Two years ago, The George Washington Regional Commission explored creating a street outreach position to serve as a liaison between the unhoused and service providers for the localities in the planning district.
Sam Shoukas, the housing and community health program director for PD16, crafted a job description for an outreach worker: someone, other than law enforcement, who could get to know the unhoused and connect them to services.
“I explained that that was called street outreach and it takes time to build that type of trust,” recalled Shoukas, “and those people will remain homeless if there aren’t enough services.”
The GWRC board ultimately voted against it, citing concerns about which localities the position would serve and who would manage and fund it.
But during a special meeting Monday, the commission signaled that the region could soon be served by not just one but two street outreach coordinator positions, one in Fredericksburg and another that would rotate between the planning district’s other localities, which include Stafford, Spotsylvania and King George counties.
In November, Fredericksburg Mayor Kerry Devine told the Free Press Coffee Shop Talk podcast that the city was reviewing a draft MOU (memorandum of understanding) from the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board “to hopefully be able to execute on a homelessness street outreach coordinator position specific to Fredericksburg.
“The city would fund it and RACSB would hire and manage a new person to be downtown to better manage the unhoused population,” Devine said “And that would be somebody who would get to know people and get to know their specific needs and that‘s something the city is moving ahead with … we tried to do this before, regionally.”
The GWRC board instructed Shoukas to prepare a job description and other logistics ahead of the body’s next meeting, which is scheduled for Jan. 27 at 5 p.m. For her part, Shoukas was ready to jump into action, stating that she had the paperwork “ready to go.”
“We are using the job description used for the city’s position — the county one probably won’t change that much,” she said.
First she needs the blessing of the Fredericksburg Continuum of Care, the federally-mandated network of organizations that collectively address homelessness in the region. That meeting is Thursday at 2 p.m. at GWRC and is viewable online.
It’s not going to be an easy job for whomever is hired.
“We are asking a lot of a person — it’s hard work,” said Shoukas, who added that staffing issues across human service organizations across the country pose another challenge.
“There are high levels of burnout in human services and being able to pay someone what they are worth, train them on the necessary skills and have them stay on will be a challenge.”
Monday night’s workshop began with conversations about how to identify the unhoused, how to address panhandling, the various types of homelessness, the shocking number of students experiencing homelessness and what services were available to individuals, families and those who are “on the verge”.
Data from the annual point-in-time count, which takes place each January, showed 253 people who were unhoused in the region at that time. But Shoukas explained that that figure is just a snapshot; the true number is hard to capture as people move in and out of situations. Some folks requiring services may have temporary housing or be technically homeless for a brief period of time.
Shoukas was part of the conversation in 2022, when city leaders began exploring solutions to problems that were plaguing downtown businesses.
“They were getting calls to the city, calls to law enforcement and were looking for ways to address some of that,” she recalled.
She created a presentation, highlighting specific things like trash and litter in city parks, day centers, cold weather shelters.
The concept of an outreach position kept coming up. As recently as August, the Fredericksburg Economic Development Authority discussed funding such a position with an emphasis on interactions between the unhoused and downtown businesses.
“This is not a new conversation,” Shoukas said. “We’ve been talking about it for a long time. Most communities across the country are, too.”
