More than 2,000 people are homeless in Fairfax County and the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, more than 700 of them are children, according to an annual study.
The number of homeless people rose by 128 from 2005.
“Two thousand people out of a little over a million population is not a huge number of people, but it’s an unconscionable number,” said Linda Wimpey, chair of county’s council on homelessness.
But in this wealthy suburb, where homelessness did not once exist, it is an increasing concern.
The county is now scoping out ways to tackle the problem, made all the more glaring by the considerable wealth of the region. Officials are now drafting a plan to eliminate homelessness within a decade and expect to release it later this year.
Fairfax County organized community meetings in May and June to discuss the problem.
William Macmillan, a county official providing support to the homelessness council, said the ratio of homeless to non homeless is small. Fairfax County is in a good position, in terms of resources, to deal with the problem, he said.
“It doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy,” he said. “We all know that the cost of housing here is high.”
The county’s goal, said Wimpey, is to be able to quickly re-house newly homeless people, effectively eliminating any permanent homeless population. To accomplish this will require not only more affordable housing, but also job training and medical care programs, she said, as well as a shift in the public perception of the homeless.
