New Hope Housing contract terminated
Fairfax County has terminated its contract with New Hope Housing.
The contract will end on Sept. 30. The county will take over all operations previously managed by New Hope Housing on Oct. 1, according to a statement released on Sept. 15 by the Department of Housing and Community Development’s Office to Prevent and End Homelessness (HCD OPEH).
“Services previously provided by New Hope Housing will be transferred to HCD OPEH with minimal service interruption,” the agency announced.
Related Story: Homeless shelter staff complain about late paychecks, lack of supplies
New Hope Housing (NHH) manages several homeless shelters, including the one in Bailey’s Crossroads. In recent weeks, shelter staff have been complaining about late paychecks, suspended health benefits, and the lack of basic supplies for shelter residents.
The executive director of New Hope Housing, Andre Purnell, blames the late payments and other problems on OPEH Executive Director Tom Barnett.
“HCD OPEH recognizes that New Hope Housing staff have persisted with their essential work despite disruptions,” according to the statement from the county. “HCD OPEH is seeking to keep New Hope Housing staff in their roles with consistent, reliable compensation. Additionally, these individuals are being offered signing bonus incentives to continue working on Fairfax County programs through a temporary staffing agency.”
Related story: New Hope Housing director blames the county for late paychecks to shelter staff
NHH has been operating under a corrective action plan for more than a year.
Some of the deficiencies cited in the plan, according to documents obtained by Annandale Today through a Freedom of Information Act request, include the following:
- No homelessness prevention cases documented in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS).
- Failure to provide adequate access to housing options.
- Failure of senior NHH management to visit hypothermia prevention sites.
- Failure to use HMIS data to inform service delivery.
- Lack of adequate budget tracking and allocation, leading to the misallocation of resources.
- Multiple extended staff vacancies.
- Insufficient staff training.
- Inadequate outreach to homeless people living on the streets.
OPEH “has been diligently working on contract performance issues” with NHH, said agency spokesperson Allyson Pearce. “NHH has not met the standards set out by OPEH in the contract.”
According to Purnell, NHH’s contract was renewed in July and wasn’t set to expire until the end of the year.
After OPEH takes over on Oct. 1, Pearce said, it will offer NHH employees an opportunity to continue in their role through the ACRO Service Corp., the temporary staffing agency used by Fairfax County. Employees who accept a job through ACRO will be offered benefits.
Sounds like Fairfax County was listening and rightfully terminated their contracts with NHH. The last straw of mismanagement is the now ousted Executive Director Andre Purnell – I’m sure he’ll still never admit failure but all the people who’ve worked with him certainly know he was a blowhard without the requisite experience. His approach of ‘trust me’ mirrored that of a used car salesman while trying to make ‘deals’ with vendors to continue to work with him.
It’s very sad because the organization had a good mission but the lack of attention from the board to provide decent leadership from the top really helped topple it in the end. They didn’t take their role seriously and were mere figure heads that also blamed others. Looking forward to seeing better stewardship from a new organization.
Agreed. The Executive Director may have been way over his head walking into a failing organization thinking he was going to “fix things” in just three months being there, but many of us that have been with NHH for a while, know that many of these issues started to surface well before the last ED. Where was the Board? Why did the county wait so long to intervene?
This has been going on for several years, the inevitable has come. Sunlight is the best truth teller and now all is exposed.
Without sounding personal, because many of the comments towards Andre Purnell sound too personal for me as if we are looking for someone to blame when everyone that’s been around knows how deep this goes, but the blame game between OPEH and NHH truly misrepresents our community and what took years to build it. It is a sad moment for NHH, and I feel bad for the staff and the clients as they are the ones that suffer.
My balanced view is, NHH suffered a series of catastrophic events. Following Ms. Mitchell’s departure, an interim was hired with little to no supervision. A less than perfect system became even less perfect. Ashley McSwain was brought on, also with minimal active supervision by the board. The board of directors under Ronnie had a track record of keeping a dangerous amount of distance from the organization, almost completely leaving it to a new ED that the didn’t know in depth. It was after almost two years of excuses and misrepresentations before they realized the state of continued decline under her leadership, even while receiving complaints from clients, employees, and leaders alike. The whole while, they were under a corrective plan, closely monitored by OPEH. McSwain’s attention was divided, today the least, so amidst her othe businesses, she never seemed to have the capacity to give the organization what it needed. It was often felt that with the ‘way higher than normal’ salary she was paid for the job, even compared to DC which usually pays considerably more on average, she would be “all in.” It would appear greed allowed her to accept the role and collect the big bucks while laying off large numbers of direct service providing staff who made little to nothing for the scale of work they performed, citing a constricting budget. She was always seeming to sacrifice the staff without accepting any of the responsibility or sacrifices herself.
