Residents concerned about sidewalk squatters
A small group of unsheltered individuals who have nowhere else to go have created a community on the sidewalk on Patrick Henry Drive in Seven Corners.
About half a dozen people hang out on a discarded sofa and chairs under a tarp, and that has drawn complaints from residents who say they are blocking the sidewalk and making the area unsafe.
The Fairfax County Police Department says it’s not in their purview to remove the sidewalk squatters. “We get phone calls about the encampment but we’re not in the business of criminalizing displaced people,” said FCPD spokesperson Sgt. Jonathan Epperson. As long as they’re on public property and not violating any laws, “they can be there.”
Some of the men we spoke to on the sidewalk have had hard lives marked by addiction, poverty, tragedy, and bad choices.
Lawrence Sanders, 57, says he used to live in the nearby Hollybrooke Apartments but has been living on the streets for the past four years due to alcohol and drug addiction. He’s been in treatment several times and plans to start again at the detox center in Chantilly.
His 16-year-old daughter died from an overdose four years ago, and he lost his 16-year-old grandson to gun violence in Maryland.
A Navy veteran, Sanders served on the USS Saratoga aircraft carrier from 1988 to 1992. He had a tough childhood, with an absent father and an abusive stepfather. He doesn’t blame his current plight on drugs, though; “it’s all on me.”
The police handed out water to the group and told them it’s okay to stay there as long as they’re not bothering anyone, Sanders said. A county employee also dropped off juice and soda.
Antonio, a drug addict who’s been homeless for two years, said he served 15 years in prison, including five as a juvenile and 10 as an adult. After he got out, he got a job in 2011 “but it didn’t work out.” He says he’s OD’d four times, all his friends have been shot, and he has a spine injury from being stabbed.
“It’s hard living out in the street,” Antonio says. There are rats that come up from the stream behind the encampment, and “locals threw paint on us.”
Another sidewalk squatter, Sean Derby, used to sell cars in Manassas before becoming homeless five years ago. He says he’s OD’d numerous times and was revived with Narcan the previous night.
His children, ages 7, 14, 16, and 17, live with their mother at Hollybrooke. She can’t get to a food pantry because she doesn’t have a car, so he panhandles on Arlington Boulevard to get money to feed his kids.
Mason Supervisor Andres Jimenez says his office is working on finding a solution, noting that “it’s a safety issue. People need to be able to walk safely on the sidewalk.”
Jimenez has gotten about 10 complaints about the encampment. “People think we can just move them,” he says. “They don’t know there’s a process we have to follow.”
59 responses to “Residents concerned about sidewalk squatters”
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I suppose we’ll wait for something really bad to happen before we remove them.
They’re on drugs and drinking and throwing trash in the protected stream, which could be why they have rats. There are drug deals happening in broad daylight. A fight took place a few days ago in the middle of the street, and a woman crabwalked high on drugs across highway 50. The genie has left the bottle and I hope everyone feels good about their elected representatives who installed police chief Kevin Davis.
Agreed. The children/families in the area should come first. The county needs to assist these homeless people in finding an improved spot for their encampment. There is a decent tent camp in Fairfax on the SE corner of Pickett Rd and Rt. 50, in the woods. They have trash service, which helps to keep their camp somewhat clean.
If the encampment in the woods in FFX near route 50 and Pickett are creating as much trash as I drive by regularly, they are definitely producing a lot and if these people produce even a quarter of what the FFX tents produce, then it is a lot. Plus those people keep collecting shopping carts there and don’t return them to the stores. That theft is another reason besides inflation that our food prices increase regularly.
I feel for you, I have a similar problem at Leesburg Pike and Glen Carlin Road. It is extremely frustrating to what was once a clean neighborhood go down the toilet. It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Brace yourself!
I agree! It’s very sad, but let’s remember the impact on the general public regarding trash, human waste, and people under the influence of drugs and alcohol, which you need $$ to buy (via crime).
Who’s problem? How about their families and the government that we elect.
We should send them over to Sgt. Jonathan Epperson’s house, let them camp out in front of his children’s school and playground. I bet if that were the case, all of a sudden the FCPD would get back “into the business” of enforcing law.
As a resident that lives in this area this has been a growing concern in our community, not only for the trash and pollution, but mainly the harassment and active drug use that impacts EVERYONE else in the neighborhood. The amount of people at this encampment has grown from the 3 to around 10 in the past couple of months and it’s only getting worse. This is not an emotional decision, they need to leave.
There were about 30 police cars at the encampment last night, so it appears they are back in business.
