Post office lobby closed at night
The lobby at the Annandale Post Office at 4270 John Marr Drive is no longer open 24/7.
A sign on the front door says: “We apologize for any inconvenience. This P.O. is temporarily closed during the night for safety purposes.”
At least eight homeless people were camping out in the lobby urinating and pooping all over the place, said Supervisor Francisca Aguirre. “It was so bad. We found poop spread all over the counters.”
She says the closure will be temporary. The lobby will reopen at night when it gets warmer and the homeless will be able to stay outdoors.
The roof replacement project at the post office is expected to be finished by the end of the month.
That is toooo bad. I guess the term “the Dump” applies to our hood again.
Unhoused mentally ill people. We don’t care for our fellow humans. It’s cruel that we don’t provide housing and services for people who are sick.
We do provide housing and services. Really good ones too. Problem is, these people aren’t interested.
Now, if we were to oh…. say, involuntarily rehabilitate them if they are to be allowed to stay in the area then I think we would see our troubles with the homeless resolve very quickly indeed.
Agree! There are plenty of services available. The homeless we see aren’t lacking for resources or a way out. They are suffering from a lack of hope. Perhaps the endless assault on common sense law enforcement, zoning, family, and spiritual values has taken away the sense of community that would motivate humans to want to live and thrive. Instead – we are busy cancelling people.
These people are homeless because society is starting to hold racists, bigots, and bad cops accountable? That’s really the angle you’re going for? I’ve seen some amazing mental gymnastics in my day, but boy this takes the cake.
I actually went into the post office when the vagrants were inside one evening making a mess and before it was closed. These individuals also asked for a hand out, which i never give as it only enables their misery. Totally agree Fairfax county has more resources than most dedicated to this group of individuals. Before anyone starts whining and crying about humanity and lack of compassion – I lived out of my car for over a year at one point, pulled up my boot-straps and got moving forward. Today, I own a home and pay dam high property taxes for a bunch of county services and other items that could be better spend on the basics (primarily fire, police, infrastructure). What was done was vandalism by vagrants, plain and simple.
As a sibling of a severely mentally ill adult brother who had her brother involuntarily admitted into a mental health facility, only to see that facility release her brother after a couple of weeks because he was allegedly found by the professionals not to be a threat to himself or others, with no plan to ensure he took the medication he needed to treat his condition, to then hear from mutual friends he was talking about getting a gun and wanted to shoot me (which deeply hurt even though I realized he was not in his right mind); and to finally receive a knock on the door several years later by a police officer reporting my brother committed suicide by jumping off a bridge within a day after being released by a public mental health facility in a State in the Southeast USA; the comments of the commenters above resonate with me.
My guilt and anger over my brother’s life and death, while never gone, are largely subsided.
I honestly don’t think the issue is American society’s “caring” or “lack of caring” for the severely mentally ill.
I agree with the commenters above who note that American society does offer access to services and treatment to the severely mentally ill. Obviously, we can do more and offer better access to better services.
But I also agree with the commenter who notes the mostly unacknowledged barrier to care. The reality that the severely mentally ill are incapable of making wise, healthy, decisions for themselves; yet, American society places such a high value on individuals’ liberty and freedom to live their life as they see fit that it is enormously difficult for parents (let alone a sibling or other family member; let alone strangers) to involuntary institutionalize for treatment a severely mentally ill adult.
It’s a sad reality that the family and close friends of the severely mentally ill carry with them, often with great sadness, frustration, guilt, fear, and some shame.
A sad amen to this.
I am so sorry for your loss.
Your story is such a sad and accurate assessment of so much of our homeless dilemma. My heart goes out to you and your family who I’m sure feel the sadness and loss of your brother every day 😢
Just like Chicago and other Democratic run cities/areas……here we go here in Fairfax County which is run and supported by extreme liberals. Raise our taxes, take a pay raise, and produce nothing for the residents….when will you liberals change your votes to get rid of these individuals who are “not fit” to run anything…..not even their household.
Maybe when all voters have access to ranked choice voting, we all can actually vote our conscience and vote for candidates with views we share versus voting AGAINST views we don’t share.
Aw yes, ranked choice voting! The plant-based meat patty of voting. Or is it the McRib? Perhaps it’s ground up mealworms in your clam chowder. Rank your top 2 so we know what it’s not.
Hmmm, wonder why the weekly crime report doesn’t include a listing for vandalism, destruction of government property, loitering or some other charge? Was it not reported to the police? I would imagine that the post office has cameras to capture the vandalism. Does the supervisor fully expect to be able to reopen the post office at night when it gets warmer? What’s to say that they aren’t going to return to the post office when it reopens 24 hours a day? Just because it’s warm outside doesn’t mean that the post office isn’t going to have the same issues.
Would public toilets help at all? Port-a-potties or solar composting toilets. There are some public toilets with sinks in Paris that even wash themselves after you exit. That could help with people who relieve themselves outside the toilet.
Pam, not sure blanketing Mason with Parisian bidets would stop extreme mentally ill anti-social behavior like dropping elevation burgers on tall countertops or rocketing nocturnal chili dogs all over federal property.
Depending on which news story you read from around the country, permanent public toilets cost about $90,000 each to build and install and another $100,000 annually each to maintain–cleaning, supplies, security, and repair due to vandalism often by the people who use them. How many should we build here in Fairfax County? 100? 200? More? We already have many in public parks, so maybe in front of every post office? On every public school grounds? All this because “unsheltered” people won’t use the services we already spend millions to provide? What’s another $40 million for taxpayer funded lavatories because we are too nice to compel participation in the existing programs? Talk about flushing money down the toilet.
We must want to end up like San Francisco and Seattle, because we follow their lead on lawlessness, drugs, substance abuse, and homelessness.
So we’ve been spelling it wrong all these years? It’s supposed to be poop office – not post office?? This is like the new math — so confusing. Like when young started saying “bad” for something cool. And now woke means something I still can’t figure out – but I think I means your grandson can wear a dress to work and break into tears if the boss comments on his haircut or asks him to show up on-time. So confusing.