Embry Rucker Community Shelter
The Embry Rucker Community Shelter (ERCS) is a 70-bed residential shelter located in Reston. At ERCS, we provide healthy, safe, emergency housing for families and single men and women, helping them to overcome barriers and transition to stable housing.
ERCS is currently offering extended services for the winter months, including:
-North County Hypothermia Prevention Program, one of three hypothermia prevention sites in Fairfax County that prevents weather-induced illness and loss of life among unsheltered homeless adult men and women. The program is operated from the North County Human Services Bldg., 1850 Cameron Glen Drive in Reston,just ¼ mile from the Embry Rucker Shelter, and will run through March 31, 2010.
-Overflow accommodations, with approximately 12 cots made available to prevent hypothermia among people who are homeless.
-No Turn Away, meaning that any individual or family in need of emergency shelter will have a place to sleep for the night.
In accordance with Fairfax County’s newly adopted 10-year plan to prevent and end homelessness, the shelter has successfully restructured its service delivery model, implementing the Housing Opportunity Support Team (HOST) model of shelter service delivery, which seeks to offer specialized and highly efficient services with the ultimate goal: to accomplish more, in less time, for more individuals, while utilizing fewer resources. The goal of case management is to enable shelter residents to obtain and maintain permanent housing as rapidly as possible. In support of the shelter’s adoption of the HOST and Rapid-Re-housing models, a full-time licensed housing broker has been added to our staff, and specializes in identifying both traditional and non-traditional housing opportunities for our residents. Finally, a collaborative relationship with Google, the Virginia Work Force Development Board, and our local Skill Source Center has brought the Skill Source Satellite Center into the shelter’s lobby. In conjunction with the Reston Interfaith’s employment specialist, shelter residents who are unemployed and/or underemployed can increase their skills and earning potential and, ideally, access to affordable housing.
Medical assistance is offered to residents, as well as drop-in services (hot meals, laundry, and shower facilities) for unsheltered homeless people – those who, whether by choice or by lack of shelter space, live outdoors, in cars, or in other places unsafe for human habitation. Operating the shelter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, requires 20 full-time staff members, several part-time staff members, and more than 400 volunteers.
Click here for directions to or to contact the Embry Rucker Community Shelter. Click here to learn more about the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Partnership on Ending Homelessness. Click here to see a Wish List for the Embry Rucker Community Shelter.