By the time Andre Purenell came on board, the state of affairs was already dire however, OPEH was willing to work with him. He made impressive deliverable commitments and the board once again fell on its duty; no direct supervision, little to no presence, and completely ignoring complaints by clients, staff, and leaders. The state of affairs is a big part of this contract cancelation however, Purnell’s arrogance, deception, inability to collaborate, and inflexibility are what led to the premature termination. He refused to collaborate with individuals intimate with the billing process, so billing and ultimately funding faltered. He blames the county. This is his responsibility. The county pays according to the invoicing submitted. This was not happening under his watch. Invoices due June 30 still had not been submitted by middle of August. That’s not previous leaders. That’s Purnell. Employee concerns went without response. Purnell was always too occupied to communicate with those under him. Recipe for disaster. Purnell tried to do it all alone, never wanting the input of others or to dilute his decision making power. To this end he lost great team members in droves. This is not previous leaders. This is Purnell. In the end, there was a concentrated effort by him to control narratives and misrepresent the actual state of affairs. He was caught by the county a number of times in these misrepresentations. Again, this is not previous leaders, it is Purnell.
At the end of this long comment, the conclusion is, NHH was not doing well when Purnell joined. OPEH was a more than willing partner. Purnell underperformed and his bloated ego led him to – by his flawed management style – finally do what has not been done in over 30 years, force its closure. My heart aches for the employees. They have suffered through all of these failed transitions and are the forgotten heros. If you are reading this, society thanks you for your service. This instability and faltered services also traumatize clients. My heart goes out to them as well.
If only that was the “Real truth”. I watched Purnell reach out to many entities including OPEH for help and received push back or ultimatums. While NHH was in a vulnerable situation, it had became an opportunity for others. If OPEH was that focused on invoicing, 9months of faulty invoices before Purnell would’ve never cleared. I would imagine discovering that information of faulty invoices and continuing to invoice as is, knowing that there had been false information submitted is probably illegal.
Saying something about that as late in the game as it was would mean everyone would have to go back and adjust things, discovering fault of their own and OPEH didn’t want to do that, let’s be honest. But not complying to the demand of submitting erroneous invoices made him arrogant or egocentric? I was there and witnessed that mess and I don’t agree with narrative that Purnell tried to do it alone. People started jumping ship when he started discovering financial errors both that NHH created and what OPEH let pass.
I agree that things may have been different if all was revealed prior to Purnell taking the job in the first place and may have braced the community for impact ahead of time, however, knowing what we know now, he probably wouldn’t have taken the job. I wouldn’t. How do you fix something in a few months that has been deteriorating for years?
I’m sad to see it end, it was one of my favorite places to visit. I will remember the good times and walk with the truth. Thank you NHH. Andre – it was nice meeting you, you did what you could and those that really know the “real truth” understand what really happened. Best wishes.
I do not believe that Andre Purnell knew or was told accurately what he was walking into. What I do believe is that he discovered what we all have been asking and wondering for a very long time, WHAT IS GOING ON WITH NHH FINANCIALS?!
I do believe that when he discovered the financial problem, question it, people started to jump ship and became nervous. I’ve been wanting to know where money was going for a long time and finally got someone who wasn’t afraid to put it out there.
What Andre Purnell did was kick sand in the faces of those that were getting away with taking money that was meant to support the mission and not their own interests and the County knew about it. Purnell pointed that out and those responsible don’t like it clearly noted in the blame game rhetoric that is continually being used.
Which at this point I don’t think is effective anymore because the question still remains the same. This was going on for years, where did the money go!!?? Stop hiding the truth!
Let’s not get into the deceitful narrative putting focus on someone that has only been there for 3 months to shy away from what really matters, with the conditions of those shelters for years. WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?!
