New Hope Housing director blames the county for late paychecks to shelter staff
UPDATED Sept. 15, with quotes from HCD OPEH. The problems at the Fairfax County homeless shelters managed by New Hope Housing – including late paychecks, suspended health benefits, and lack of basic supplies – are the fault of Fairfax County’s Office to Prevent and End Homelessness, says NHH Executive Director Andre Purnell.
Employees at the Bailey’s Shelter in Bailey’s Crossroads and other NHH facilities are worried about paying their own bills, because New Hope Housing is weeks late in distributing paychecks. Meanwhile, they charge, the shelters are running out of basic supplies like food and toilet paper.
In response to those complaints, Purnell told Annandale Today during a lengthy interview on Sept. 13, “I inherited a huge mess.” He’s only been at NHH for three months, and says he was hired to fix the problems left by the previous leaders.
When asked when shelter employees will get paid and what’s causing the delays, Purnell said, “New Hope Housing isn’t the one holding up the funding.”
“We have an angry mob of people not getting paid, and they don’t know why,” he said. “I understand their frustration.”
Related Story: Homeless shelter staff complain about late paychecks, lack of supplies
Purnell said Tom Barnett, head of the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness, told him the funds for payroll are being delayed because of a problem with the invoice. He hopes to reinstate employees’ health benefits as soon as OPEH releases the funds. “We are waiting for funding to cover everything.”
The Fairfax County Housing and Community Development’s Office to Prevent and End Homelessness (HCD OPEH) “reviewed all invoices submitted by New Hope Housing in a timely manner,” according to a response from the agency. “Inaccuracies were found, and HCD OPEH promptly provided technical assistance to New Hope Housing with an aim of bringing invoicing into compliance. However, invoicing inaccuracies have remained. HCD OPEH is committed to compensating vendors for services rendered, but can only do so when accurate invoices are submitted.”
Regarding compensation to staff, HCD OPEH says it is continuing to work with NHH “to reimburse for services rendered during the contract period. The issue of back pay is one that remains between New Hope and its employees. HCD OPEH will continue to remind New Hope of its obligations to its employees, both current and former, and its vendors.”
Purnell said he’s not upset with the staff who spoke to Annandale Today about the late paychecks and lack of health insurance. “I’m grateful for this. People need to know what’s going on.”
“I want the county to tell them they have their jobs and their contract is secure,” he said. “Keeping us in the dark and withholding funds, setting up these challenges on the same invoice is not productive, and it’s hurting the very community that Tom Barnett says he loves.”
Purnell said he had numerous conversations with Barnett about how to get things back on track. “At first, I was convinced that he was supportive of New Hope Housing’s future. I don’t feel that way anymore.”
“In my entire professional career, I have never felt that cold energy from someone who claims to love this community,” Purnell said. “He might as well have told me, ‘you’re on your own, kid. Good luck with that.’ At that point, I knew we were on our own.”
During the interview, Purnell expressed concerns that the county would not renew its contract with NHH, which was set to expire at the end of the year. Shortly after the Annandale Today article was published, HCD OPEH terminated the contract.
“HCD OPEH has been diligently working with New Hope Housing on contract performance issues, including developing a Corrective Action Plan that outlines specific improvements required for contract compliance,” the agency states. “Despite these efforts, New Hope Housing has not met the standards demanded by HCD OPEH’s mission and the contract between Fairfax County and New Hope Housing. Therefore, the contract has been terminated.”
HCD OPEH says it is working to secure a new vendor to manage all services previously provided by New Hope Housing and hopes to have one in place in the next few months. “Current staff may be given employment priority under the new vendor.”
According to Purnell, Barnett “doesn’t understand what it’s like living paycheck to paycheck. And he doesn’t understand the needs of the homeless population.”
Purnell agrees with employees that the shelters need more security, noting that clients, as well as staff, don’t feel safe. OPEH declined to provide funds to strengthen security because staff need to be trained, he said, “but we don’t have money for training.”
“It becomes more of a gut-wrenching program when you find out there were numerous requests to the county and those requests were shot down or denied or not even spoken about,” Purnell said. “When staff members and clients have reached out to the county, they don’t get any answers.”
“HCD OPEH recognizes that New Hope Housing staff have persisted with their essential work despite disruptions,” the agency states. “Therefore, HCD OPEH is seeking to keep New Hope Housing staff in their roles, but working on behalf of Fairfax County through its temporary staffing agency, Acro Service Corp., until such time that a new non-profit provider is identified.”
According to HCD OPEH:
- Current New Hope Housing staff will be offered employment with Acro. Compensation rates will remain consistent, and compensation will be delivered reliably and weekly.
- These individuals will be offered signing bonus incentives. Amounts will vary based on position.
- Priority will be given to those essential workers responsible for daily operations at the shelters and other sites.