“We get phone calls about the encampment but we’re not in the business of criminalizing displaced people” says FCPD Sgt. Jonathan Epperson.
Great – so what is the FCPD in the business of, Sgt. Jonathan Epperson? Because you don’t seem to be in the business of enforcing traffic law, preventing property crime, and generally policing the community, either.
This is why tax payers now hate the police. If you don’t want to do your job, quit. Instead, these cowards collect their six-figure salaries while they play on their phones in their cars. Most people didn’t support “defunding the police,” but since the police aren’t doing what we pay them to do anymore, we probably ought to.
Exactly my thoughts. It’s all very well being caring, loving and giving but cone on. We can’t have people pitching up tents,wherever they like. What do we pay exhorbetent taxes for in Fairfax County, so the police can shirk their responsibility of removing homeless people from sidewalks. It’s disgraceful. Do your bloody jobs.
Police enforce laws, they don’t make them. It’s not illegal to be homeless, courts have said — so there’s nothing police can do. Did you miss “individuals who have nowhere else to go”? This isn’t a policing problem
It might be ikay to be homeless, but what about the drugs?
This article neglected to say that the gang also occupies private green space owned by a condo assoc. that is responsible for maintaining it. The trespassers have also taken over the once-protected watershed brook. It is usafe to remove the debris, stolen shopping carts, and other trash. Walking dogs, playing frisbee, running around with children on their private land is no longer an option.
Supreme Court just last month ruled differently saying it’s not unconstitutional to enforce laws against homelessness: https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/28/politics/homeless-grants-pass-oregon-supreme-court/index.html
You may know this already but this is in the state of Oregon, not the U.S. Supreme Court.
GG, the Supreme Court disagrees with your claim:
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/28/nx-s1-4992010/supreme-court-homeless-punish-sleeping-encampments
Isn’t loitering a crime anymore? Perhaps it is selectively enforced (or no longer) but police could do it if they had to.
Let’s face it, these people aren’t the best of citizens. They admit they’re on drugs, some convicted felons, and they’re out loitering and living on the sidewalk while other citizens, children, walk by them. If this isn’t enough, they’re throwing trash, food, feces and urine in the grass. No wonder rats come up from the creek! This is what happens when The County is run by liberals. Fairfax County has turned into a cesspool.
Police are in the business of giving them water…..literally encouraging them!! Unreal.
Yes, let them suffer even more!!! SICK of these DISGUSTING people. They should just DIE already. If you are not in a stable place in your life you should BE THROWN INTO THE OCEAN. Get them as far away from me as possible!!!!!!! I am SICK and TIRED of being shown the UGLINESS of our culture and society every day when I DRIVE BY!!
Are you insinuating they couldn’t otherwise get water?
Or is the point more that this is the police’s way of showing them that they were welcome to stay?
The one guy who was in prison for over 10 years likely did kill somebody.
At the end of the day before people complain and or judge a person’s situation from the outside looking in why not take time and pray for the individuals. We all need prayers. They should be mindful and thank God that they’re not in that situation. This too shall pass.
No one is judging the people on an individual or moral basis; rather, taxpayers are rightfully wary of a deteriorating situation as objectively evidenced by several visible and clearly dangerous illegal acts in the midst of low income families that have it hard enough already. The police brass official response is deeply troubling.
Can you also pray for those who depend on bus for transportation and can no longer walk down that stretch of Brook Dr. to access the bus stop on Patrick Henry?
Will you wait at the bus stop with a bus rider for protection until the 1A bus arrives? And when the Metro bus driver ignores that bus stop due to the loiterers, will you pay for the Uber ride?
The loiterers have been offered help. They choose to stay and endanger multiple neighborhoods that depend on that Brook Dr egress to walk to 7 Corners and Willston for groceries and shopping. We appreciate your prayers if they are combined with action.
Not to be gross but someone fired diarrhea all over the sidewalk.
Every society throughout the ages has dealt with these type of issues. No one has come up with an all encompassing answer. What should the police do arrest them? Put them in jail? For what living on the street? Not a crime. These people fall through the cracks and/or don’t want help. Usually it’s a dependency problem or mental or both. I don’t like it nor do I want it in my neighborhood but it is here and it won’t go away. We need outside the box thinking to house/feed/rehabilitate these people. They are not garbage to be thrown away and everyone was someone’s little boy or girl early in their lives.
You’ve made a balanced case that’s both logical and compassionate. Thank you.
I totally agree with that 100%. Thank you for your common sense thinking.