Exactly! Where the money did go? What was the financial director doing? I know for sure there was money because I worked there! But the shady behaviors of senior management during Ashley McSwain made me think that the money was funneled out of NHH! Certainly not to NHH clients or employees! There should be an investigation to see where did the money go!
You are mistaken. Andre Purnell never reached out to the county for anything. In fact, if it had not been for my reaching out to Tom Barnett and his team at OPEH many NHH clients, who’s rent had not been paid for months, would have been evicted because Andre Purnell and his incompetent staff, Michelle Hook, Roger Bowman and others, failed on many levels. Andre Purnell is a blow hard narcissist who did nothing to fix the problems with New Hope Housing and deserves his walking papers.
The county should have been listening all along. They picked NHH to manage their shelter and they should have taken steps to take control of the shelter long before it went completely off the rails. It appears that woman who worked for Supervisor Jimenez kept trying to get the problems addressed. Their concerns were dismissed Supervisor Jimenez and his chief and Barnett. I have called the Supervisor’s office a number of times about unrelated issues, only to be lectured. I have heard from others how dismissive the Supervisor Jimenez is, especially towards women. What else is going unattended in the community under his watch? That is the question.
Joanne. I think the County was listening and heard every word from the community. The real question is why did they stand by and do nothing? Why wait until it was made public to react?
The years of complaining and concerns of the conditions of the shelters, the security issues making it unsafe to work. The County would say, “well the staff wasn’t trained properly”. What kind of training does one need to go through to know that they feel unsafe? Really? Nice try!
Everyone knows Pam Michelle had over 3 contracts terminated on her watch and was asked to resign by the Board. That is precisely the time NHH should have considered shutting down. Purnell maybe apart of the issue but he is not alone in it, let’s be honest.
It’s difficult to understand why some employees are placing blame on Purnell. As he stated, he’s only been with the company for three months and was assigned this role to address issues created by others. While the situation is unfortunate, accountability should begin at the leadership level.
Purnell was arrogant, disrespectful and would not listen to staff concerns. He was more focused on his outfits, in which he spoke highly of and that is facts
I am relieved that New Hope Housing has lost their contract with the county. It’s time to address the troubling reality of multiple deaths occurring in their facilities due to overdoses and the consistent presence of drug dealers on the property. There have been serious incidents, including a brutal stabbing at the Bailey shelter, which cannot be ignored.
The staff’s reluctance to fulfill their responsibilities is alarming; when clients seek help, they often receive none due to a lack of leadership. Caseworkers are not doing their jobs effectively, which shows that many staff members at New Hope Housing are merely there for a paycheck. It’s unacceptable that some staff come in intoxicated and high on drugs, and there are even reports of staff members selling drugs to clients.
New Hope Housing should have lost their contract five years ago. As a current client, I’m speaking out because this situation needs to change. I’m truly glad that they have lost their contract with Fairfax County.
They took my passport and refuse to give it to me back
Wow. Just wow. I know of another nonprofit in the area that has those exact same issues you mentioned. No offense, but, a lot of people that go into human service nonprofits are usually unskilled, inexperienced, and are only there for a paycheck. This seems to be a common theme in the nonprofits in the Crossroads/Seven Corners area. It just seems like Fairfax County doesn’t care about what goes on in these nonprofits, as long as they don’t have to pour a ton of money into the facilities and services THEY should be upkeeping without others reminding them to do so. My heart goes out to the human services workers that actually care about the communities and clients they serve and the clients themselves.
I lived in this community for over 40 years and have experienced many issues getting the County to do better by its citizens.
For all the community events that I conduct, the churches that I fellowship with and people in the community that I care and love, I will be sure to take EVERYTHING public that the County fails to address or try to hide from us!!!
You will not lie to this community anymore.
Ex-Employee
I worked for New Hope Housing during Pam Michell Tender and as you know the reason she was FORCED to retired was because of the Financial Problems that occurred under her Leader ship. According to some staff it was BAD. Then William Gorman came with No Hope or Experience for 2 Years. Then Ms. McSwaine came Clueless and not understanding the work and the programs, she never managed a Shelter before and Then Mr. Purnell came trying to clean up a Mess, with his military background. New Hope Housing has Sinked to the bottom of the Gutter, the staff did not help by not working to move Clients out of the Shelter who has been living there for over 3 years living in a Homeless Shelter for over 3 yrs not paying any bills and living Free is unacceptable to the Tax Payers.
