Week 2 Update

“We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat”

For many, that reference from the movie Jaws is a classic and is uttered by the marine biologist when he realizes he grossly underestimated the size of the shark. Covid19 is our Jaws.

Now that Governor Northam has issued restrictive stay at home orders until June 10 ^th we need to pace the needs of our clients. It’s going to be a very long 10 weeks and our clients’ situations are already changing rapidly.

During this period of isolation, we want to keep you informed about how our clients are doing and how we are trying to go about business as usual despite self-distancing.

Food: In Week One our case managers boxed up and delivered supplies gathered by our volunteers for our families. We contacted every client to discuss their needs and talked to them about next steps and temporary measures such as no evictions/no power terminations during this pandemic and what happens when those measures expire. By the end of the week we made certain no client had any immediate needs but this situation is going to change drastically during the next ten weeks and for many it already has. Layoffs and job losses have begun.

Food: Week Two Our case managers and all our staff are now working from home, and direct contact with either our pantry volunteers or our clients is strongly discouraged. We are exploring more efficient ways to get gift cards to clients for groceries as some of them do not have printers at home to print out ecards.

Although we discourage our clients from going out, we know this is unavoidable. When our single parents shop, they usually have to take their children with them, increasing possible exposure to the virus. The government food stamp program, SNAP, has increased food allowances to the maximum possible during this crisis but it still is not enough.

Our new Associate Director/Senior Case Management Supervisor, Debi Sutton and our case managers, Dena Garada and Ryan Crowe, have loaded their cars with supplies so they can respond to client needs quickly -- the new definition of Meals on Wheels!

And we are also concerned with the health of our generous volunteers who help stock the pantry. As one doctor in New York said plainly, “Stay Home” everyone, please.

Health Issues and Spike in Domestic Violence

We are monitoring the health of our clients. One client and her daughter are ill and waiting to be tested. Another lost her job prior to this pandemic because her son has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A third client’s daughter is a heart transplant recipient. All are very vulnerable to this disease and our case managers will work to keep them from unnecessarily exposing themselves to this virus. Domestic Violence Shelters have seen a spike in domestic violence cases, likely as a result of abusive partners’ job losses and resulting confinement to the home. And this is just Week Two.

We will post additional updates and a list of needed items periodically so please check back with us on our Family PASS Facebook page which can be reached by going to:

https://www.facebook.com/FamilyPASS and while you’re there, please “like” us!

Collaboration Updates

Needs Monitoring: We have three weekly conference calls with the county and other nonprofits to relay to the county what those of us on the front lines (the nonprofits) are seeing as the most immediate client needs and, in return, to hear what the county is doing. The subcommittees are broken into the top needs identified: housing/finance, childcare and transportation.  Although evictions have technically been frozen, there is uneven enforcement and evictions will resume again as soon as the courts are open. Dominion Power’s foundation is setting up a system to assist families with utility bills but we have not seen the details yet. We are hoping there will be a plan to cover past due account payments over a longer period of time once the economy has recovered and employers bring back staff.

By the end of last week, emergency phone call requests to Coordinated Services Planning almost doubles that of a year ago: 420 vs 230 weekly. 

Those calls reflect the top three needs of housing/finance; childcare and transportation. We are only at the beginning of the second week of self-distancing, school closings and mandatory business shutdowns. The trickle-down effects of those closings – now extended to mid-June - are just beginning to result in lost jobs and income. We expect the referrals from CSP to Family PASS to increase exponentially.

The county’s Public Health Department currently only provides testing if a patient is referred to them through a primary physician. Many of our clients do not have a primary physician.

The County’s Office to Prevent and End Homelessness is looking to secure motel and hotel space for clients in nonprofit shelters who test positive for the virus. Right now, there is no alternative but to keep them in shelter with everyone else and find creative ways to isolate them.

We have already gotten a referral from another nonprofit whose own budget has maxed out for the client.

For county updates on the virus go to  https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/covid19/

Week Two – Employment Issues

Family PASS’s Policy Relaxed

Family PASS’s program requirement is that the client/head of household must be employed and there must be at least one child in the family under the age of 18. However we cannot expect our clients who lose their jobs because of the virus to go right out there and find another job. There aren’t any. Those who are taking online education or training programs can continue to work towards those goals. Family PASS, with community support, will help them, so that when this crisis is over, they are not facing insurmountable debts that put them back to square one.

