Homeless shelter in Seven Corners to be replaced
 |
| The Patrick Henry Family Shelter. |
The effort to build a new Bailey’s Crossroads Community Shelter is getting a lot of attention, but there’s another shelter project in the works in Mason District.
Fairfax County has begun the process to replace the Patrick Henry Family Shelter in Seven Corners. The shelter, located at 3080 Patrick Henry Drive within the Hollybrooke community, has 42 beds and can serve up to seven families.
Funding for that project, as well as a new Bailey’s Crossroads shelter on Seminary Road, was included in the human services bond passed by voters in November.
The new Patrick Henry shelter will be constructed on the existing site, said Dean Klein, director of the Fairfax County Office to Prevent and End Homelessness. The project should take two to five years.
The building is obsolete and needs substantial repairs. The county has completed a building assessment and has requested bids for firms to carry out the demolition, design and construction of a new building and associated work.
The shelter is operated for the county by Shelter House Inc. In addition to housing, the facility provides case management, healthcare services, and life skills training. Families stay an average of 60 days.
“It’s a unique facility,” Klein says, because “it’s embedded in Seven Corners and easily accessible to transportation and opportunities for employment, childcare, and county services.”
Before construction starts, the county will develop a transition plan for residents. The goal is to ensure children won’t have to change schools.
Looks like another palace to me. If it was up to the Mason leadership we would have one in every neighborhood. I guess it makes business sense, no one else want to build in the dump.
Mason District can be #1 in number of homeless shelters!
It is not a "palace" and making fun of a community that is willing to invest resources to assist those among us who are suffering through tough times is beyond insensitive.
No one is making fun here, one is pointing out that the need for this type of housing is proliferating, while middle class housing for tax paying residents are not happening in Mason. If this cancer continues there will not be enough tax revenue to pay for these type of services. Economics 101 the math does not add up.
42 beds is hardly "proliferating," also, it's always been there.
This is a family shelter. I live right next to the shelter and the residents are good neighbors. Much different from the Bailey's shelter.