They don’t belong in this area. It is a crime to loiter and do drugs and drink in public. Go to the woods or somewhere in DC or MD.
And, it will go away once a tragedy occurs. It will be cleared.
Broken windows policing works.
A large percentage of these people don’t want help. Help would involve quitting drugs and alcohol.
Please let whoever sleep where they are have compassion for the people. Do you actually believe that they want to be on
The street sleeping Instead of hate if you can help them out with food or anything else try and who knows you could of helped One of God’s own Angels sent to test your True Faith! And Even without doing anything At least don’t judge them It is a shame you are more concerned about the image of your neighborhood and your own self than helping someone less fortunate than yourself Plus 99% of the time most people are not going to stay there for a long time in a few They may get a break from the Heart that is supposed to help with others and the Lord will Make a way in his time for them and I would not be asking for anything for yourselves from the Lord except forgiveness I will pray for you and Most definitely will pray for the people who are on the street sleeping with Nothing If the people who are so hating others like this. Don’t ask the Lord why 1 morning you wake up and can’t see or have nothing .Cause my dear it bothers you )much I have given you a gift to Not be able to see them all u asked for the them to be gone so I granted your request sayeth the (The Good Lord Jesus Has given you a gift to Not be able to see another thing for the rest of your Life God Does not like Ugly,and by the way Our Father has prepared a Mansion in Heaven with Many rooms for all of the people who live by his word! Yes I believe in God and I also believe in helping someone less fortunate than myself even if it is all that I have to offer them We are supposed to be this way to everyone…. Enuff Said
I applaud your sentiment, but these are not hungry widows, wayward children, destitute of no fault of their own. They are, at least in part, violent felons engaging in prostitution and drug trafficking. I saw many police there last night. I live nearby.
Agree with your sentiment exactly. Her post is hard to follow but I would love to know if she practices what she preaches and is involved in any activity that helps these people.
It’s not the image of the neighborhood. These are primarily mentally ill and violent people engaged in activities that hurt innocent people. I’ve been involved in a weekend church program working with homeless people for over 16 years and mental illness is a real problem. i can’t tell you how often i have begged people to go to a shelter when it’s 4 degrees outside. Sadly, children are an easy target and i worry about what happens when school starts.
I have firsthand experience with the individuals at this encampment, and the situation is dire. They regularly make extremely inappropriate comments, are heavily involved in drug activity, and have brought multiple dealers and users into our neighborhood. The encampment often hosts more than 10 people, and one of them recently committed a robbery against a member of the neighboring condo community. The police seem powerless to act, citing their homelessness as a barrier, even though these individuals are selling and using drugs, committing crimes, and causing constant disruption in a neighborhood that was once peaceful and safe for children to play outside.
What if the county paid for some large apartment complexes, and all the services, food, cleaning, energy, cable, internet, AC, pool, B-Ball court, et cetera, and let (made?) all these people live there for free?
But just make sure to call it a Prison. Because if it’s not punishment and a prison, we don’t want to pay for it.
When I struck out on my own at 18, I did any job I could find. These folks should be cleaning floors at McDonald’s or doing day labor. The men and women I’ve seen there are young and fit enough. I would feel differently if they were old, disabled, mentally ill. They are not.
Yep- this is what happens when the government gets involved in hand-outs instead of telling these folks to clean up their act.
Not a phenomenon that’s limited to Seven Corners. Similar things going on in the middle of Annandale, with folks squatting in the bus shelters on Little River Turnpike and Columbia Pike.
I love the Christian spirit of you who use the term “those people”. PRACTICE WHAT YOU PRAY . This Sunday don’t wear out your knees praying to the mystical thing in the sky.
It’s honestly blood-boiling what Fairfax County did to Seven Corners in the past few decades, going from an up-scale mall and shopping center to a slum of crime and poverty while they redevelop surrounding areas like Tysons and Mosaic. They honestly need to start from scratch on redeveloping Seven Corners.
Annandale Today — Do you have anymore information — As “Update” wrote above — I have never seen as many police cruisers actually going around in circles, at least one ambulance went towards Baileys, then a helicopter in the Seven Corner – route 50 – Patrick Henry area. Very concerning I thought someone must of robbed and killed someone – somewhere and the police were trying to find the individual. Thanks
Mason District Jimenez office said people from the county’s Office to Prevent and End Homelessness has offered shelter multiple times. This article falsely says in its lead sentence that the squatters “have nowhere else to go.” Not true. They choose to stay and intimidate neighbors and people who can no longer use that bus stop; the squatters exchange drugs, rob, defecate, litter, and cause fear in a neighborhood. This encampment is significantly more dangerous than “blocking the sidewalk.”
