From the Winter 2025 InRoads Newsletter
While our region faces real challenges, from rising living costs and reduced federal support to job losses and the added strain of the recent government shutdown, we remain steadfast in our mission. In the midst of these hardships, we persevere, innovate, and continue to find moments to celebrate.
Most importantly, we are deeply grateful to everyone who stands with Pathway Homes. Your unwavering support, compassion, and partnership make it possible for us to uplift our community and bring hope to those who need it most. Together, we are creating pathways to stability, recovery, and brighter days ahead.
In October, we recognized the contributions of Delegate David Bulova, Virginia Housing Alliance Executive Director Brian Koziol, and Virginia Housing, in supporting policies and funding that make a positive impact on people with mental health challenges. Honored during our annual Steps to Pathways Breakfast, we celebrated their efforts to ensure vulnerable members of our community have
needed services and a place to call home.
A poignant moment during the event occurred when we renamed our Spirit of Hope Award to the Gerry Connolly Spirit of Hope Award in recognition of the late Congressman’s years of service and support of Pathway Homes and its residents. Congressman James Walkinshaw and Gerry Connolly’s wife Catherine “Smitty” Connolly, jointly presented the newly renamed award to Delegate David Bulova for his tremendous work helping Virginians access mental health services and stable housing. The uplifting event drew over 300 people and raised more than $150,000 while also spotlighting Pathways’ work to prevent and end homelessness.
While there, attendees toured our new Mobile Outreach Unit (MOU), a retrofitted trailer that will bring free showers and other services directly to people experiencing homelessness in Northern Virginia and Washington DC. Supported by grants from Virginia Housing, Cafritz Foundation, Potomac Health Foundation, and Amazon, the MOU also made debut runs in early November, reaching unhoused people in the greater Springfield area. Additional runs are scheduled to begin in DC in early December in partnership with Miriam’s Kitchen. With only two of Northern Virginia’s 41 shelters currently offering drop-in shower services, our MOU is expanding this service delivery model, enabling us to meet the needs of the unsheltered and provide access to case managers with a goal to help them move into housing.
Ending homelessness requires innovation and going mobile is an important next step. We are rolling out in partnership with other nonprofits, health providers, and the faith community to alleviate and address critical needs. By getting on the road during these uncertain times, we are building trust and dignity for those experiencing homelessness.
Over the next few months, we also look forward to renovating our new mixed-use headquarters in Fairfax City. The MOU will be garaged at our new home, which will also have a supply storage area and a training center. In addition to housing our corporate offices, the converted space will have 10 units of affordable housing with flexible supportive services to help people recover their lives. We are grateful and excited that HomeAid National Capital Region, which connects regional builders with nonprofits, has selected this as one of their projects and will help us remodel parts of this innovative space.
Despite the obstacles of the past months, we are staying focused on our mission and finding ways to inspire and be inspired. In doing so, we are changing the trajectory of people’s lives one unit, one service, and one shower at a time!
Dr. Sylisa Lambert-Woodard
President and CEO
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About Pathway Homes
For more than 45 years, Pathway Homes has enabled tens of thousands of people in the National Capital region with serious mental illnesses and other co-occurring disabilities to access affordable housing and critical supportive services to help them recover their lives. Following a housing-focused model, Pathway Homes is a partner in preventing and ending homelessness, touching nearly 2,000 lives each year and ensuring access to affordable stable homes in permanent supportive housing units.
