Housing crunch, end of funding creates pinch for area's unsheltered as winter looms
With inflation, rising rental prices and a housing crunch, the situation for those with no place to live is being closely monitored by local officials.
Federal funding that had been assisting the unsheltered during the pandemic is also going away. Augusta County, Waynesboro and Staunton could all be impacted.
After the pandemic struck in earnest, in Waynesboro, where the Waynesboro Area Refuge Ministry (WARM) coordinates with local churches to provide temporary housing for those seeking a meal and overnight shelter during the cold-weather months, the shelters dried up as the churches, along with mostly everyone else, decided to play it safe.
“They weren’t even letting their own congregations in," said Brian Edwards, the acting director for WARM.
In March 2020, federal measures were taken under the federal CARES Act to help those with no place to call home. With that funding in place, WARM was able to continue providing shelter, Edwards said, receiving enough funds for 35 beds at a Waynesboro hotel where clients were given 24-hour shelter and food throughout the pandemic. A WARM staff member was also on site to make sure everyone abided by the rules, Edwards said. Enough funds were eventually released to establish a second shelter hotel in Verona.
Several extensions kept the temporary housing options at the hotels available throughout the pandemic, Edwards said, but the funding has finally dried up. "We’re starting to close the shelter sites down," he said. The Waynesboro hotel shelter closed Aug. 19. The Verona hotel shelter closes Sept. 19.
The CARES Act worked by providing needed shelter while also helping hotel owners financially, who were struggling to fill rooms during the pandemic, Edwards said. But as the funds go away, he said the timing couldn't be much worse because of inflation, soaring rental costs and a housing shortage.
"This is definitely very bad timing because the cost of living anywhere has gone up exponentially," Edwards said.
WARM's cold-weather shelters are in the planning stages to resume operations again from mid-November to mid-April, Edwards said.
Eviction filings, which slowed during the pandemic, look to be gaining steam once again. According to the Waynesboro City Sheriff's Office, last year there were just 26 eviction filings. This year, there are 83 and counting, Sheriff Christopher Johnson Jr. said last week.
Augusta County figures show there were 109 eviction filings in 2021 and 75 so far this year.
In Staunton, evictions slowed in 2020 to 181, and the drop-off continued in 2021 with 142, according to Staunton Sheriff Chris Hartless, whose office assists in court-ordered evictions. By the end of August, Staunton had recorded about 90 filings for 2022 as the pace has again recently picked up.
"We get anywhere from one to four a week, on average," Hartless said.
Typically done on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Hartless said those subjected to an eviction filing are given three-days notice, and then another 24 hours on top of that for reasonable access. Not all eviction filings end in occupants having to leave their residence, perhaps saved by a legal proceeding or coming up with the funds. But when it happens, Hartless said it can be an emotional upheaval for those involved because some "have absolutely no idea where the hell they're going to end up at."
Others have been through it before, Hartless said, and understand the process although they might not be happy about it.
In July, the median rental price in Staunton was listed at $1,250, according to Zillow.
At the Valley Mission in Staunton on West Beverley Street, Executive Director Susan Richardson said there is room for 125 people seeking shelter. The average stay, as long as those using the shelter are working toward their goals, is usually five to six months. "That was prior to COVID. Now, we’ve had some people living here since COVID started because they just don’t have anywhere to move," Richardson said.
Others, given the opportunity, opted for the hotels. But with federal funding going away, Richardson said, "Those people who were staying in the hotel rooms are now going to be moving here.” About 20 people were admitted about three weeks ago, she said.
The Valley Mission subsists on a $1.5 million budget. It has two thrift stores, one in Staunton on North Coalter Street near the Staunton-Augusta YMCA, and the other in Waynesboro on West Main Street by Sharp Shopper. Together, Richardson said the stores bring in more than half of the shelter's revenue.
Richardson said she's never seen the Valley Mission at full capacity, and said if the situation arose that facilities in Roanoke, Harrisonburg and Charlottesville would be contacted. That said, she doesn't think the Valley Mission is going to be overflowing in the coming months. Prior to the pandemic, there were about 90 people in the shelter.
“I’m hopeful it won’t get worse than that," Richardson said.
While the pandemic shined a light on the unsheltered, Lydia Campbell, the community-based services manager for Valley Community Services Board, said local officials have been meeting the problem head-on for years.
"This is not new, we have been working on this for ages," she said of Valley Homeless Connection, a group of various agencies that coordinate to find shelter, including VCSB, Valley Mission, WARM, New Directions Center, Project Horizon, Rockbridge Area Relief Association, Shenandoah LGBTQ Center, Salvation Army, The Life Works Project, TAP, Augusta Health, City of Waynesboro, Habitat, Salem Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Shenandoah Valley Department of Social Services, Augusta County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, and the Community Foundation of the Blue Ridge.
Campbell said the objective is to connect the most vulnerable to permanent housing first, and noted there are funds to do just that. However, in a sign of the times, a housing shortage has put a crimp in operations. "It's been really frustrating to have more permanent housing money available in our community than ever before and not being able to spend it fast enough," she said.
Without the permanent housing option, some will end up at the Valley Mission. "And some of them are going to go outside. Some of them will be unsheltered," Campbell said.
With funding going by the wayside and the hotels closing their doors to the unsheltered, Campbell said all that can really be done now is to take a wait-and-see approach as the next few months unfold.
"There's very little we can do to be proactive," she said. "The entire system is reactive."
Brad Zinn is the cops, courts and breaking news reporter at The News Leader. Have a news tip? Or something that needs investigating? You can email reporter Brad Zinn (he/him) at bzinn@newsleader.com. You can also follow him on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Housing crunch, end of funding creates pinch for area's unsheltered
