After careful consideration, the Fairfax – Falls Church Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness has decided to fully support the proposed 4 percent Fairfax County Meals Tax.
Seventy percent of the funds raised by the tax will go to our Fairfax County Schools. Our schools have an integral role in identifying and assisting our homeless and at risk youth as part of our homeless service system. Providing additional funding for the schools only makes sense.
Thirty percent of the funds raised by the tax will go to the county’s general fund to be used for priorities as identified by the Board of Supervisors. One of these priorities is preventing and ending homelessness. In 2008 the Board of Supervisors adopted the Implementation Plan to Prevent Homelessness. At the very beginning of that Plan, the county stated: “By 2018, every person in our community will access and maintain decent, safe, affordable housing.”
We fully expect a portion of the funds raised by the meals tax will be used for this important priority.
Michael L. O’Reilly
Chairman, Board of the Fairfax Falls Church Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness