Reston Strong Uses Temporary Emergency Tents To Start A Conversation On Homelessness

RESTON, VA — Anyone out and about last weekend had a good chance of spotting one of the 100 reflective emergency tents that volunteers had installed around Reston to draw attention to the problem of homelessness and the many unhoused people living in the Reston community.

Reston Strong, the nonprofit that was behind last weekend's effort, first formed in 2020 as a way to help local nonprofits that were seeing a drop-off in donations due to the pandemic.

"We launched with contact-free donation pods that were set up in four locations across Reston, with a bunch of our community partners, including Cornerstones and Helping Hungry Kids and a few others," said Sarah Selvaraj-D'Souza, an at-large member of the Reston Association Board of Directors and one of Reston Strong's founders. "People were able to grocery shop and drop off donations without having that in-person interaction, and the nonprofits were able to pick up the donations again, keeping everybody safe."

Since then, Reston Strong expanded its mission to provide humanitarian help to the Reston community, whether it's food, shelter or mental health support, according to Selvaraj-D'Souza.

The group conducted a food drive in November to provide warm Thanksgiving dinners from Harris Teeter to food insecure families in Reston. The drive's fundraiser was so successful that it brought in $2,000 more than the group's original goal of $8,000.

"We had extra money, so we decided to feed others in our community as well," Selvaraj-D'Souza said. "That started the process of going out and looking for our neighbors who live in tents. We realized that it was a larger number than we thought initially."

Reston Strong identified at least four encampments in Reston, with unhoused neighbors living in tents in the snow and freezing weather. As a way to help, the group started making grocery drop-offs at each of the encampments every Friday, but the volunteers soon realized there was an awareness problem in the larger community.

On Dec. 21, Reston Strong kicked off an initiative to raise awareness of the encampments as a way to begin the process of identifying ways to help.

“Advocacy, partnership, and collective action have long been part of Reston’s history, beginning with Robert E. Simon,” Kerrie Wilson, CEO of Cornerstones, in a statement in support of Reston Strong's effort. “Now, as the pandemic has so clearly demonstrated, the economic, health, and emotional instability of our most vulnerable neighbors are at a critical high. The action this weekend by #RestonSTRONG highlights this need and recalls our collective history of investment and action in addressing homelessness and housing justice.”

In March, Reston Strong is partnering with Cornerstones, Fairfax NAACP, and the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance among others to submit a request to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors asking for a modification to the county's zoning ordinance to allow for temporary transitional housing as a by-right use. This would free up some of the vacant commercial real estate in the area to allow those living in the encampments to be sheltered.

"There are commercial properties in Reston sitting vacant, that cannot be repurposed or reused because of cumbersome zoning restrictions," Selvaraj-D'Souza said.

The zoning change would allow some of the homeless people already living in the community to be temporarily housed near where they work, rather than having to relocate to a county shelter elsewhere.

"Some of the guys living in the tents work at Reston Town Center," Selvaraj-D'Souza said. "Uprooting them and moving them to a different shelter doesn't work, because now he's going to be jobless on top of being homeless."

Reston Strong and its partners will also ask the county to dedicate a mobile mental health crisis unit based in Reston as a pilot program.

Anyone who wishes to support Reston Strong's efforts can find more information on the organization's website, but Selvaraj-D'Souza encouraged the public to write to the Board of Supervisors and ask for solutions.

"You don't necessarily have to agree with the solutions that we're proposing," she said. "But at least put pressure on them to provide solutions. That will get them down the line of thinking about solutions. It's not OK to simply just say, 'I want the tents to go away.' These are human beings and wishing them away will not solve the problem."