OPEH needs to step up and do their job as well. Everyone has a little fault but more on the Staff, The Case Managers, The Shelter Directors and the Front line Staff. The Fund Raisers Directors who did nothing or raise Money for the Programs it was at least 3 in the past year.. New Hope Housing was a Great Organization and Pam Michell got what she wanted to see it SINK because she was not there any more.
Dee Johnson, Dir of FCHRA Dept to Prevent Homelessness referred me to NEW HOPE HOUSING for a HUD Voucher since October 2023, the Staff Ms. Simone was fired because she failed to assist with Rapid Rehousing, Medical or Dental Care, Ms. Dee was aware and Did Nothing also her boss Mr. Thomas Barnett all should be FIRED, and I remain Homeless, 70 years old Victim of VAWA under 24 CFR 5.2005. The problem is NOBODY ENFORCES FEDERAL GRANTS FOR RESIDENTS, MILLION OF PEOPLE ARE HOMELESS WITH MILLIONS IN THE BANK, GOV YOUNGKINS AMD LT WINSOME KNOWS, THE ALEXANDER HOUSING AUTHORITY ALLOWS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO LIVE IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND DENY HOUSING ALL ARE CROOKS
NHH is a great provider of homeless services in Northern Virginia for decades. I am saddened to see what is currently happening to such a great organization that has helped so many. Thank you NHH for all you have done a
I’ m Confused and concern I just heard this news and I want to know WHY would the County Keep the same staff that caused the problems, and continue to cause Problems. Why would the county hire these Rude, disrespectful, incompetent staff. They are the problem and not the solution.
Baileys Shelter Director and staff has not been to work in weeks refusing to come and support the staff and residents, her excuse is she has not been paid, well you should not be paid for rewarded for that behavior, and I heard when she is there is is locked in her office. At times the shelter has no staff on duty and the residents are out of control.
Kennedy Staff has not been working, some have and some have not, but the staff that has been coming is doing nothing but allowing the residents to be out of control. The Cook that is there is the same Cook who was threatening the residents , cursing them out and refusing to feed them at another shelter he was working the baileys shelter I heard. The same Cook who just cursed the ED out on a email with the entire staff on the email. this is who you want to continue to work for the Agency.
Mondloch Place and Mondloch House the staff is continuing to work from home how can you help people working for home. The staff that comes in is not there all day and they are the staff that continues to disrespect and mis treat the the residents everyday.
The problem once again is the Staff, I will continue to donate and support the staff that cares.
Please don’t speak on Kennedy. I am a current employee at Kennedy and I show up every single day with or without pay and treat all my clients with respect, care and dignity. The residents are not out of control and for you to make that statement, you don’t understand the population we are serving. To make a statement like that and you do not work or visit the shelter 24hrs a day is irresponsible. Thank you for your donation, however, I will not stand for you speaking about Kennedy in that manner. You don’t know the half of what’s truly going on. When staff is not paid, they don’t have the resources to even come to work!! As you’ve read I’m sure, the pay is extremely low for some employees. When you don’t get paid for weeks at a time, you can’t make it to work. Some of you commenting are so out of touch with day to day struggles. If you are fortunate enough to have savings, etc- good for you. However, that is not case with many employees, therefore they cannot make it to work if they are not paid!
Andre Purnell, Michelle Hook and Roger Bowman, among others should all be fired and I wouldn’t hire them to run the fry station at McDonald’s.
No one has said anything about Daphne Edwin, who was the CFO under 3 ED’s. She helped to screw up the financials. Ensuring both her and her son who she had doing payroll and also serving as the realtor to sell off some of New Hope properties. Then she fired all of the finance staff and outsourced everything to India. She is not innocent. She sucked thousands of dollars out of the organization each time they brought her back.
So sad what former employees did to NHH for years. They may think they got away with it, but that’s not how life works. It’ll all come back to them. All the people who left NHH and went to organizations like Cornerstones and other organizations after stealing. People are talking/investigating! Might want to just turn yourself in now. SMH
Totally agree! Yes she is one of those who should be investigated as well as her son! They sold some of NHH properties and made money! This should be investigated if you want to know where the money did go!
