Fairfax County has completed the initial steps of converting a former hotel into a permanent emergency shelter for families experiencing homelessness.
Families began moving into the Fair Ridge Shelter (3997 Fair Ridge Drive) off of West Ox Road in the Fair Oaks area last Wednesday (April 2). The opening came shortly after the county wrapped up its Hypothermia Prevention Program, which provides overnight accommodations throughout the winter, on March 31.
“The Fair Ridge Shelter provides full service sheltering and supportive services right here in the Sully District,” Sully District Supervisor Kathy Smith said in a news release. “[It] will help people in our community in need, including connecting them with federal benefits, securing safe, permanent affordable housing, and information on employment opportunities.”
Previously an Extended Stay America hotel, the Fair Ridge Shelter has 85 units for families with children and is operated by the nonprofit Shelter House, which also runs the county’s Katherine K. Hanley and Patrick Henry family shelters as well as the domestic violence shelter Artemis House.
In the future, Artemis House’s 40 beds will be relocated to the Fair Ridge Shelter, which is better suited to the “operational and security needs” of a domestic violence shelter due to its proximity to the Fair Oaks District Police Station, according to the Fairfax County Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).
The second phase of the Fair Ridge facility’s development will also include internal reconfigurations to expand its capacity.
In the press release, county housing officials emphasized the uniqueness of the project, which was paid for entirely with federal COVID-19 recovery funds and took less than a year to implement.
The Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority (FCRHA) purchased the vacant hotel building in August 2024 for $14.5 million, and the repurposing was approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and planning commission earlier this year.
“The acquisition of an under-used extended stay hotel provided an innovative way for us to quickly create more shelter space,” HCD Director Tom Fleetwood said. “Innovative use of federal funds enabled us to take advantage of a unique marketplace opportunity to expand our capacity to help families experiencing homelessness.”
Early occupants of the Fair Ridge Shelter include 10 families from the Embry Rucker Community Shelter in Reston, along with families who were staying at the Patrick Henry shelter in Seven Corners and in “scattered hotel locations” throughout the county, according to Allyson Pearce, a housing department spokesperson.
The Embry Rucker and Patrick Henry shelters are both slated for replacement, though it’ll be a few years before the new facilities begin operations. After previous delays, the Patrick Henry overhaul is projected to start construction in late 2025, while the Embry Rucker shelter is still in the early stages of design.
Advocacy group criticizes temporary site’s closure
Relocating families to the Fair Ridge Shelter enabled the county to increase Embry Rucker’s capacity for single adults from 28 to 76 people, Pearce told FFXnow. All 48 new beds were immediately filled after the county shuttered its hypothermia program site and a temporary overnight shelter at the North County Human Services Center (1850 Cameron Glen Drive).
Launched on July 29, 2024, the temporary overnight shelter was organized to specifically accommodate individuals living in tents in a wooded area near the Inova Reston/Herndon Emergency Room known by area residents as “The Hill.” Over the years, the encampment had grown to 40-plus people, becoming the largest in the county.
After opening the temporary site, the county cleared the encampment last September and added “no trespassing” signs to make way for the future Reston Town Center North redevelopment that will include the new Embry Rucker shelter, though no construction is imminent.
The county’s closure of the temporary overnight shelter on April 1 drew criticism from the local advocacy group RestonStrong, which said it had been led to believe the temporary accommodation would be in place for at least a year.
“This abrupt decision will force over 100 people back onto the streets, leaving volunteers with no time to prepare a safety net,” RestonStrong said in a statement on April 1. “Among those affected are elderly residents, individuals with disabilities, and longtime members of the Reston community.”
While the increased capacity at Embry Rucker provided by the Fair Ridge Shelter was welcome, it still isn’t enough to accommodate all of the unhoused individuals who had been staying in the North County building, according to RestonStrong.
“Currently, folks displaced from the closures are sleeping in bathrooms in public spaces, bus shelters, and sleeping bags in the open,” Mary Barthelson, a member of the group, told FFXnow.
According to Pearce, the North County building had 118 occupants the night of March 31, including the former encampment residents and people using the hypothermia program. The temporary overnight shelter’s closure on April 1 was “consistent with the initial strategy for the service,” she said.
The temporary site was supported by a one-time allocation of nearly $1.4 million from the county’s fiscal year 2024 budget. Operated by Cornerstones, the facility was “expected to be open for less than 12 months as there will be space available at the Embry Rucker Community Shelter once the Extended Stay America comes online,” County Executive Bryan Hill said in a July 29, 2024 memo.
To make room for the incoming adults at Embry Rucker, the families slated to move to the Fair Ridge Shelter were housed temporarily in a hotel until the new facility was ready, according to Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn’s office. Families from the Patrick Henry shelter also briefly stayed at a hotel.
County officials acknowledged that there were some individuals from the hypothermia prevention site who couldn’t be accommodated at Embry Rucker, but it’s standard practice for the program to conclude at the end of March, when the weather is warmer.
“Guests who cannot be served by existing shelter capacity at the end of the winter season are assisted to find safe housing and temporary accommodations in the community,” Pearce said. “This is the practice that happens each year at the conclusion of the Hypothermia program.”
The county doesn’t have an exact count of the people who needed help finding shelter after the end of the hypothermia prevention program because “the census of program users can vary day to day,” Pearce said.
Based partly on recommendations made by the Fairfax County NAACP after The Hill’s closure, the county has been reviewing its policies for addressing homelessness and clearing encampments.
A point-in-time survey conducted last year by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments found that approximately 1,278 Fairfax County residents are unhoused, a slight decline from 2023 but above pre-pandemic numbers.
Results from a 2025 count conducted in late January are expected to be available in May.
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