Construction starts on new homeless shelter
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| Fairfax County officials and members of Congress break ground for the new Bailey’s Crossroads Community Shelter. |
A large contingent of federal and county officials gathered at a vacant lot on Seminary Road April 5 for a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Bailey’s Crossroads Community Shelter and Supportive Housing.
The $12 million facility, expected to be completed in late 2019 on the site of a former veterinary hospital, will replace the Bailey’s Crossroads Community Shelter a few blocks away on Moncure Avenue.
The new shelter will have 48 emergency beds to serve single adults; four medical respite beds for people who are in need of healthcare but not sick enough to stay in the hospital; and 18 permanent supportive housing units.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, who was chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors when the Fairfax-Falls Church Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness was launched, said, “What we’re doing here today will save lives.”
“We’re getting people back on their feet,” Connolly said, noting that anyone can end up homeless. “An illness, an accident can transform your life.”
When the partnership was created, its goal was to end homelessness in 10 years – by the end of 2018. “We’re never going to get to zero, but we can strive for it,” Connolly said.
Fairfax County has seen a 47 percent reduction in homelessness, said Michael O’Reilly, chair of the governing board of the Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness.
Rep. Don Beyer said the new shelter will address the biggest obstacle to alleviating homelessness – the lack of permanent housing.
The supportive housing units will serve “some of our most vulnerable neighbors,” said Dean Klein, director of the Fairfax County Office to Prevent and End Homelessness. The shelter will provide wraparound services to help the residents of those transition out of homelessness.
The new shelter “will be the first in a new generation of modern shelter facilities,” said Sharon Bulova, chair of the Board of Supervisors. The building is designed to meet multiple needs – from people who need a warm bed on a cold night to those who need to spend a few months finding a job and an apartment and attaining financial stability.
The shelter will serve military veterans, women fleeing domestic abuse, older adults, and those with chronic disabilities, Bulova said.
“There is dignity in every person, regardless of need. That has been our guiding principle,” said Mason Supervisor Penny Gross.
Getting to the point where construction is starting “has been a long journey fraught with challenges,” Gross said.
County officials began talking about the need to relocate the Bailey’s Crossroads Community Shelter several years ago to make way for the redevelopment of the southeast quadrant of Bailey’s Crossroads along Columbia Pike.
In 2016, the Board of Supervisors agreed to exchange the site of the existing shelter with an adjacent property owned by the Weissberg Corp. to facilitate an apartment project to be developed by AvalonBay.
Since then, AvalonBay backed out of the project, a new land transaction was approved, and Weissberg agreed to go forward with a redevelopment called Columbia Crossroads. The buildings on that property are being demolished, and the county plans to create a temporary park there until another apartment project can go forward.
When the redevelopment of the southeast quadrant was first proposed, the county planned to move the Bailey’s shelter to a temporary location behind the Lincolnia Senior Center until a permanent site could be found. That proposal was met with bitter resistance by some Lincolnia residents.
Then in September 2016, the county purchased the property at 5914 Seminary Road for $1.4 million as a site for a permanent shelter. That project has also faced opposition from neighboring residents and business owners.
The new shelter will have 24-hour staffing and an outdoor picnic and activity area. An advisory committee will address community issues.
County Executive Bryan Hill called the groundbreaking for the new shelter “a momentous opportunity for Fairfax County.”
11 responses to “Construction starts on new homeless shelter”
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fully support but what they should have done is turn one of these empty box stores into the shelter.
Man Bailey’s and 7-Corners desperately need a boost. It wasn’t the best looking area in the first place now there is more and more empty space. Lots of office vacancy already and now more empty retail i.e. ToyrUS, BabyrUs, HHGregg and Chillis.
Most of the projects are either cancelled or delayed.
AvalonBay – Cancelled.
Sears site – Cancelled/Delayed.
5600 Columbia Pike – Crickets.
Mill Creek/City Diner – Cancelled.
Spectrum being built after being delayed.
