Letter to the Board of Supervisors with Recommendations for

March 23, 2015
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
12000 Government Center Parkway
Fairfax, VA 22035
Chairman Bulova and members of the Board,
We are writing to you as a coalition of organizations and individuals who are actively engaged in
providing services to low and moderate income households in Fairfax County. We are deeply concerned
about the proposed cuts to human services programs and inadequate investment in affordable housing
in the FY 2016 budget and the subsequent negative impact on a significant number of households in the
County.
Since the financial crisis hit in 2008, Fairfax County leaders have struggled to maintain the quality of
services to County residents while balancing the budget. Aging and diversification of our population
have created new challenges for our human service system, and the federal budget deadlock and
sequester have deepened these problems.
Now, we can begin to see that the financial recession and the stalemate in federal decision-making have
resulted in genuine, ongoing economic restructuring. We have achieved neither “recovery” nor a “new
normal,” but a period of economic transition that calls for new thinking and new systems.
The County’s Trends and Emerging Needs Impacting the Fairfax County Human Services System, Dec 15,
2014 quantifies for us the growing human service needs of children and families that are not being
addressed by current resources.
Fairfax must build a human services system that is more integrated and comprehensive to meet current
objectives, and adaptable to adjustments as needs change.
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Every human service program and department should devote more resources to prevention,
early identification and treatment.
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New facilities should be multi-functional to bring together educational, recreational, social and
service activities.
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Unused infrastructure should be re-purposed.
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Adequate affordable housing for our citizens is foundational and should be considered as
infrastructure.
In short, systematic investments in human service infrastructure are as important as conventional
investments for transportation, recreation, arts, sanitation, education and public safety, and should be
made in a ways that multiply their value through private sector partnerships. This challenge underlies
the specific comments about the needs for housing, health care, quality education, and community
cohesion that are featured in the remainder of this letter and the recommendations that follow.
The following are our recommendations for the FY2016 Budget:
Advertised Tax Rate. We recommend maintaining the advertised tax rate of $1.09, as programs in
human services and housing could not sustain the possibility of further cuts that a lower tax rate may
bring.
Department of Family Services Human Services Programs
We concur with the Fairfax County Alliance for Human Services and endorse the County Executive’s
recommended $10.28 million for Human Service programs -- the level funding and the modest
increases -- and urge their approval. This funding will continue support for programs that are critical to
the families we serve in the areas of case management, childcare and school heath and readiness
programs, domestic violence and community services.
Healthy Families Fairfax. We urge the Board to restore all funding for the Healthy Families Fairfax
(HFF) - $1,966,968 (DFS), $232,692 (Health Department) - thus preventing its elimination.
HFF was begun in 1991 and is an accredited home-visiting program offering families at high risk for
abuse and neglect an opportunity to learn parenting skills and receive emotional support and case
management services. The target population is pregnant women who reside in the County. The program
provides home-based parenting education, health information, developmental screenings and
community support to parents from pregnancy until children reach age 3 and are enrolled in early group
education.
In 2014, HFF served 535 children and 613 families living in Fairfax County. If the program is cut, these
families and children and those in need in the future would no longer receive services. This could result
in an increase in poor health and developmental outcomes and child abuse/neglect among a vulnerable
population. There is more demand for this service than is able to be met as only one-third of the
mothers who are screened as high-risk are served through HFF. Other early childhood home visiting
programs in the community have recently lost funding, and are operating at capacity and therefore
unable to serve this population.
A budget that funds a relatively new school readiness program at the expense of successful, proven
programs like Healthy Families and the Parenting Education Program is shortsighted. Budget cuts to
programs that help prepare children for school readiness view human services programs in isolation
from one another, focusing on short term results rather than on a continuum of integrated, preventive
services.
Employment Pilot Program. We support the proposed funding for the Employment Services pilot
integrating employment services into the existing Bridging Affordability framework of the Housing
Blueprint $200,000 (DFS)
Providing services that adequately address the special needs of clients in the Bridging Affordability
program is essential for these households to achieve greater financial security and self-sufficiency. The
initial pilot phase of this project (launched in July 2014) has already seen strong results. The pilot
initiative fills a gap in our community by providing a mechanism for high barrier, low-income clients to
access individualized skills assessments and training, while receiving a full complement of wrap-around
services through their Bridging Affordability case managers. At the same time, the pilot structure
engages a wide network of local businesses, community-based organizations, government partners,
academic institutions and volunteers. Working from a foundation of career growth through access access to training and education, to community-based organizations for wrap-around services, to
businesses and to career counseling – the Employment Services Pilot provides clients with strong job
readiness skills, and provides businesses with employees ready to work.
Department of Housing and Community Development Housing Programs
Securing safe, decent, affordable housing continues to be the greatest challenge for low and moderate
income households in Fairfax County. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,600/month,
which requires an annual income of $65,000, or four full time minimum wage jobs, to be affordable.