Wow, all I can say is wow.
Andre is yet again blaming others for his failures – and this time the county in specific. The ‘faulty invoices’ that NHH is submitting to the county are blatantly incorrect and have the wrong information on them. In order to get paid NHH has to submit invoices that reflect the work that they’ve actually done and provide accurate information. Tom Barnett isn’t the problem, in fact, he’s holding NHH to the contract specifics of invoice submission. He’s representing the county taxpayers and not going to pay any erroneous invoice – he’s upholding his responsibility and doing a good job at it.
If Andre had read the contract with the county and had taken advice of previous employees who knew how to submit these invoices, he wouldn’t be in this predicament. His arrogance and ego have put him in this position and now he’s blaming anyone to take the onus off himself.
The county needs to take the contract away from NHH ASAP and give it to an organization that understands how to actually run a business as opposed to blaming others. It can’t wait until December, especially with the hypo season coming on and no preparation being done because Andre doesn’t understand that dilemma either.
Exactly right! I cannot believe he’s blaming Tom Barnett! Andre is a liar, an egomaniac and a backstabbing fool. What a disgrace!
Again. I said this in my last post, I don’t think the Director, Andre is or came in thinking he was going to save the organization. I also think he is fully aware of how the process works and how billing the county works. After speaking with him several times, I’ve concluded that he already knew it was a problem doomed to fail. I think he came to pull it all out to create what is happening now, expose everything needed for people to talk about it, question it, and whether it fails or not, which it will, we all know who the players in the game are and if they are to be trusted. It worked.
Andre was NOT aware of how the billing process worked and immediately fired the CFO along with anyone else who had knowledge of this process. He wouldn’t take advice from any current employees and didn’t take time to research the effect on the organization. He came in with an arrogant attitude and a big ego thinking the Board worked for him and he was the savior – as opposed to the other way around.
Andre talked a good game and many believed him – until everyone got ghosted when trying to reach him. He never followed up or communicated regarding big issues in the organization. He definitely thought he could save the organization but it became painfully clear he had no idea of anything…
I don’t agree with that. Have you spoken to him? I don’t believe he was trying to save the organization, I believe he was exposing the same question we ALL wanted to know, WHERE IS THE MONEY?!
The minute funding is questioned, people jump ship. Happens in many organizations. There was financial problems with NHH for the past few years if not longer. Now we can continue to craft language to create deceptive shade all day long at someone who was only there for a few months, but the question still remains…WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?!
This interview with the Executive Director is comical. Everyone associated with this ED has seen his lack of ownership, narcissism and lack of the ability to prioritize his employees and the homeless community. Furthermore, for someone to say “He doesn’t care about the community” when referring to the Tom Barnett who has been supporting this community for years is laughable. It must be tough for this ED to understand accountability. When the New Hope Housing Board of Directors select Andre Purnell to “fix things” and you realize this selection has taken the organization from bad to worse that is when the county must step in to fix things after this mistake of a selection.
Seems like county heard loud and clear and has terminated the contract with NHH earlier than the agreed date of December. The Board has been essentially useless to this organization and mere figure heads that didn’t provide any worthy assistance. It’s a shame because there were a lot of good workers who cared about the homeless community.
This looks like a blame game where the main problematic person doesn’t want to take accountability. It also sounds like county does not want to step in and help. Making the company do a “corrective action plan” is translation for “we will see you out the door soon”. Sounds like NHH is going to go out of business fast.
I have to say that I am not at all surprised that this is happening. As a resident/client of NHH who has known from day one of the corruption happening within, all I can do is laugh. However, it isn’t just the neglect of proper invoice submissions, overall theft is in the shelters as well, not just the from the higher ups.
Do you honestly think that the employees are the only ones that are suffering? No. Because truly, without the amazing and still dedicated staff that come in despite not seeing a steady income, the clients in NHH are going to suffer the most during this transition. We have been suffering the hardest due to the of lack of funding and donations; as well as improper staff training.
One can try and deny it but members of staff taking donations brought in for clients has been a problem. Food being brought in and not properly stored or rotated. Food being served that is spoiled, rotted, or stale. The building itself not being kept up in terms of cleanliness, leaving the clientele to clean the building itself. The lack of necessary nutrition for those that have restricted dietary needs. Let us not forget not being given basic supplies: toilet paper, disinfectant/cleaning materials, to help lessen the spread of germs and sickness.
So much of this could have been prevented if, let us be honest, OPEH actually did their duties and kept NHH in check. We cannot completely point the blame on someone who JUST got into the position cleaning up after someone else’s mess! If the county knew that there were problems when they first started, then THEY should’ve done something to ensure that said problems would not continue to occur. In turn, having a secondary backup of an organization that would be willing to take the reigns could’ve been on the table.
How can we HOPE to have any kind of humanity when we never work out solutions to be and remain humane?
