VIRGINIA: Most Homeless in County are Working
Poor
By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 6, 2005; Page PW08
Homelessness is hidden in Prince William County.
It's out of sight in the woods behind strip malls, where men and women struggling with mental health problems and addiction have set up shantytown-like communities with makeshift tents and propane heaters.
It is also concealed in the smiles of the clerks working in the department stores and shops at those strip malls.
The majority of the homeless in Prince William are the working poor, trapped in a county where jobs are plentiful but pay is low. The county's annual count of the homeless last year showed that 530 people were homeless. Of the single adults, 54 percent were employed, as were 47 percent of the adults with families.
Prince William had the biggest job growth of large counties in the country, with an 8 percent jump in the number of jobs for the 12-month period ending in March. Meanwhile income grew just 2.2 percent, to $637 a week, in that same period.
"In Prince William, there are a lot of jobs, but the jobs don't support living here," said Stephen Burek, 35 and newly homeless. "If you move somewhere else, the cost of living goes down, but your chance of finding a job goes down."
The pay can barely cover the rent. In November 2003, 3,600 households were on the county's waiting list for rental assistance. The county was providing help to about 1,980 families who were paying an average monthly rent of $1,042.
According to the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, the average price of a single-family house in Prince William was $339,565 in December, while the average for condominiums was $203,101.
Sitting recently in the television room of the Hilda Barg Homeless Prevention Center in Woodbridge, which is operated by Volunteers of America Chesapeake, Burek said he had been homeless for about a week.
"I wasn't able to pay my rent," he said. "I came close before [to being homeless], but I was always able to stay with a friend or a co-worker."
Under the shelter's rules, Burek can stay there for 30 days. He could get a 21-day extension if he is waiting to get into transitional housing or into an apartment, said Gayle Sanders, the shelter's director.
People staying in the shelter used to stay just more than 20 days. "Now, it's in the high 20s," Sanders said. "I believe it's because of the housing market. You have to save more money. You have to look harder."
The 30-bed shelter, on Route 1 between Opitz and Dale boulevards, looks like a nursing home with its mauve doors and trim. In one room, there were two televisions, six dressers, two cribs, one toddler bed and three twin beds.
Cribs, toddler beds and the play room with its books and Barbies are necessary because a third or more of the county's homeless are children, according to county records.
The Prince William County Department of Social Services has given Volunteers of America a contract to operate the homeless shelter since 1990. The county also has a winter shelter for adults only that is mostly utilized by the homeless who otherwise live in campsites but seek warmth during cold months.
There are other shelters operated by nonprofits that cater to families or battered women and their children. Churches also provide rental assistance and help with utilities and prescriptions, according to Prince William's SHARE/Homeless Intervention Program.
When applying for federal funds to address homelessness and other issues, the county created a Consolidated Housing and Community Development Plan for fiscal 2005.
In the plan, the county said it wants to increase the number of permanent emergency shelter beds from 100 to 148 and wants to create 290 affordable housing units.
Dominic Villano, a 36-year-old homeless man who works at a Wawa gas station, said the county does not appear to do enough for its poor, working class.
"This county, to me, seems to be for the rich and middle class people," Villano said. "If you don't have money, you can just leave.
"People don't understand that they are a paycheck away from being homeless," he said.