Williamsburg is trying a different approach to connecting people without housing to services and shelter.
It launched the Houseless Outreach Partnership Engagement, or HOPE, program to reach and build trust with people experiencing homelessness and assess what would be needed to continue that work long-term.
“They’re our residents and they’re our neighbors; they deserve respect and dignity just as anybody else in our community,” said Wendy Evans, human services director. “It’s our role to help them navigate the systems to be in a better place.”
Williamsburg began the program in May, when residents began telling the city they were seeing more camps than in previous years. Evans, who has been with the city for 20 years, said it’s been accelerating since at least 2021.
“We knew we needed to respond,” Evans said, “that we needed to go out and provide our services in the field.”
The pilot is also a first step at addressing some findings in the Virginia Peninsula Homelessness Study which was published in June. Commissioned by Newport News, it said Peninsula localities had inadequate funds and staffing for outreach programs. The deficit was more stark in the Upper Peninsula, including Williamsburg.
Williamsburg Human Services has offered help for years. But Roy Gerardi, human services outreach and crisis counselor, said before the pilot program the organization employed a “come to us” approach.
Though they’ve seen victories and are serving more every year, Gerardi said it became clear that there was a growing number of people that they weren’t reaching.
“We’re taking a step further to go and kind of bridge that gap,” Gerardi said. “Just the fact that we’re coming to them communicates something.”
The pilot is running until October. The data it gathers will help Williamsburg officials better understand how effective street outreach can be and what resources the program would need to excel.
Gerardi is the point person for the program. Several days a week, he and partners from Colonial Behavioral Health visit camps that have been reported to the city or other places frequented by people experiencing homelessness.
“We want to bring some hope and create that trust,” Gerardi said. “It’s a team effort and sometimes they’re not ready to partner yet; but sometimes they are, and then we can get to it and try to break through the barriers.”
Gerardi was hired in 2010 after decades of ministry work, which he continues part-time as the pastor of the Chapel at Kingsmill. For him, the work is an extension of his Christian faith, motivated by scripture that calls on caring for the orphan, the widow and the person without a home.
“It’s compassion,” Gerardi said. “You’re just treating people like they have value and worth.”
The pilot’s already been a success, according to Gerardi. He has met with nearly 50 people and helped 10 of them get housed and several others with other needs.
“Those are the individuals that are homeless who have the ability to obtain income and jobs,” Evans said. “We’re able to easily get them on the pathway to more income and housing.”
The task becomes harder if someone lives with a mental illness or disability, is on a fixed income or doesn’t earn enough to meet income requirements for rentals. It’s why Gerardi works with mental health clinicians; but the team has no power to increase the wages or availability of affordable housing.
“We’re trying to find the needle in the haystack,” Gerardi said. “Sometimes the place is there, but they don’t qualify because some places require three times the income relative to the rent.”
Housing is becoming increasingly costly on the Peninsula and is the top driver of increasing rates of homelessness in the region, according to the Virginia Peninsula Homelessness Study. The study’s authors, Viam Advising, in November said that if the trend continues that the rate of homelessness on the Peninsula will grow by 5% annually through 2028.
Subsidized housing is near or at capacity, according to a 2024 count of housing resources. Shelter space can also be tight, especially as the number of beds decreases in the warm season.
In some cases, it means the Williamsburg team has no housing options in town. Evans said it’s a structural problem that requires solutions larger than Williamsburg Human Services can offer.
“Unless we – as a community, as a state – find some more types of subsidized housing, then we’re still going to have this housing crisis,” Evans said.
The team will report to the city administration about HOPE’s work in October to see if it can continue or if changes are needed. But one thing’s certain in Evans’ mind.
“We will continue to do some form of outreach,” she said. “We see the value already.”