Well yeah, you can’t do drugs while you’re in the shelters so that’s a hard pass.
Why do we abandon these lost souls to rock bottom? They’ll refuse treatment so we might wind up having to help them against their will. Still, it’s worth that indiscretion to save a person from a fate worse than death and protect everyone else in the community.
It’s time to make good and start making the hard decisions. These are human beings, and they deserve the dignity of providing back to their community and being not just a respectable community member, but a person too.
Homelessness is a significant national problem, one that defies easy answers. There have been homeless in Annandale and Fairfax for probably its entire existence. Laws – almost everywhere – protect individual citizens access to public space and limit how the police can act towards these individuals. They are most likely citizens with the same rights as you, but with significant challenges to housing. Since the 1980s when a conservative government ended the state hospital system in place at that time, our society has not figured out what to do with those experiencing mental health issues – including addiction. if you have anyone in your family with these issues you know how incredibly difficult it can be. In combination with a housing affordability crisis, we have a homelessness crisis with no apparent solution. For those of you advocating jailing for low-level drug crimes or street sweeps – broken window theory – that was proven to be ineffective and biased. We are left with working to provide safer, temporary housing (there is a reason the homeless avoid privately managed shelters), to advocating more funding for a full range of supports for the homeless, rapidly increasing the stock of available low-cost housing, and practicing a lot more compassion than we may typically show. Instead of fuming at the homeless guy taking up your park bench, imagine how he and his family are struggling, and practice compassion. And yes, I live here.
Broken windows policing works 100%. Look at a place called NYC under Giuliani and Bratton.
You conflate homelessness with what these people at the bus stop are doing. What they are doing is more accurately described as organized crime with a spattering of public suicide. Not around my kids, thanks.
Please let Mr. Hawa, the Mason District Chief of Staff, know that something needs to be done about this problem. I don’t care if someone is homeless or not; I don’t want anyone, homeless or otherwise, pooping in my yard and endangering my safety and the safety of my children. I’m glad to know that you feel comfortable with that, but I do not. I don’t pay high property taxes for no reason.
I agree but you never know what people going thru would you want someone you love out here stranded just mind your business
Jesus Christ. Enough with the “have some compassionate.” HAVE THEM POOP IN YOUR YARD THEN. Just because they decided to make horrible decisions in their life, our life should be affected because we chose not to go down that path??? we do have compassion for them, but there’s a limit when it comes to drug dealing; prostitution, sexual assault the list goes on.
“I agree”
-Great!
“but you never know what people going thru”
-this argument loses it’s effectiveness when the ‘people’ start hurting others (robbery, drug dealing, trashing the place, lewd comments toward women, obstructing traffic, impeding public transportation, trespassing on private property)
“would you want someone you love out here stranded”
-No, but as a commenter stated, they have refused assistance and are thus not stranded
“just mind your business”
-I am. I live here and my quality of life has decreased. So it is my business.
Choices people make matter, and always have an impact – positive or negative on themselves and others. Be that who we vote for (or against), and especially so for how and what we do. There are countless opportunities for help (and I for one am glad to live in a place that does try to help), but help often comes with both accountability & responsibility for an individual to choose change and change in how and what they do. Many people are not willing to take responsibility and make difficult changes; while some don’t agree to being accountable – except to their own wants/ desires / addictions when offered or provided assistance. If the people in this or other encampments are involved in illegal activities that changes how and what the police can do, if the Commonwealth Attorney were to prosecute. However, our elected officials (state and county) have been working to decriminalize drugs, & lessen criminal enforcement. Thus, removing tools to help prevent problems and crime. Police have zero incentive to enforce the applicable laws because of efforts and policies of the Fairfax Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano. Recall, Steve Descano ran for office and was re-elected on an agenda to not prosecute low level property or other crimes under a false pretense that police and justice has been unfairly used against many. Moreover, the US Supreme Court recent ruling in Grants Pass vs. Johnson will allow local governments to use both compassion and now restored ability for criminal measures to take back public places (parks, public buildings, and including sidewalks). Having both compassion and criminal penalties is what new Mason District Supervisor Andre Jimenez could do within the Board of Supervisors to empower law enforcement to move people and hopefully move them forward.
I live in the neighborhood. No one from the neighborhood was interviewed in this very biased article.
