Fairfax County’s Merrifield Center has a new, slightly more descriptive name.
The Sharon Bulova Center for Community Health was officially christened at a dedication ceremony yesterday (Thursday), taking its name from the former Board of Supervisors chairman who helped develop the Diversion First initiative aimed at shifting people with mental health and substance use challenges to treatment instead of incarceration.
Fairfax County saw a slight drop with its annual January count of people experiencing homelessness, reversing a yearslong trend.
Released yesterday (Tuesday), the 2022 count recorded 1,191 individuals experiencing homelessness in the county, including those using shelters. Nearly one in four were chronically homeless, and over a quarter was under the age of 18, an increase from last year.
While many Fairfax County homeowners are bracing for jumps in their real estate tax assessments, the overall property tax burden on commercial and industrial property owners is projected to drop.
With the market upended by the pandemic, telecommuting, and other factors, the county’s property tax revenue for commercial and industrial properties will decrease by $8 million for fiscal year 2023, which starts July 1.
Fairfax County has now lived with shared electric scooters for almost half a year, and early data suggests the devices have been serving their intended function.
There has been one hiccup, however: Superpedestrian’s LINK — one of two vendors approved to operate in the county last July — did not renew its permit after it expired in January, according to the Fairfax County Department of Cable and Consumer Services, which regulates the Shared Mobility Device program.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is slated to adopt its budget on Tuesday (May 10), triggering a series of raises for workers starting in July.
Nearly a third of public safety workers will see increases of up to 14.01% during the year, following an additional increase approved by the board on April 26.
Rents in Fairfax County have gone up during the pandemic, reflecting a trend seen regionally and nationwide.
Multifamily rents increased 8.7% in the county between the first quarter of 2020 and first quarter of 2022, making the average rent $1,974, according to a Washington Post analysis.
(Updated at 8:30 p.m.) An infusion of funds from Amazon will help accelerate the construction of Tysons’ first entirely affordable housing project.
Officially announced at 2:30 p.m. today (Tuesday), the $55 million investment from the Amazon Housing Equity Fund will allow the nonprofit Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) to construct both of its Dominion Square West buildings instead of breaking the project up into phases.
About half of the McLean Community Center’s staff positions are currently vacant, leaving its existing workers reportedly struggling to keep up with an increased workload.
As of last Thursday (April 28), the center had filled 58 of its 125 positions, 25 of which are considered full-time, MCC Marketing and Communications Director Sabrina Anwah told FFXnow in a statement. Only one of the vacancies is a full-time position.
Property owners and tenants in Fairfax County will soon be required to contain running bamboo, and the local park authority is no exception.
The Fairfax County Park Authority, which oversees 23,000 acres of land, says it has an estimated 204 acres or more of bamboo. The new ordinance, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2023, introduces the possibility of fines for people who get a complaint for letting running bamboo spread beyond their property.
Reports of child abuse and neglect in Fairfax County have fluctuated wildly during the COVID-19 pandemic — based primarily on whether students are attending school in person or remotely.
Prior to the pandemic, Fairfax County Child Protective Services conducted 2,216 family assessments and investigations in fiscal year 2019, which ran from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019, according to the county’s Department of Family Services.