Maybe some proper, substantial bus transit on 7 and/or a circulator type bus service between the Metro stops and Bailey’s and 7-Corner. If we can get one of the big projects above to actually come online maybe the will get the ball rolling. I gotta believe it’s gonna happen at some point.
The bus transit system is actually pretty good in the area. I take public transit every day to work and it's pretty efficient. I totally agree with all your points. Baileys has lot of potential, but no love when it comes to development! I hope something happens soon.
What boneheaded developer or bank would want to make that kind of investment in an area sandwiched between a homeless shelter and the Culmore section 8 housing abutting a very vacant and fledgeling Skyline without good transit options?
It is this type of shelter/program that has been needed for many years. This will provide the proverbial hand up rather that just a hand out. Helping those in need of shelter regain self-respect and I am presuming counselling and job training. Sometimes I tire of reading comments such as those above–seems as though the cup is always half empty rather than half full.
The Shelter of course is needed, no on is debating that here. Timing is bad and it defies good investment strategies and the natural laws of economic growth. This shelter in addition to all the land challenges, lack of good transit, demographics, declining commercial office demand and aging housing centers such as Skyline and Culmore will put the nail in the coffin for private sector mixed use development.
I’m an advocate for the BRT project along route 7 to get rolling. Almost every successful redevelopment project in either arlington or fairfax has had some sort of high capacity mass transit at its fingertips which has fueled the development, and I’ve come to believe Mason’s relative lack of development is tied to its lack of high capacity mass transit.
Tysons: silver line + beltway
Merrifield: orange line + beltway
Springfield: blue line + beltway/95
Richmond Highway is getting a BRT line.
The plans for the BRT line along Rt 7 can’t move fast enough. Better connectivity between employment centers in alexandria, falls church, and tysons, as well as retail in seven corners and baileys. Maybe we could see a reinvigoration of skyline as a business center?
But to the point of this article – glad to see this breaking ground and moving forward.
BRT would be great if we can actually get a real one. Most all of them are scaled back and scaled down repeatedly to something akin to express bus. That's why I say substantial bus service, at least more than express bus because I know BRT aint happening.
BRT is not as simple, easy, cheap or quick to implement as mentioned disingenuously as a solution for arguments sake. The proposed BRT one Route 1 is projected at $524 million for 8.6 miles. That’s getting to be the cost of a transit project that people in another jurisdiction threw a tantrum about. Will it actually happen?
It would be nice for those in office or running for, to have the backbone to propose BRT and then actually see it through. Right know you hear promises (lies) about it but when it comes to time to back up their talk, they scurry like roaches when the lights are turned on.
My expectation are low. Substantial bus service at peak hours on major roads is all I expect. That includes not all what has already been proposed for some time on Columbia pike, Route 7, route 1 and West End of Alexandria but also on route 50, Gallows, 236, Braddock.
I've come to believe that Mason's redevelopment has been hindered by insufficiently large tracts of land. Unlike Mosaic, most development has been infill with too many strip malls haphazardly scattered along Rt. 7 and other major thoroughfares. That's why many locals find it preferable to shop at Amazon rather than chase all over the place to buy merchandise. It's been much easier to find land that's suitable for large scale development outside the Beltway.In order for Mason to rebound commercially,the hodgepodge of strip malls at Seven Corners and Bailey's needs to be replaced with comprehensive and accessible town center complexes. – Sparky
I remember that being offered as an excuse for Bailey's. That may be true but it's not an insurmountable task.
If either or all of Avalon Bay, sears or Mill Creek projects are built that will spur the other landowners in the area to be receptive to offers.
This is where the county government needs to be a facilitator to bring the various parties together or even buy the disparate tracks of land, aggregate them and sell them to developer.
Starting with a homeless shelter as way to entice developers and investors is the the stupidest thing the County could do. Next they will be putting up a social services center, a DMV and a garbage incinerator as a County program to spawn development! Baileys will never be the destination mixed use magnet we were all hoping for, sad but true. No new business means no jobs for those homeless inhabitants.
Sad for the homeless, sad for the tax payer, sad for our hopes that Baileys would make a turn in this thriving economy.