April will bring a major restructuring of facilities serving those experiencing homelessness across Fairfax County.
The county is on track to open its Fair Ridge Family Shelter, located in a converted hotel in Sully District, on Tuesday, April 1, staff told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors at a housing committee meeting yesterday (Tuesday).
“We are so pleased with the progress,” Department of Housing and Community Development Director Thomas Fleetwood said.
At the same time, Fleetwood acknowledged that “much remains unknown” when it comes to federal support for housing and homelessness prevention programs at the local level.
The new homeless facility will provide up to 85 beds and related services in the former Extended Stay America at 3997 Fair Ridge Drive in the Fair Oaks area. The Board of Supervisors voted in January to convert the vacant, 94-room building into a family shelter after using $14.5 million in federal funds to purchase it last year.
Once the Fair Ridge shelter opens, it will accommodate families currently staying at the Patrick Henry Family Shelter in Seven Corners, the Embry Rucker Community Shelter in Reston and “scattered hotel locations,” according to a staff presentation.
Shifting families to the new facility will enable the county to move adults experiencing homelessness into the Embry Rucker shelter and out of the temporary overflow shelter set up last July in the North County Human Services Building.
The temporary site hosts individuals from a longstanding encampment known as the Hill that had to be cleared to make way for future construction in the Reston Town Center North area. The redevelopment will include a new, expanded Embry Rucker shelter with supportive housing, along with a Reston Regional Library renovation.
In anticipation of the redevelopment, Fairfax County is planning to relocate its 40-bed North County domestic violence shelter to the Fair Ridge facility, whose capacity will be expanded.
“The Fair Ridge Drive facility much better meets the operational and security needs of our north county domestic violence shelter efforts, particularly given its location near the Fair Oaks Police Station,” the county said in a project fact sheet.
The second phase of development should take place “a couple of years from now,” Thomas Barnett, deputy director of the county’s Office to Prevent and End Homelessness, told the housing committee.
The Patrick Henry Family Shelter is also slated for replacement, though the project has encountered delays in the past. The county currently anticipates a late 2025 start on construction, per the project webpage.
The opening of the Fair Ridge shelter was timed to coincide with the end of the county’s annual Hypothermia Prevention Program on March 31. Plans are to move some of those who utilized the overnight shelters provided by religious communities and other county partners into newly available beds.
Fairfax County participates in the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ annual point-in-time survey to gauge the total number of people experiencing homelessness in the local area. The 2025 survey was conducted in late January, with results expected to be available in May.
Last year, the analysis identified 1,278 unhoused people in Fairfax County, whose count included Fairfax and Falls Church cities. Fairfax was the only locality in the D.C. area to record a decline from 2023, but its numbers were still up 23% from January 2020, the last count taken prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of a broader push to provide housing to those who need it, the county reconstituted its Continuum of Care Board in 2023 after several years of dormancy. The 21-person board consists of representatives appointed by the county, public schools, Fairfax City and nonprofits and will help coordinate efforts to address homelessness.
“We’re on the cusp of beginning our strategic planning efforts,” said David Meyer, who chairs the board.
Having a long-term plan to provide both housing, and the support services needed to keep people in it, will be key to reducing homelessness, according to Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn.
The county’s efforts so far have been “led by compassion” but need to go further, he said.
“Let’s build on that,” Alcorn said.
