FROM THE EDITOR: The Homelessness Crisis Is Far Bigger than the City, Continuum of Care, and Brisben
A long-simmering debate over homelessness blew into the open last week. The issues are serious, but handled improperly it could hurt everyone's ability to address the bigger issue - homelessness.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Email Name
This past week saw Fredericksburg residents choosing sides in a growingly acrimonious debate over homelessness.
The arguments between Fredericksburg City Council and the Fredericksburg Regional Continuum of Care on one side, and the Thurman Brisben Center on the other side, have been intensifying since COVID. That struggle broke out into the open this past week as the Brisben Center and the city traded press releases over the Center’s special use permit, and the city reallocated $40,000 from Brisben to other agencies working with the homeless.
What is emerging is a zero-sum struggle that, if not resolved, could permanently cripple the city’s and our region’s ability to deal with an issue that no one disagrees needs addressing — rising homelessness.
To understand why this current battle is potentially so dangerous, it helps to understand the scope of the problem.
15,000-plus Calls
The CoC, Fredericksburg, and the Brisben Center are but three players — albeit significant ones — in the homelessness issue that touches all local governments, many businesses and nonprofit agencies, and the citizens across Planning District 16.
How big is the problem? That can be difficult to say, owing to the variety of ways it’s talked about and counted.
To begin, homelessness has many different looks. It can generally be divided into four broad categories (chronic, episodic, transitional, and hidden — for a more nuanced look, see this info sheet from the National Health Care for the Homeless Council).
Consequently, it gets counted in a variety of ways using different methodologies. And that can make it difficult for everyday citizens to grasp homelessness’ scale.
Between July 1, 2023 and July 30, 2024, the local Homelessness Helpline run by LoisAnn’s Hope House fielded 15,309 calls.
One of the best-known surveys is The Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, or AHAR (read the latest report). This is produced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is based on the annual Point-in-Time count. The 2024 report revealed a sobering national story. Just some of the takeaways:
2024 saw the highest number of people experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness (1 in 3)
65% of chronically homeless are in unsheltered locations, also the highest ever counted
Locally, however, “For the past 10 years, Point-in-Time count numbers have remained relatively level, hovering around 200 people,” according to the 2024 report issued by the Fredericksburg Regional Continuum of Care with is also based on the PIT count.
This can lead one to believe that our homeless population is relatively stable and relatively easy to address. After all, compared with the country as a whole, our PIT numbers look good.
The reality is more complex.
Another organization, School House Connection, is a nonprofit research and policy group that focuses on homelessness as experienced by children. It has partnered with Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan to collect and report this data. Its findings, which currently run only through the 2023 school year, show a steadily rising tide of homelessness experienced by children, which points to a greater need than that captured in the Point-in-Time count.
Not only is the percentage of homeless children rising, but the raw numbers are significantly higher than those captured by Point-in-Time data. The difference is due to the types of people being counted, and how they are counted. It’s not that one data set is necessarily better, just that it captures homelessness in different ways. (See the 2024 AHAR for its methodology and School House Connection for its methodology.)
Even these reports, however, create as many questions as answers.
The Advance reached out to Cait Woodward, executive director of Loisann’s Hope House, to gain a better perspective on this issue.
Hope House, which is a CoC member, is uniquely positioned in our region to help people understand the full scope of the homeless issue because it operates the Homelessness Helpline (540-358-5801), which is the coordinated intake process for the Fredericksburg region, to include the counties of Caroline, King George, Stafford, and Spotsylvania, and the city of Fredericksburg.
Between July 1, 2023, and July 30, 2024, the Homelessness Helpline fielded 15,309 calls. People in Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania accounted for 65% of these calls. The majority of callers were seeking rent and mortgage assistance.
“Many families in crisis remain unseen by the broader community due to the stigma and fear that often come with seeking help,” Woodward wrote in an email to the Advance. “Concerns about being judged or the potential involvement of child protective services frequently lead families to stay silent and hidden.”
In addition to the hotline, Loisann’s Hope House also maintains the family shelter list for the region, and on average, there are 45 families seeking shelter on any given night. The number rises in the winter “as temperatures drop and [people] are unable to maintain in vehicles or other unstable options,” Woodward wrote.
These numbers, more than the PIT and School House Connection data, paint a picture of the scale of homelessness in our community. (Download the below infographic produced by LoisAnn’s Hope House that provides more detail.)
(Editor’s Note: Also critical to understanding our local problem are the annual reports produced by the CoC. Based primarily on PIT counts, they also included data that school districts are required to collect by the federal government. Read the latest report, and access previous reports.)
As troubling as the current need, however, it may well pale in comparison to what could be on the horizon.
An Approaching Tsunami
What is most disturbing is not just the data about those who are experiencing homelessness, but those who are on the brink.
Loisann’s Hope House spends a great deal of effort on prevention, according to Woodward, by supporting families at risk of eviction and those staying in temporary situations, such as motels or doubled-up living arrangements.
That number could soar as early as the fall. As the Advance reported last week, the budget bill that is now before the U.S. Senate contains cuts to social safety net programs that could potentially prove devastating.
For example, if Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program were cut by the proposed $300 billion, some 200,000 Virginians could lose benefits. If that occurs, then Virginia food banks, already stretched to the limit, would have to triple their offerings to deal with the need this would create. And that is not something the food banks can do. A percentage of those affected will also be pushed a step closer to homelessness.