To the Kennedy Employee, I volunteer for Free for over 10 Years and Donate Food as well so Stop with the excuses you have Residents living in that Shelter for over 3 years purchasing new Cars staying out all night and coming back to a bed.
This is not how Homeless Shelters Suppose to be. It Starts with the Staff the Director and Case Managers and at the TOP so lets understand you are not getting paid for a reason.
I was volunteering in the Kitchen and all I use to see was the staff talking on ear pieces all day, telling the clients they had to wait for a bar of soap, so please don’t try to explain anything I was there. The Kitchen staff cooked bacon, pan cakes and hot fresh eggs while the residents ate old hard bagels and boil eggs.
The staff comes to work to eat and cook there food I seen it and the food belongs to the County. The staff takes donations home and offer some to me I seen it I was there. All Staff and All Residents are not the same but if the Horse Shoe fit wear it.
Volunteer
My name is Javon Moore, and I’m familiar with the corruption within Fairfax County. I know of informants who were selling drugs to trap the poor but yes I’m going to keep it street and not snitch on no one because snitching on the police or the informant is useless because the residents are the users, the formula is took keep them there feeding them till they OD RIP Kayla that’s the 7 corners side but she told me that’s the formula for making it harder for people to realize that Fairfax County actually has programs to provide housing. I’ve been dedicated to helping my community particularly Black and Latino individuals because I’m from Baileys Crossroads. I worked in the outreach program as a chief, in the Streets and have a successful Water business instead of stealing you can start a water business on the street instead of panhandling Which I will start a nonprofit called Lucky Water but got donations to stop the drugs and violence in the streets so if they ask for money I will give it to them to eat or get things like personal hygiene that’s not giving by the shelter. I always striving to make sure everyone has a place to go.
I’ve always shown up to help my people succeed, and I brought my best friend, David Franklin, also from Baileys Crossroads, into rehab. I told the drug dealers which operatein the shelter hide behind shelter wall because the real streets will get them… I told David that we need to focus on housing instead of a quick fix like food and drinks. I’ve personally experienced the system’s failings. I lost an apartment after my case manager told me there was no rapid rehousing available, even though I had a lease and they had promised to cover my down payment and rent for the first 1-3 months. That never happened.
Things took a dark turn when I tried to retrieve my mail, and someone from Maryland tried to extort me. It was a violation, but I found it ironic, because Fairfax County has so many informants within the staff and among residents that the whole place feels infested with drugs. It got so bad that I couldn’t even stay there anymore, so I became what some people refer to as “high-class homeless.”
Despite these struggles, I managed to land an Amazon job and drive a Mercedes. If anyone deserved help to get out of the situation, it was me. But when they targeted me with an informant who later snatched the new paper tags off my car and threatened me, I had to defend myself. The informant ran back inside, got a weapon, and the situation escalated into a fight. Afterward, the police were looking for me.
Later that day, after I went to Fairfax Hospital and found out I had a broken finger, I called the police on myself. The detective came, reviewed the video footage, and saw that the informant lied. The video clearly showed that I was sitting in my car when the informant attacked me. Despite this, they were still trying to pin a charge on me that could carry 25 years. I told them, since they saw the truth, I wanted to press charges for the assault and the broken finger.
They paused and then said, “That was the best ass-whooping we’ve ever seen. We’ll take care of that.” The informant was let go, and I learned just how deep the corruption goes in Fairfax County. The shelter system is flawed, and Andrew Purnell is just a fall guy it’s all run through Fairfax County.
This all happened on July 3, 2025.
For anyone interested in contacting me, I have all the evidence necessary to file a lawsuit. You can reach me at [email protected]. I’ve told David that they might try to extort everyone, but I’m from here, and I believe that everyone in the shelter system deserves a real opportunity for housing from Fairfax County! I had a dream Just like Martin Luther King I had Dream that Big Lawsuit Hits Fairfax County that all my homeless in that shelter will get a low income house in there name and beat chronic homeless! I will pray for this tonight love y’all I survived. #Staysober
If you stopped talking and writing, your life would improve. Or at least reduce talking and writing by 99%.
What will happen to 4 months rents and late fees they have not paid?