These problems run so deep that only covering the surface with the thick tarp of stating that employees aren’t getting paid? Don’t be scared to say it: NHH doesn’t care to end homeless. New Hope? More like No Hope Housing. No hope for the clients OR the employees that do care.
Agreed. The Mason Supervisor, his former Chief, and Tom Barnett all knew about this and did nothing to rectify it for over a year and a half. They knew NHH was failing the contract and instead of addressing it, OPEH kept sending them letters and lists of the necessary improvements needed, but kept renewing the contract every six months. I guess the residents and staff were all collateral damage. Now, all of the sudden that public light has been focused on this, they end the contract less than two months in to their extension Wonder why – not
Andre belongs in an obscure government role where lives are not at stake. Maybe that’s why he was in military logistics.
He would be perfect for the Trump administration!
I am so heartbroken to see this. I am a former employee of New Hope Housing from a time when we were a beacon to people who truly had no other options. I saw first hand how our culture of dignity and respect changed and saved lives. We took risks on programs and people that no other agencies in the area had the courage to take on– and we made a difference. I don’t know when it all went wrong but it sounds like there have been challenges for a few years now. I hope that whatever the future holds, it will continue to include a place like what New Hope was under Pam– a place that welcomed the unwelcome and truly saved lives.
I have read through these articles and comments and I see even now that the real issue is being avoided.
With all of the financial issues that was going on before Andre Purnell came into the picture, all I want to know is, WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?!
Andre- I hope you’re reading these because I really want to know more now what it is you’ve found that NHH been hiding for all of these years.
I have been a NHH client and PSH program participant for 8 years. When I first started with NHH in October of 2017 and Pam Michell was still the Executive Director, this organization was much more organized, professional and reliable, with the exception of some of their case managers and other staff. After Pam Michell retired NHH began a steady decline in which many of their staff were irresponsible like Michelle Hook, Roger Bowman and many others. Then they brought in Ashley McSwain as Executive Director and during her two years with NHH she did nothing to fix the problems there, especially with the incompetent and irresponsible staff members, and making the rent and utility payments on time and in full. When Andre Purnell was brought in as the new Executive Director in early June 2025 I emailed with him and had a 30 minute call with him initially, during which he puffed his chest out talking about how he was retired military, how he was going to come in and fix all of NHH’s issues in a very short period of time, specifically referring to making the rent and utility payments for their clients and providing services that had fallen by the way side for years and many other improvements. Well, Andre Purnell did NONE of these things and he gets a big fat F minus from me, as he is an extremely arrogant, narcissist who talks a good game but has done nothing to improve things at NHH and the only reason why many NHH clients WERE NOT evicted from their homes and why their rents were eventually paid was because of Tom Barnett and his team at OPEH. I have been very involved and a huge advocate for myself and many other NHH clients over the years and I have been in direct contact with Tom Barnett and his team this year and I am glad that they have taken these contracts away from Andre Purnell and New Hope Housing, as this organization has been run into the ground and I strongly suspect that many NHH staff members are guilty of stealing funds and other resources provided and donated to NHH over the years. There were times when the rent wasn’t paid by NHH staff for several months at a time and many NHH clients were on the verge of being evicted until I contacted Tom Barnett and his staff, made them aware of the situation and they immediately became involved and resolved the situation. For Andre Purnell to blame Tom Barnett or anyone else for his incompetence and inability to properly run New Hope Housing would be laughable if it wasn’t so disturbing and pathetic. I look forward to these programs being transferred to a different local housing program organization in the near future and hope that the new organization will run these programs efficiently and effectively. I just can’t say enough bad things about Andre Purnell, as he is definitely the wrong person for this position and should be removed immediately. I should also mention that in addition to the issues that I observed over the years, I was also provided inside information from some of the staff members there who I know and trust, and they gave me additional insights into the tremendously dysfunctional system that NHH has become. I was also told that Andre Purnell was very rude, disrespectful, unprofessional and condescending to many of the staff members during staff meetings and at other times. Tom Barnett, Sean Read, Jon Miskell, Jr. with OPEH and many of the Community Services Board (CSB) are doing great work to support and assist many of the New Hope Housing clients because most of the NHH staff, especially Andre Purnell, Michelle Hook and Roger Bowman, are not !
Sad Employee 😔
As of today we still haven’t been paid for 6 weeks and don’t know when.
Sue them new Hope and fairfax county. Find a lawyer that will take you on contingency. Search the Virginia lawyer referral database or google labor and employment lawyers contingency northern Virginia.
Andre Purnell is a crook and a con artist. He stole a quarter of a million from me and a $150,000 inheritance from a military friend in one of his business ventures called Brass Junkies under Triax Inc.
He’s a liar and a thief and a disgrace to his race, the military and as a human being.