Prince William County is continuing to work on the community’s homelessness issue.
A homeless needs assessment and action plan was recently completed by Marbut Consulting, at the request of the Prince William County Department of Social Services, and the Prince William Area Continuum of Care (CoC).
According to a 2015 report from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, there are currently 409 homeless people in Prince William County, 136 of which are children.
In order to gather information and make appropriate recommendations on how to combat homelessness in Prince William, Marbut Consulting studied existing homelessness services in Prince William, interviewed homeless individuals, conducted meetings with stakeholders, and even had one of the consultants pose as a homeless person in Prince William to better understand what it’s like, according to the study.
According to the study’s findings, Prince William is doing well with working with families with children that are homeless, and managing the county’s winter and hypothermia shelter.
But there are areas where community organizations and county government could improve the services and opportunities meant to help the homeless.
The study’s findings show that there is a huge lack in the number of emergency beds and spaces in emergency programs, many of the street feeding and community service efforts are counterproductive, the service culture is “more often enabling than engaging” and the amount of long-term housing placements is low.
Within the report, many of the recommendations made by Marbut Consulting show that more analysis and conversation about the way that homelessness assistance is structured in Prince William is a priority.
“We don’t have a specific timeline…in response to the report. The homelessness itself – the Continuum of Care continues to work on things to address the homeless need in the community…We have a dedicated unit in [the Department of] Social Services that deals with homelessness. We continue to look at it as a continuum of care to address the need,” said Prince William County’s Director of Housing & Community Development Elijah Johnson.
To read the report, click here.
