Fairfax County has over 1 million residents with over 50,000 living in poverty and 1,549 homeless. Rent is high while vacancy rates are low, presenting challenges to housing the homeless. The county developed a 10-year plan to end homelessness and created over 2,650 new affordable housing opportunities. The Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program provided direct financial assistance and case management. Staff analyzed time spent on housing search/placement and saw little dedicated to these activities. The strategy created an online forum and training to build a collaborative community to better help families find housing.

1. Advanced Rapid Re-Housing Strategies National Conference on Ending Homelessness July 15, 2011 Tom Barnett, Program Manager [email_address] Fairfax County Office to Prevent and End Homelessness formerly the Coordinator of the Fairfax Falls-Church Housing Locator Network at Good Shepherd Housing and Family Services

7. STRATEGY Draft 2011-04