HOUSING MISSION ACTIVITIES

Coordinator:  David Porterfield

Chesterbrook Residences, Inc.:
www.chesterbrookres.org

Since early 2001 Lewinsville has taken the lead in a project to develop an affordable assisted living facility on a five-acre site that was formerly the grounds of Chesterbrook Presbyterian Church, now dissolved.  Our partners in this endeavor are Temple Rodef Shalom, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, and the National Capital Presbytery, (which donated the 5-acre site to the project). Formerly known as CAALF (Chesterbrook Affordable Assisted Living Facility), the project is now officially named Chesterbrook Residences, Inc., and is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit Virginia corporation with a Board of Directors comprised of members of the three sponsoring congregations and NCP. 

Chesterbrook Residences (CRI) is expected to open its doors in the fall of 2007. It will have 97 units, 44 of which will be subsidized for low-income residents.  Even the market rate units will be offered at below the customary charge at a for-profit facility.  Chesterbrook Residences will be the first assisted living facility for low-and moderate-income seniors built in McLean and only the second in Fairfax County.  Its residents will be able to live out their retirement years secure in the knowledge that they will not be displaced due to diminishing personal resources.

Primary Contact Person:  Jane Edmondson

Hearts & Hammers:
RPJ Housing, 2666 Military Road, Arlington, VA  22207
703-528-5606
www.rpjhousing.org

Hearts & Hammers periodically gathers a group of Lewinsville volunteers to make necessary repairs and modifications to homes of low-income families, the disabled or the elderly. These projects are typically small and relatively simple in nature, so significant skills are not necessarily required.  Projects are coordinated through RPJ Housing located in Arlington, a nonprofit organization founded by the National Capital Presbytery which has been involved in the building, renovation, and/or management of over 2000 units of low-income housing in the Washington Metropolitan area for the past 26 years.

Primary Contact Person:  Siobhan Grayson

Homestretch:
370 South Washington Street, Suite 400, Falls Church, VA  22046
703-237-2035
www.homestretch-inc.org

Homestretch is Northern Virginia’s largest transitional housing provider for homeless families with children.  It serves over 100 families with over 300 children during the course of a year.  Homestretch helps the homeless families become self-sufficient.  It leases 46 and owns 18 properties located throughout the Falls Church-Fairfax area, and uses these properties for transitional housing for the families in its program, until they are ready for home ownership.

Primary Contact Person:  Martie Ream

McLean Interfaith Coalition:

McLean Interfaith Coalition was organized in 2001 primarily for the purpose of sponsoring the construction of a home in cooperation with Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia (HFHNV). Since that time the Coalition has embarked on a second project with HFHNV and a third is on the horizon. Lewinsville is one of 11 faith communities in the greater McLean area in the Coalition, which is committed to providing affordable housing for families in Northern Virginia. The Coalition is also exploring other opportunities for joint efforts among the member congregations.

Primary Contact Person:  Mary Frase

Rebuilding Together (formerly Christmas in April):
RPJ Housing, 2666 Military Road, Arlington, VA  22207
703-528-5606
www.rpjhousing.org

Rebuilding Together is an event held annually, on the last Saturday of April. Coordinated through RPJ Housing, a group of LPC volunteers makes necessary repairs to homes for the elderly and disabled. These projects may involve both interior and exterior painting, non-structural interior & exterior repairs, handicapped accessibility, and yard work.  Both skilled and non-skilled volunteers are important to a typical project.

Primary Contact Person:  Frank Sogandares

Summer Mission Project:

In cooperation with the Christian Education Ministry Group every year, Lewinsville sends a large group of youth and adults to an area in need of home rebuilding and rehabilitation, often working with Habitat for Humanity International and its affiliates.  First begun in 1989, these trips serve as an opportunity to do God’s work by helping those who are in need of decent affordable housing.  An LPC team traveled to Florida in 2005 to work with the Presbyterian Social Ministries in response to the devastation of the 2004 hurricane season. At Lynchburg, VA, in 2001 the LPC team successfully completed our first ever “blitz build”, constructing a complete home in only 5 days.  In June 2006, at Hagerstown, MD, 41 adults and youth from LPC participated in two housing construction projects.  In 2007 a team went to Waxhaw, North Carolina where they worked with Homes for our Troops—a non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 2004 to help those who have selflessly given to their country and have returned home with serious disabilities and injuries. More>>

Primary Contact Person:  Linda Bender

Lewinsville Retirement Residence (LRR):
1515 Great Fall Street, McLean VA 22101
703-442-8660

LRR is a residential retirement facility with supportive services for low and moderate income seniors capable of independent living.  Established by Lewinsville Presbyterian Church in 1975 as a separate not-for-profit corporation, it is the largest mission program ever undertaken by the church. All members of Lewinsville are members of the LRR Corporation and annually elect members of its board.

Approximately 170 individuals reside in LRR’s 161 fully equipped apartments (143 apartments receive Federal Section 8 housing subsidies and 18 others are subsidized by the Fairfax Co. Affordable Dwelling Unit program).   In addition to a large dining room that provides a mandatory dinner meal 365 days a year, the facility has a library, store, beauty/barber shop, clinic for visiting medical professionals, arts & crafts room, computer room, several lounges, laundry facilities, paved pathways and outdoor seating areas, raised bed garden plots for resident use, and two large community rooms.

Many activities are provided on a weekly, monthly, single time or occasional basis by the LRR staff, the LRR Resident Association, Lewinsville Church and other local churches and schools, and other volunteer groups/individuals.  Lewinsville’s pastors provide a monthly communion service at LRR; the church’s choirs and bell ringers frequently perform for the residents; various church groups provide special activities; and many church members volunteer their talents and services to assist residents. An annual Lewinsville/LRR picnic is organized by church members and each December the church’s youth groups (with funding from the Mission and Service budget) assemble and distribute Christmas Gift Bags to each resident.  The Mission and Service budget also provides funding (1) to help support a modest program that assists a limited number of residents with their costs for the mandatory meals, and (2) a small discretionary fund the LRR Administrator maintains to help individual residents with emergency needs. More>>

Primary Contact Person:  Doug McGuire