Fairfax County supervisors pledged $1.2 million Monday in support of a cross-agency strike team that has for months toiled to rid neighborhoods of eyesores, overcrowding and safety violations.
The money will be used to fill 10 positions in county staff that were made vacant in the rush to organize the team’s two crews earlier this year, a decision that Lee District Supervisor Dana Kauffman said makes the strike team a long-term venture instead of a temporary one.
The funds were left over from last fiscal year’s budget.
The team, made up of employees from law enforcement, housing, fire, public works and other departments, was convened to target a mounting backlog of complaints over decaying neighborhoods.
Many of the complaints the county has received center on overcrowding and the proliferation of illegal boarding houses.
“The pent-up demand is out there, and we have to be prepared to address it,” said Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald Connolly.
The team had 128 cases under investigation and 18 in litigation as of the end of August, the most recent period for which data were available from the county. Earlier strike team investigations have netted the county five successful civil and criminal prosecutions.
But questions remain over the small team’s ability to address what supervisors acknowledge has become an enormous problem. The county has more than a million residents, and more than 200,000 residential units.
“The need is there for a third strike team,” Kauffman said.
Along Route 1 in southern Fairfax County, the task force has taken on the added role of tackling motel problems as well as residential violations.
Mount Vernon District Supervisor Gerald Hyland said the group has found “that people are staying in conditions that are not safe.”
