FAIRFAX, Va. (September 20, 2021) — Pathway Homes, a nonprofit providing mental health services—starting with safe, stable housing—to individuals marginalized by poverty and inequity, is welcoming more clients home following the renovation and expansion of one of its properties by HomeAid Northern Virginia and Joy Design + Build. The donated updates will enable Pathway, which owns, leases, and manages nearly 500 properties in Northern Virginia, to serve four more adult clients who were formerly homeless.
“This wonderful partnership with HomeAid and Joy Design will help more people recover the lives and strengthen our community. Having a safe and comfortable place to call home is the best way to help people struggling with mental health challenges re-launch their lives,” explained Pathway Homes CEO Sylisa Lambert-Woodard. “Thank you to all involved for shrinking the waitlist so that more residents can enjoy the life changing benefits that come with having a home.”
HomeAid, the official nonprofit of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association, maximizes relationships with builders and contractors to renovate nonprofits in the region. HomeAid provides upgrades and renovations allowing nonprofits to invest in services rather than building expenses, ensuring nonprofits can invest more resources to programs that help homeless families on their path to independence. Over the last two decades HomeAid through its partner builders has invested over $18 million into local nonprofits and completed 160 projects.
Pathways purchased the Burke-based townhouse in 2019 and wanted to finish the basement to expand the living space available to its clients. McLean-based custom builder Joy Design answered the call through HomeAid’s program. Joy provided the basement renovation which included enlarging an egress window to add a bedroom; refinishing the floors; making cosmetic changes throughout the unit, such as by updating lighting fixtures and freshening the exterior landscaping; and correcting issues that were found by a home inspector.
The home is part of Pathway’s permanent supportive housing program, a proven solution for the community’s most vulnerable by pairing non-time limited affordable housing with case management and supportive services. The update increased the home’s capacity and will now be home to four previously homeless adult men, who will pay 30 percent of their net adjusted income in rent and will have access to a wide range of counseling and life skill services provided by Pathway Homes.
For more than 40 years, Pathway Homes has enabled tens of thousands of people in Northern Virginia with serious mental illnesses and other co-occurring disabilities to get housing and supportive services to help them recover their lives. Following the housing first model, Pathway Homes is a partner in preventing and ending homelessness.