Such drastic cuts also concern Woodward. “As potential cuts to programs like SNAP and Medicaid loom at the state and federal levels, we anticipate a rise in the number of families seeking assistance,” she said.
Even if the Senate were able to prevent significant cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, however, our homelessness issues are only going to continue worsening, in all likelihood.
Potential cuts to HUD that the Trump administration is signaling would directly target those in danger of becoming homeless. These could include reductions of “$26.72 billion from HUD’s rental assistance programs … and cutting Homelessness Assistance Grants (HAG) by $532 million, and ‘consolidating’ the Continuum of Care (CoC) program and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program into the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) program.”
At a time when the numbers of people facing crisis are rising, and when federal actions in the fall and moving forward could radically accelerate these problems, it is vital that the network of organizations find a way to work together. As important, it’s vital that our community not pit organizations against one another.
Hope House, Empowerhouse, the Brisben Center, Micah Ecumenical Ministries, and the CoC are all doing extraordinary work. And they are doing so on very limited budgets.
The rising tide of homelessness, however, has put local politicians into difficult positions when it comes to funding the organizations that support them. There simply are not enough dollars to go around, meaning difficult, and unpopular, decisions will have to be made.
And that is what has touched off the current debate in Fredericksburg.
Reallocating Brisben Center Funds
This budget cycle, the City of Fredericksburg made the decision to reallocate the funds it had planned to give to the Brisben Center — $40,000 — to three other organizations: Empower House, Loisann’s Hope House, and George Washington Regional Commission rapid re-housing.
Councilor Jannan Holmes was central in making this reallocation. “This wasn’t a decision I took lightly,” she told the Advance. “I knew that there would probably be backlash, and I talked to every single Council member. I talked with anyone who touches the lives of unhoused people.”
Her decision was not made in a vacuum. Prior to her winning a Council seat, the city had decided that the challenges before it required a new way of thinking about how to allocate funds. So the city turned to the CoC to help make those funding decisions by scoring them on a range of factors.
The Advance asked the city how heavily it relies on CoC scoring for making its decisions. It responded via email: “City Management relies highly on the now annual CoC evaluations. The City still must balance funding requests with the City's overall operations and maintenance needs and the overall revenue outlooks in making final funding recommendations to City Council—as with all funding requests.”
(Editor’s Note: Surrounding localities also use the CoC scoring guide, but not to the extent the city does. The Advance will have more on this later this week.)
The Brisben Center recently decided to not allow the CoC to score it. The organization is concerned that it would not score well, because CoC follows the Housing First policy.
Housing First is federal policy that the CoC is legally bound to follow. It “prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness … before attending to anything less critical, such as getting a job, budgeting properly, or attending to substance use issues,” according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
For the 2026 funding cycle, the Brisben Center’s decision not to allow the CoC to score it most likely led to the reallocation of funds.
Holmes told the Advance that she was committed to directing resources to those organizations that are working together.
Changing the Brisben Center’s Special Use Permit?
The reallocation decision is also occurring at a time when the city is considering changing the terms of the Brisben Center’s special use permit.
According to a press release, the city has begun to facilitate a:
conversation with the Thurman Brisben Center to explore how we can reduce barriers - regulatory or otherwise - for individuals seeking assistance. This could include consideration of mutually agreeable amendments to conditions of the special use permit that may present barriers to the delivery of services today and best practices for information sharing of critical data without privacy infringement.
The Brisben Center sees this as a move to force it to change the model under which it has successfully operated.
Rejecting the Housing First model, the Center contends that the changes the city is proposing would force it to accept individuals who would be a threat to its population. From its press release:
We simply can’t house people with violent/sexual crimes, untreated mental illnesses, or out-of-control addictions. That would put these very vulnerable families who are working hard to get back on their feet in harm’s way.
The city is within its rights to alter the special use permit. In the same way that the Brisben Center’s decision to not be scored had unintended consequences for its funding, however, should the city push this issue it, too, could have unintended consequences.
Any alteration or revocation of said permit can be contested by the property owner and would require public hearings.
Based on how citizens have responded to reports of any potential adjustments to Brisben’s SUP, it is no stretch to suggest that those hearings and the fallout from them could further divide the community at the very time when the community needs to come together to address homelessness, which is almost certain to grow in the near term.
Reframing the Discussion
Fredericksburg’s citizens should take some time to consider both the extent of the need facing the city, as well as Planning District 16, before rushing to choose sides in this debate.
The parties involved have serious issues before them. The Brisben Center has a proven model that is effective. It has also paid a price for not adhering to the CoC process.
The city is facing a genuine crisis in homelessness as a result of the worsening economics around housing and day-to-day items people require to survive. It is very likely, however, that that problem is going to accelerate as decisions are made on the current bill before the Senate, as well as the 2026 budget, and the Farm Bill, which has also yet to be resolved.
Were it to leverage its authority to force the Brisben Center to open up more space to the community, the city runs the risk of furthering the community divide. The city should also consider — if it altered the SUP, might the Brisben Center feel forced to take more drastic measures? If it did, that decision could significantly deepen the homeless crisis.
There are efforts underway to mediate this debate. It is in the interest of both parties to find a resolution that works for all.
When debates get heated, and neither side wants to yield, it would do all parties well to remember the 15,309 calls for help to the Homelessness Hotline.
Now more than ever, this city needs all those serving the most vulnerable to find a way to work together.
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Thanks to the Advance for making it more clear what this debate is about.