The rent is definitely astronomical,” she said. “A lot of clients just need rental assistance; some clients need more than that.”
The other issue the study revealed is that the majority of the people experiencing homelessness are over the age of 55. Both Wise and Barnett point out this population experiences health concerns in addition to their vulnerability.
In the meantime, Barnett said county leadership has stepped up.
“The local Board of Supervisors has deployed resources to try and smooth this transition out of the pandemic,” he explained.
While the study showed homeless rates are up year to year, the numbers also show homelessness is down significantly from 2019 numbers.