![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
DERYL DAVIS: A service for the homeless in northern Virginia, about four miles from the White House. Many here today are homeless themselves. Some worry that, unless something changes, their names could be on this list someday.
UNIDENTIFIED HOMELESS MAN: What has happened to the love that men must show each other? Why not change? Why not go back to helping one another? I know I need it. Because without it, I'm destined to die either in the streets, jail, or in the institution.
DAVIS: There are 25 percent more homeless people here in Fairfax County today than there were four years ago, one of the sharpest increases in the nation in one of its most affluent regions. At any given time, well more than 2,000 people in this county are homeless.
The average rent here jumped 40 percent since 1998, and while new housing is being built for those who have money, experts say the working poor -- which most homeless here are -- have become almost invisible.
Mostly, they live day to day in shelters, low-rent motels, or local parks. Like John Lewis, who sleeps in the woods. He suffers from emphysema, high blood pressure, and other illnesses.
JOHN LEWIS (walking by his shack in park): It's cold. It's wet. It's lonely. And there's always darkness. I mean, it seems like in the daylight, it's dark. It just seems like there's a haze over most things. I do pretty good and I burn a lot of sterno. It doesn't, you know, produce a lot of heat, but in a place this small, insulated with plastic, the little bit of heat that it does produce, it just stays inside.
I wash up in the morning with the little towelettes. I got my water. I brush my teeth. Here's a bag of socks, shirts, t-shirts, a dress shirt just in case I want to go to church and change.
DAVIS: Most people don't even know these "hidden homeless" exist. But advocates say they represent about 80 percent of the total homeless population in this area. That's especially true along Route 1. A number of homeless have died crossing this busy highway in recent months. John Lewis faces it each week on his way to church.
DAVIS: Keary Kincannon, a United Methodist minister, started Rising Hope Church here six years ago. It was created especially for people like John.
Reverend KEARY KINCANNON (Pastor, Rising Hope Church): We have a very specific focus in reaching out to what we say -- the least, the lost, the lonely, the left out.
DAVIS: Kincannon says about 85 percent of his congregation is or has been homeless.
Rev. KINCANNON: We've got so many folks that come here with so many problems -- people that would be rejected in other churches and other situations -- because they know we genuinely love them. We genuinely care for them.
DAVIS: Kincannon calls Rising Hope a "recovery" church. Many of its members, some of whom have children, are recovering from addictions, or simply the shame and trauma of being homeless.
GLORIA HARRELL (Rising Hope Church): You become faceless. You become -- you're just there. I mean, it's like a gray area. I called myself at one time a leper. I felt like a leper.
DAVIS: Gloria Harrell leads a 12-step spiritual recovery circle at Rising Hope. She was homeless herself for many years, the result, she says, of out-of-control spending and a destructive lifestyle.
Ms. HARRELL: If I've made it, then I have a duty to my brothers and sisters to help them.
DAVIS: The problems associated with homelessness are very real for Tom Star-King. He's been homeless on and off for 30 years, although he works hard not to appear so. He keeps his worldly goods in a storage closet and commutes back and forth to a shelter.
UNIDENTIFIED HOMELESS MAN: What has happened to the love that men must show each other? Why not change? Why not go back to helping one another? I know I need it. Because without it, I'm destined to die either in the streets, jail, or in the institution.
DAVIS: There are 25 percent more homeless people here in Fairfax County today than there were four years ago, one of the sharpest increases in the nation in one of its most affluent regions. At any given time, well more than 2,000 people in this county are homeless.
The average rent here jumped 40 percent since 1998, and while new housing is being built for those who have money, experts say the working poor -- which most homeless here are -- have become almost invisible.
Mostly, they live day to day in shelters, low-rent motels, or local parks. Like John Lewis, who sleeps in the woods. He suffers from emphysema, high blood pressure, and other illnesses.

I wash up in the morning with the little towelettes. I got my water. I brush my teeth. Here's a bag of socks, shirts, t-shirts, a dress shirt just in case I want to go to church and change.
DAVIS: Most people don't even know these "hidden homeless" exist. But advocates say they represent about 80 percent of the total homeless population in this area. That's especially true along Route 1. A number of homeless have died crossing this busy highway in recent months. John Lewis faces it each week on his way to church.
DAVIS: Keary Kincannon, a United Methodist minister, started Rising Hope Church here six years ago. It was created especially for people like John.

DAVIS: Kincannon says about 85 percent of his congregation is or has been homeless.
Rev. KINCANNON: We've got so many folks that come here with so many problems -- people that would be rejected in other churches and other situations -- because they know we genuinely love them. We genuinely care for them.
DAVIS: Kincannon calls Rising Hope a "recovery" church. Many of its members, some of whom have children, are recovering from addictions, or simply the shame and trauma of being homeless.
GLORIA HARRELL (Rising Hope Church): You become faceless. You become -- you're just there. I mean, it's like a gray area. I called myself at one time a leper. I felt like a leper.

Ms. HARRELL: If I've made it, then I have a duty to my brothers and sisters to help them.
DAVIS: The problems associated with homelessness are very real for Tom Star-King. He's been homeless on and off for 30 years, although he works hard not to appear so. He keeps his worldly goods in a storage closet and commutes back and forth to a shelter.