Finding a landlord with a property is the hardest part about helping homeless locate rapid rehousing

Realtors got an education Thursday about Prince William County’s Rapid Rehousing program.

The program’s goal is to find landlords with properties for rent and to move homeless families into them. The training provided at the county’s first Landlord Summit comes as nearly 40 homeless people will be forced off land behind Bungalow Alehouse in Woodbridge following a no trespassing order issued by the landowner, a Prince William County spokesman said last month.

Four hundred homeless people living in Prince William County were noted in an annual count on January 28. That number is down about 2% from 2015. Many are retail workers, nursing home staff, bank, tellers, bus drivers, veterans, suffering mental illness, married and divorced.

“That’s who the face of homelessness is. It’s everyone,” said Latoya Bass, a homeless services coordinator with Prince William County Government.

The Rapid Rehousing program works with homeless individuals to determine how much rent they can pay each month, and then the program partners with non-profit organizations that subsidize the remainder of the monthly rent costs. The program is not Section Eight or transitional housing, and homes are rented at market rates.

“The goal of this program is not for the non-profit to pay the rent in perpetuity,” said BARN Executive Director Colin Davis.

For example, if a monthly rent is $1,500, the non-profit might cover $1,000, and the renter would pay $500. Program participants are screened upon entering the program and have two years to become financially stable enough to pay rent on their own.

Families facing eviction from their home are not eligible for the Rapid Rehousing program. The county, if notified of their situation, will work to move that individuals into a temporary homeless shelter, said Bass.

Those who are living in a hotel, and the costs are being subsidized by social services are eligible for the Rapid Rehousing program.

Finding landlords to participate in the program is the biggest challenge for administrators. Selling landlords on the idea is the biggest challenge for Realtors.

“When a landlord is renting a home they are going to want a credit check… an employment history… for them it’s minimizing risk. I’m a Realtor, and I come in and say that I have someone who lives in the woods that wants to move in, they are going to say ‘no,'” said Mike Allen, an agent with Long and Foster Realtors.

Allen described a rare success story when he recently rented a home in Dale City, filling it with someone who was homeless.

“It takes a certain kind of landlord for this kind of thing,” added Allen.

One drawback for landlords, Allen added, is that the types of leases signed with many Rapid Rehousing agreements fall short of a 12-month term. That can lead to more rental turnover for a property, and lead to landlords paying more in Realtor commission fees to locate new tenants.

Occoquan District Supervisor Ruth Anderson organized the training with the help of the Lake Ridge Rotary Club. It was held at the Prince William Association of Realtors building in Woodbridge.