There have already been setbacks with clients who were making progress and are scheduled to exit from their transitional housing programs within the next few months because many of them have lost their jobs or have severely reduced wages due to the shutdown. We’ve been told that the transitional housing program, Bridging Affordability, so far have no plans to extend support past the scheduled exit date. 

Our case managers are helping those facing lost jobs to file for unemployment. For those in the county’s transitional housing program, we assist them in filing for a reduction in their monthly rent portion due as a result of lower income. The formula for paying rent during this two year transitional housing program depends on how much income the client has. (The SNAP food program operates on a similar scale although it has waived that scale during this crisis). The goal is for the client to be able to assume full rent by the end of the program. For those families who are due to exit the program shortly, we are studying options – and our budget – to help them avoid a return to homelessness.

Special thanks goes to our Senior Case Manager/Associate Director Debi Sutton, Case Managers Ryan Crowe and Dena Garada, and to our Executive Assistant/Data Manager Melissa Rosen for keeping Family PASS up and running.

Please look for our Week Three Report and everyone please stay safe.

Please consider a donation to help our families get through this. If possible, consider becoming a monthly donor. Any amount is deeply appreciated.

Welcome to New Board Members

We welcomed three new board members this winter, Suzanne Jenkins, Clyde “Sonny” Ellis, and Brian Wallenhorst. Suzanne and Brian have taken the reins in the area of development and Sonny Ellis has assumed responsibility for making sure we are compliant and all our legal documents are in order.

Clyde “Sonny” Ellis, Jr.

A native Richmonder, Clyde E. “Sonny” Ellis, Jr. and his wife Lee have lived in Fairfax County for 25 years. Sonny recently retired as the Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary of Parsons Corporation. Prior to joining Parsons he spent eight years in the General Electric legal department, and before that was a partner in the international law firm of Bryan Cave, LLP.

It is an honor to assist Family Pass in pursuing its mission, because no child should ever have to experience homelessness.

Brian Wallenhorst



Brian  Wallenhorst was born and raised in Fairfax County and currently lives with his wife and two children in Herndon, VA. He is passionate about strengthening the community and the mission of Family PASS. He is currently the Vice President of Strategic Capture at Perspecta, Inc. (Perspecta) where he is focused on large scale business development and growth efforts. On August 1, 2019, Perspecta acquired Knight Point Systems, LLC (KPS) where Mr. Wallenhorst worked for over ten years in multiple capacities focused on corporate growth and operations, most recently as the Director of Corporate Strategy. Prior to joining KPS, Mr. Wallenhorst led consulting teams at SunGard Availability Services and served as a Principal Analyst at Project Performance Corporation (PPC).

Mr. Wallenhorst has a BS in Integrated Science and Technology from James Madison University (JMU) and an MS in Integrated Marketing Communications from West Virginia University (WVU). In 2019, he received an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Fund Development from the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. Outside of Family PASS, his volunteer activities include serving as a youth coach with Herndon Reston Youth Baseball and the Great Falls Reston Soccer Club, serving as a Chair for the Herndon WinterMarkt with the Dulles Chamber of Commerce, and working with the Board of Directors of the Herndon Village Network (HVN).

Thank You to Our March Donors!!

Frank & Terri Bennett, Joel Platt & Nancy Singer, Paul & Germaine Williams, Janet & Paul Scaffido, Loretta & Francis Clarke, Richard & Deborah Ziegler, in memory of Rob Kearns, Mike Waddell, Cliff & Patti Cooksey, Patricia & Ronald Aprahamian, Nelson & Michelle Blitz, Stephen & Caroline Long, Van & Elizabeth Nguyen, Vienna Womens Club, Eleanor McCann, Rena Baker, Josef & Jane Sharnoff, James & Carol Ann Caputo, Patti & Cliff Cooksey, Ann Marie & William Carroll, Susan Ricci, Matt Dwyer, Nancy & Tim Sheehy, Elizabeth & Randy Brouckman, Karen & Robert Zelnick, Jane Miscavage, Johanna Kearns, Tara McNeil-Taylor, Susan Gendron, Mike Davis, Ed & Judy Zakreski, Linda Colbert, Charles Allen, Patricia Sparrell, Rebecca Jackson, Wendy & Michael Lincoln, Barbara Michels, Mary Romagnoli, Melvyn Kay, The Sienicki Family, Annette Porter, Nancy Nolting, Betsy Zolper, Mary Farrell, Janine Doran, Steve Winkler, Nancy & Larry Socher and Ed & Jill Baranoski.