Pierce is executive director of the Arlington Community Foundation, a group that raises money for grants and scholarships in the Northern Virginia community, focusing especially on homelessness issues.
Do people really understand there is poverty in Arlington?
I think people are beginning to understand that, especially in the year that we just had where there is lot of news about the homeless in Arlington, and a lot of the things we’re doing to address it — both the county government as well as the not-for-profit sector. Our nonprofit sector partners are really coming together around the homelessness issue, and I think many of our donors were very surprised by the levels of homelessness in Arlington.
Where are there concentrations of poverty in the county?
We have our shelter right there in courthouse, that’s our winter emergency shelter that is run by the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network. … Anyone walking around Rosslyn can actually see some of the homelessness. But there are pockets — down in south Arlington there are pockets of homelessness. So it’s really around the county.
What are you hearing from your nonprofits in terms of demands for their services?
The demand skyrocketed over the past year with the economy. … What people are telling us is that they’ve had to cut back, they’ve had an increase anywhere between 30 to 40 percent in the need for their services but at the same time their funds are not going up at the same rate.
What are some examples of the need right now?
Just an example of one of the ways we helped A-SPAN — we ended up buying them two commercial washers and dryers because the case load went up. … And the need to have some sort of part-time nurse, or nurse practitioner at the shelter went up. If we hadn’t provided that sort of assistance to them — there are people that were being referred to the emergency room, which is being inundated.
— William Flook