These are not simple homeless people down on their luck. These are people committing crimes as they encamp there. They have 4 stolen shopping carts – those are $500 a piece minimum. They are dealing drugs, robbing people who pass by, assaulting each other and intimidating others. This is more than a menace.
They have been asked SEVERAL TIMES to be relocated to a nearby shelter. They refuse.
They have places to go, but they don’t want to go there because they can’t do drugs there or for some other reason. (One admitting to OD’ing just the other night in the article!)
They are pooping in public, assaulting their own and others not involved in the camp, and have created a hostile environment for people in the neighborhood who just want to use public transportation.
And kids will be lining up for their school buses in just a few weeks just down from there!!
LITTLE CHILDREN will be exposed to this daily while they are just trying to get too and from school!!
Should the Fairfax budding plan change because of these unhoused people in order to help keep the children safe? Or should we handle the situation?
I understand that people make choices and end up in bad places because of them. And I have total compassion for unhoused people. Truly, I do.
But at this point, we need to protect our most vulnerable population, our children, and remove this encampment so that nothing happens to any of them.
There ARE places for these individuals to go. They’ve been told multiple times where they can go, for free, for meals and shelter. They are offered assistance in getting them and their belongings to these places.
For whatever their reason, they are CHOOSING not to go to them.
It is a choice they are making, no matter how bad it may be for them.
But THEIR choices should not affect the surrounding populace that must endure the consequences of these choices.
Especially children at a bus stop trying to go to school, which is their RIGHT.
Come on people!! This is NOT let’s get rid of these sweet unhoused people. This is let’s get back to the safe neighborhood we had before the felons decided to take root and abuse the systems in place.
This is absurd! If the Supervisor’s office has offered the squatters multiple places to go, they should give them an ultimatum, they have to leave by this date as the tent community will be demolished. Get a backbone! Tax paying citizens shouldn’t have to be afraid to walk on the sidewalk, have their public spaces trashed and unable to use a county bus stop!
As noted, Fairfax County has the “Office to Prevent and End Homelessness” https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/homeless/
The office also “serves as the lead for the Continuum of Care and collaborates with other county agencies, non-profits, faith and business communities,” so they can be working with the Community Services Board (CSB) who does the mental health services and those with substance use disorders (e.g., treatment, detoxification, recovery) and Fairfax County Health Department who does physical health, law enforcement as needed, and nearby organizations like the Culmore Clinic.
I spoke with Jimenez’s office yesterday, Tuesday also left a voice message with his deputy. No return telephone call today. I was told that it is ‘public property’ so ‘they’ cannot do anything about ‘it’. I still would like to know exactly what happened on the 29th with all the cruisers, circling Patrick Henry/Route Seven and then a helicopter – only one ambulance. Someone overdose ? Was it a fight ?
No one wants this — instead of sitting here and writing ‘ALL’ of us should go to the County and let it be said in volume. Right now all we are doing is complaining among ourselves. Yes, Jimenez does live a few blocks away; although he probably does not need to go on that part of Patrick Henry to go to work. Yes, I am caretaker for a 93 year old woman (who is in good shape) — I get upset when she drives to the CVS on Charles Street. I believe we have been told that MS-13 gang members are in that area. I pray ‘they’ do not move to Patrick Henry also. Very Scary–something needs to be done. Is there someone that can forward these comments to the Supervisor’s Office.
This is truly serious. As another comment, school is starting in a month and then what is going to happen around the bus stop.
Thank the darling of the Republican Party Ronald Regan for emptying the mental institutions and taking away the humane process of enabling the government to commit individuals who desperately need mental health services but can’t themselves recognize their own need
The closing of the public mental hospitals was a popular decision. Thanks to Hollywood and the news a lot of people were convinced that keeping crazy at home was the best thing. Many families couldn’t cope and resented being forced to take on relatives they were afraid of and the homeless population exoded.
Blaming reagan for the mess we find ourselves in 40 years later is typical leftist propaganda.
Those govt run institutions were horrible – if you ever saw one you would have agreed to close them.
I just brought the link up you recommended Mark Doehnert. Unfortunately, probably the only way these individuals could/would be helped is if there would be a one on one representative. I’m sure each individual has his/her own needs. A number of years ago I, along with a couple of other ‘church women’ one night a week go to the Shelter that is now located on Columbia Pike, to socialize with the women and read the Bible. A common statement was homeless individuals did not want to go to the Shelters; afraid that what they did have that, their belongings would be stolen. Well, I do pray that something thru the Government gets’ done very soon. All of this is very SAD; along with being SCARY.