FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Fairfax County experienced a slight drop in homelessness comparison to 2023, according to data from the 2024 Point-in-Time-Count survey. However, the department overseeing the county’s response to homelessness sees this as a relatively flat number.
In Fairfax County, 1,278 people were reported as experiencing homelessness on the night of Jan. 24, 2024. That was a 2 percent decrease (32 people) compared to the 1,310 people reported in the 2023 count.
On Friday morning, Tom Barnett, deputy director of the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness, presented the data from the 2024 count during the Continuum of Care membership meeting, which was held remotely.
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“In many ways, we need to really consider this essentially a flat number,” Barnett said, referring to the 2 percent drop. “There’s always variations year to year, and 2 percent is very small compared to changes we’ve seen in years past.”
The 2 percent drop was caused by fewer families in shelter, either at facilities or motels, and a lower number of unsheltered people, according to Barnett.
Key Takeaways from 2024 Point in Time Count
The last time Fairfax County adopted strategies to prevent and end homelessness was 2008.
“Between 2008 and 2017, we saw a decrease of 47 percent, 171 people, during that time,” he said.”Implementing the strategies in that 10-year plan helped us make tremendous progress, even during some very difficult years. With the great recession and the housing crisis, we were able to make some really good progress.”
However, between 2017 and 2021, the county saw a significant increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness, primarily due to the pandemic. The number of homeless rose by 27 percent (258 people).
HUD requires Continuums of Care, which are local groups or organizations that provide services and shelter to unhoused individuals and families in their communities, to conduct an annual count of the people they serve. HUD uses that data to determine how many homeless people there are in the U.S. and measure the effectiveness of its programs and policies at decreasing those numbers.
“The point in time count is a count of everyone experiencing homelessness on a single night in January,” Barnett said. “Nine jurisdictions throughout the D.C. region, as well as the whole Commonwealth of Virginia, all did it on one night,”
Barnett acknowledged that the point and time count is not a perfect measure and it almost certainly is an undercount. But, because of its methodology and that it’s being conducted across the country, it’s a good tool for measuring trends.
“While it may not count everybody, it is good to see the trends up and down in terms of where the country is headed in terms of its goal of preventing and ending homelessness,” he said.
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