Fairfax County is moving ahead with plans to open a temporary overflow shelter for people experiencing homelessness in Reston.
After weeks of planning, the shelter is officially scheduled to open at 5 p.m. on Monday, July 29 in the North County Human Services Center (1850 Cameron Glen Drive), the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) announced today (Tuesday).
“I am pleased the temporary overnight shelter will be opening soon, and I welcome the community’s support as nonprofits and faith communities come together tomorrow to discuss how they can help,” Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said in a statement.
Located inside a building that has served as a hypothermia prevention site during the winter, the shelter will operate daily during overnight hours from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. Its occupancy limit will be 99 people across four different spaces.
The shelter offer shelter, food and case management services from the nonprofit Cornerstones, which also runs Reston’s Embry Rucker Community Shelter at 11975 Bowman Towne Drive. Available services will include:
- Assistance with registering for Federal benefits
- Obtaining IDs and passports
- Securing safe, permanent affordable housing
- Emergency medical assistance, as needed
- Temporary work opportunities through Fairfax County’s Storm Water Management Services’ Operation Stream Shield program
- Access to Cornerstones Assistance Services and Food Pantry program
Alcorn’s office and the housing department have been developing plans for a temporary overflow shelter since this spring to accommodate residents at the tent encampment that has emerged in the woods between Inova’s emergency room and Sunrise Assisted Living Center.
The county intends to clear the encampment in anticipation of a land swap with Inova that will set the stage for the long-planned Reston Town Center North redevelopment.
Outreach workers will work with the current camp residents on an individual basis to inform them of the temporary shelter’s impending launch, according to HCD marketing manager Allyson Pearce.
“Compassion is the core of the strategy,” she told FFXnow.
While the temporary shelter will only be available overnight, residents can use the Embry Rucker shelter during daytime hours, Pearce noted.
Open 24/7 to patrons, Embry Rucker has drop-in hours for anyone not sleeping at the shelter, offering showers, meals and laundry services from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday and from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. It also serves dinner from 5-6:30 p.m. every day and has a nurse and mental health services staff from the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board on site on Tuesdays.
“Individuals who are not sleeping at the shelter may use the shelter during designated drop-in hours or during high temperatures when overflow shelter capacity is activated,” Pearce said.
When the county activates its heat plan on particularly hot days, residents can utilize libraries, community centers and other designated public facilities as cooling centers, though the Reston Regional Library remains closed for renovations.
The community advocacy group Reston Strong previously confirmed that it’s “exploring daytime solutions” in the event that the county’s temporary shelter isn’t open during the day. The organization didn’t immediately return a request for comment on whether that’s still being considered.
The RTC North redevelopment will include a new Embry Rucker shelter, though construction isn’t expected to finish until 2029. Located on the same site as a new health and human services building, the 25,000-square-foot facility will house 50 single adults and 10 families, and it’ll be accompanied by 14 permanent supportive housing units.
The Inova land swap process started this summer and will continue into fall 2026, so the main design work on the new shelter won’t begin until spring 2026, the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services previously told FFXnow.
“This overnight shelter will help meet immediate shelter needs and is a step towards replacement of the old Embry Rucker Shelter with a new, modern facility, along with permanent supportive housing, as part of the Reston Town Center North community facilities plan endorsed by the Board of Supervisors last year,” Alcorn said.
