Reston Strong Places Tents Outside Supervisor Alcorn's Office For Homeless Advocacy

Updated (12:50 p.m.): This story was updated with a statement from Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn.

WASHINGTON, DC — Members of the Reston Strong advocacy group set up tents outside Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn's office late Monday night to advocate for temporary housing for Fairfax County's homeless population. The demonstration was timed to coincide with the closing of Fairfax County's hypothermia shelters for the season.

Reston Strong hosted a private event last week for those impacted by the closure to speak directly to local elected officials.

"Unfortunately, as of right now, the effort to prompt action from officials has failed and the shelters closed today," said Mary Barthelson, Reston Strong's state and local policy director in an email on Monday night. "That means hundreds of people are back out on the street with no place to stay. Reston Strong volunteers have set up tents outside of Supervisor Alcorn’s office and are standing guard until a solution is found."

Alcorn said the issue of affordable housing affects the entire region, and stop-gap measures help. But the chronically homeless and essential workers have housing needs.

This is the second time Reston Strong has used tents to raise awareness of the problems faced by the county's unhoused population. In February, the group put up about 100 tents throughout Reston to draw attention to those dealing with homelessness in the community. This time, tough, there are people staying inside the tents.

Sarah Selvaraj-D'Souza, an at-large member of the Reston Association Board of Directors, was one of the demonstrators who slept in the tents on Monday night. She was participating in the protest as one of Reston Strong's founders and not in her capacity as an RA board member.

In a video posted to Facebook, Selvaraj-D'Souza described her thoughts about participating in the demonstration.

"It's 50 degrees but it feels like it's insanely cold," she said. " I've got my really warm jacket, I've got my pashmina, I've got my wool scarf, all of them, and I'm still freezing. I can't imagine others who do this every single night."

In spite of her discomfort, Selvaraj-D'Souza said there was no other place she'd rather be.

"This is not what we set out to do when we started Reston Strong," she said. "This is definitely not what I thought I'd be ding even a week ago. It breaks my heart that it has come to this that we're here tonight, and I'm hoping I don't have to spend any more nights out here, that we find resolution for this soon, and we can hopefully get people housed."

In March, Reston Strong partnered 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, in February.

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.

Patch reached out to Supervisor Alcorn for comment about the new tents installed at the North County Governmental Center. He sent the following statement:

“On the long road to prevent and end homelessness, I appreciate the help from Reston Strong to bring renewed public attention to the needs of Reston’s unhoused – and to bring a renewed sense of urgency. Using federal pandemic funds, and in response to direction from me and my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, Fairfax County was able to house nearly 2,000 residents needing safe shelter in hotels over the past 24 months. While the initial focus was to protect the health of this community during the pandemic, the county and nonprofit partners provided extensive support services, including assisting with placement of 745 residents from hotel rooms into permanent housing with family and friends, subsidized housing, other resources.

"It should be noted that even before the pandemic, the ending of the winter hypothermia shelter program during the past decade has been a challenge for our unhoused needing overnight shelter. The end of the two-year hoteling program last month made this year much more difficult. While I pushed to extend the hoteling program later into the spring, the lack of trained staff to manage this program caused the program to end.

"While the hoteling and other 'band aid' solutions are important, it is imperative for all to understand that the underlying challenge is a severe lack of affordable housing, not just for the chronically homeless and other residents sheltering in tents but also for our essential workers. Reston is not alone in this challenge — it is countywide, regionwide, and nationwide.

"I have asked our Office to Prevent and End Homelessness to ramp up efforts to find housing options for all who have asked for help, as well as to those sleeping outside who have not asked for housing. As for Reston Strong’s request to place port-a-johns on site, I have also confirmed that bathroom facilities in the Embry Rucker shelter by my office are available 24/7.

"While I enthusiastically embrace the political message and support Reston Strong’s right to direct political action, I do not support allowing the creation of a new tent city with the biohazards and assaults experienced by the community several years ago. With the passage of time, this has proved counterproductive in our collective efforts to fund, site, and build permanent affordable housing. We need to move forward with a badly needed new homeless shelter, permanent supportive housing, and affordable housing for working families.”