According the County’s Demographic Reports 2014, approximately 18% (72,000) County households
earn less than $50,000 annually.
Bridging Affordability. We support the budget’s full funding of Bridging Affordability $4,000,000
(HCD).Bridging Affordability (BA) was adopted as the County’s signature program within the Housing
Blueprint to move families off of the County’s waiting lists and out of homelessness, and onto a more
sustainable future. This program provides rental subsidies and case management to extremely low
income households, and has served over 414 families.
Bridging Affordability works. Nearly 80% of households that have successfully transitioned out of BA
into permanent housing have moved on to fair market housing. It is critical that Fairfax County
continue to fully invest in this high-impact, high-demand program to ensure that hundreds of extremely
low income families have access to stable housing options and don’t cycle into homelessness. Also
critical is the need to invest more deeply in the services that make BA such a success. To date, the
collaborative of nonprofit partners who comprise the BA network leverages the equivalent of 7 full-time
staff annually to provide the necessary services to this high-need population. Moving forward, these
services dollars need to be incorporated into the BA funding in order to maintain BA’s high-impact,
successful results.
Housing Acquisition. The proposed budget provides $6,600,000 for a private partner acquisition/new
construction of 120 units of housing. This funding is inadequate to address the growing need for new
affordable units that have been quantified in the Housing Blueprint. We urge the Board to consider
more substantial funding for housing, namely the Bond Blueprint concept which would utilize FCRHA
bond financing to cover the gap that exists in affordable housing developments.
A revenue bond of $77 - $100 million could be used to finance specific Blueprint projects that have
remained undeveloped due to lack of funds. It could also provide resources for new opportunities to
partner with the private sector to address the inventory of vacant commercial office space located in the
County, now estimated to more than 19 million square feet. With a portion of these buildings repurposed as residential development to provide mixed-income housing, these properties would again
become tax-producing assets, including much needed housing that is affordable to a variety of low and
moderate income residents.
The Bond Blueprint strategy achieves the following:
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Closes the gap for annual goals identified on the Housing Blueprint:
Addresses the housing needs for tomorrow’s workforce. Housing that is affordable was listed as
a top priority in the more than 50 focus groups polled over this past year to collect data to
develop recommendations for the “Strategic Plan for Economic Success” for Fairfax County;
Leverages private sector know-how and funding;
Supports a creative strategy to re-purpose vacant properties and make them income-producing
assets for the County.
Summary of Recommendations
Item to Consider
Proposed Budget
Recommendation
Advertised Tax Rate
Human Service Programs
Healthy Families Fairfax (DFS)
$1.09/$100 assessed value
$10.28 million increase
$1.64 million cut (DFS)
$233,000 cut (Health Dept)
Support maintaining rate
Support full increase
Restore 100% funding
Employment Pilot Program (DFS)
Bridging Affordability (HCD)
Housing Acquisition (HDC)
$200,000
$4 million
$6.6 million
Support full funding
Support full funding
Revenue Bond Blueprint - $77$100M
We are aware of the difficult decisions that must be made in this budget year and the next, and we
recognize the changing economic times under which the County is operating. As such, we pledge to
work with you to devise solutions that employ new thinking and new approaches which we believe are
critical to sustain the diversity of our community and the quality of life for all in Fairfax County. We
thank you for all your good efforts, and your consideration of these recommendations.
Sincerely,
AHC, Inc., Walter Webdale, President & CEO
AHOME, Jim Edmundson, President
Alternative House, Judith Dittman, Executive Director
Brain Injury Services, Inc., Karen Brown, Executive Director
Community Residences, Inc., Terry Hurley, Interim President & CEO
Concerned Fairfax, an advocacy group of NAMI Northern Virginia, Bill Taylor, Co-Chair
Cornerstones, Inc. Kerrie Wilson, CEO
EandG Group, Jim Edmundson, Principal
ECHO, Inc, Meg Brantley, Executive Director
FACETS, Inc., Margi Preston, Executive Director
Fairfax Education Association, Kimberly Adams, President
Fairfax County Alliance for Human Services, Shannon Steene, Chair
Good Shepherd Housing and Family Service, David Levine, President and CEO
Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia, Rev. Jon Smoot, Executive Director
Homestretch, Christopher Fay, Executive Director
Lorton Community Action Center, Linda Patterson
New Hope Housing, Pam Michell, Executive Director
Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, Michelle Krocker, Executive Director
Northern Virginia Family Service, Mary Agee, President and CEO
Our Daily Bread, Lisa Whetzel, Executive Director
Pathway Homes, Inc., Sylvia Lambert-Woodard, President and CEO
PRS, Inc., Wendy Gradison, President and CEO
Shelter House, Inc., Joe Meyer, Executive Director
Wesley Housing Development Corporation, Shelley Murphy, President and CEO