Politics & Government

Virginia Homeless Rates Continue to Drop

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell announced Monday a 16 percent drop in homelessness in the last three years.

Patch field editor William Callahan reported and wrote the following story.

Virginia’s overall homeless rate fell 16 percent over the last three years, as did rates of homeless families and veterans.

Gov. Bob McDonnell announced the drop Monday in Richmond, noting that it exceeded goals set early in his administration to decrease the homeless rate by 15 percent.

“A focus on this important effort, and shifting some resources from shelters to rapid re-housing, has led to more Virginians living in safe, stable homes,” McDonnell said in a statement. “More Virginians today have a place to call home, and that is great news for them and for our entire Commonwealth.”

Along with the 16 percent drop in overall homelessness, the rate of homeless families in the Commonwealth fell by 17 percent over the same period from 2010 to 2013.

And the rate of homeless veterans dropped by 18 percent over that time.

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Soon after taking office in 2010, McDonnell issued an executive order on housing strategies, establishing an advisory committee that set up the goal to reduce homelessness by 2013.

But there’s still much work to be done.

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“Despite this tremendous progress, we still have much work to do, and that’s why our efforts to further reduce homelessness across Virginia will only increase moving forward,” McDonnell said. “Our work will not be done until all Virginians have a home.”

According to data reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of homeless people in the Commonwealth fell from about 9,000 in 2010 to about 7,600 in 2013.

In Fairfax County, homeless populations are also declining.

According to the annual point-in-time survey from the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Partnership to End Homelessness, the number of homeless people in the county has decreased by 184, from 1,534 in 2012 to 1,350 in 2013. The number of homeless has also decreased by 463 since 2007, down from 1,813.



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