WASHINGTON — There’s a goal to effectively end or prevent homelessness completely by 2018 in Fairfax County and Falls Church, Virginia. So far, the march toward that goal is going well.
The homeless population in Fairfax County and Falls Church is down 12 percent this year compared to last, according to counts done on a single night in January of both years.
“What is really most exciting is that this continues a trend that we’ve seen since 2008,” Tom Barnett, Program Manager at the Fairfax County Office to Prevent and End Homelessness, tells WTOP.
Since 2008, the year the county adopted a 10-year plan to tackle the problem, the homeless population has dropped 42 percent.
“Interventions that we’re using are working,” Barnett says. “We’ve invested in prevention efforts, we try to shorten the length of time that people experience homelessness, and we want to make sure that their experience is rare and brief and nonrecurring.”
Here are some facts about the homeless population counted in January of this year:
- 32 percent were children younger than 18.
- 66 percent of adults in homeless families were employed.
- 42 percent of single adults were dealing with serious mental illness and/or substance abuse.
