A request to help fund a street outreach position to aid the homeless on the city’s streets was met with skepticism, with one EDA member saying it’s a “Band-Aid” that doesn’t solve the problem.
The Fredericksburg Economic Development Authority indicated Monday morning that its support for addressing issues of homelessness in downtown Fredericksburg will not include funding a street outreach position.
Anita Crossfield, a member of the EDA homelessness subcommittee, said at Monday’s regular monthly meeting that the concept was discussed at recent meeting of a workgroup made up of members of the EDA and the regional Continuum of Care, which is the federally mandated local planning body that coordinates housing and services for homeless families and individuals.
But EDA members said they don’t think such a position will solve the problems of panhandling and disruptive behavior that they said downtown businesses are reporting.
“I want to be very real. It is not the EDA’s function to fund a point of contact with the homeless population,” said EDA member Joel Griffin at Monday’s monthly meeting. “That’s not solving the problem.”
The EDA announced earlier this summer that it wants to devote funding to addressing “the increased presence of unhoused people in downtown Fredericksburg, which impacts our small businesses, visitors, and residents,” as Chair Beth Black wrote in a June 17 letter to City Manager Tim Baroody.
Black and EDA member Anita Crossfield attended the July 25 meeting of the regional CoC board to reiterate the Authority’s position.
“People sleeping on the streets is impacting our small businesses, and it’s our job to represent” these small businesses, she said at the July 25 meeting. “We are very passionate about it. Our focus is on treating the unhoused with dignity and compassion.”
The EDA sought input from the CoC because, as Black said, “This is so outside our area of expertise.”
At the July 25 meeting, the CoC board voted to create a workgroup with representation from the EDA to continue the conversation about how the two bodies can best partner going forward.
Sam Shoukas, housing and community health coordinator for the George Washington Regional Commission, which leads and staffs the CoC, told EDA members at Monday’s meeting that conversations about downtown’s unhoused population over the past few years have culminated in the idea of a street outreach specialist.
“The CoC has always wanted this position,” Shoukas said. “It gives us everything we can do to support businesses. This is a person [whose job it is to understand] who is the issue and how we can support them.”
Shoukas said there are currently about 30 people sleeping outside downtown, but that those who are causing problems for downtown and businesses are not always unhoused.
“Aggressive panhandling” is not “synonymous with homelessness,” Shoukas said.
As with community policing, the job would involve engaging with people and building relationships between them and the member organizations of the CoC, which can provide shelter, housing, and mental health support.
The street outreach specialist position was initially proposed to be under the umbrella of the George Washington Regional Commission, with a salary of $44,200 to $48,620, but was voted down by the GWRC board in 2022, Shoukas said.
“It was recommended that city consider it a staff position,” she said.
The position has not yet been funded in the City’s budget. The suggestion discussed Monday was that the EDA could fund the position for one year and that it could be housed within the Rappahannock Community Services Board.
But most EDA members who spoke on Monday weren’t in support of funding the position.
“It doesn’t feel like a solution, but a Band-Aid,” said Kevin Hughes.
EDA member Mitzi Brown said that when the CoC was able to use federal pandemic relief money to temporarily house unsheltered people in local motels, incidents of panhandling decreased.
Brown said she worries that if issues persist, law enforcement will step up its response.
“If given the offer of a ticket to a Red Roof Inn or a ticket to jail, I’m sure they would go for the Inn,” she said. “I am 98.7% sure law enforcement will step up and we haven’t done what we can to provide an alternative to jail.”
Black was the only EDA member to speak in support of the Authority funding the street outreach position. She said the EDA sought the CoC’s expertise was presented with their educated suggestion.
“Those 60 [member organizations of the CoC] are saying this [position] is the missing link,” Black said. “This position has legs.”
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Email Adele
