In Joel Griffin’s mind, most downtown Fredericksburg businesses aren’t bothered by the portion of the city’s unhoused population that’s seeking employment, services or a place to live.
“Their issue is the panhandling in the streets,” said Griffin, a member of the Economic Development Authority as well as the owner of multiple restaurants, during Monday’s EDA meeting.
“Their issue is the person who sits on the same stoop every day on William Street — like clockwork — and every time you walk past that person they ask for a dollar.
“Their issue is when people with mental health issues are walking down the middle of the street — screaming. Their issue is people coming into their locations and harassing customers, and saying, ‘Give me a dollar’ or being in their personal space. Those are the issues we’re talking about.”
Exactly how to resolve them was the subject of an extended and occasionally tense conversation that began with a proposal for the EDA to at least partially fund a “street outreach” position that would serve as a conduit between business owners, the unhoused and the services they require.
In July, the EDA voted to consult with the Continuum of Care (CoC) to produce a Request for Proposal (RFP) geared toward addressing the effects of homelessness on downtown businesses.
During Monday’s meeting, EDA member Anita Crossfield reported that she met with the CoC’s full board, which in turn voted to form a working group to brainstorm solutions. Instead of an RFP, however, the working group suggested funding a street outreach position that would operate within the framework of the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board (RACSB).
Megan Samples, a Fredericksburg Main Street board member who was involved in creating the role in collaboration with CoC, said she envisions the position as “someone to call” when a business encounters a disturbance that requires intervention but might not rise to the level of involving law enforcement.
“You’re not always having to rely on or overburden our downtown police with calls they may not be equipped to handle,” Samples said. “We have a person in place to mitigate some of those things.
“You’d have a person in place to help mitigate some of those things and take some of that work off of our police force in a way that’s much more linear. The goal is to really have it all centralized in one person that has access to all of those resources.”
At one point in the conversation, EDA member Mitzi Brown noted that City Council had supported funding the position as recently as 2022 and asked City Manager Tim Baroody — who was ostensibly in attendance for a separate discussion on data centers — whether officials would still support it.
“They did in the past, and I believe they would in the future,” Baroody said. “It’s a crisis in our own downtown. We all see it and live it.”
Baroody then asked that the EDA provide in writing a desire to see city funds go toward the position.
For her part, Brown expressed concern about law enforcement taking an outsize role in addressing the situation if alternative solutions aren’t developed.
Crossfield, who owns Italian Station on Caroline Street, said that when employees at her location call the police about a homeless person banging on doors or harassing staff, “they don’t take it very seriously. They show up 45 minutes later because they have more important things to do.
“There should be some consequences that need to be faced,” Crossfield said.
Baroody noted that city police did issue 22 citations for illegal camping in city parks and will continue to enforce similar ordinances.
“But I can assure you,” he said, “we’re not going to arrest our way out of this.”
EDA members Joel Griffin and Mitzi Brown are members of the Fredericksburg Free Press board, while EDA chair Beth Black is a member of the Free Press journalism advisory committee. Megan Samples is a member of the Free Press board.
