Unhoused

Contributed by Stephen Wickman, St. Thomas Episcopal, McLean

This Sunday morning while walking my son’s ever-curious dog along the well-lit, beautifully engineered Vesper St. trail, which connects Route 7 and the toney suburbs of Vienna, I was not surprised to see an “unhoused” man, who quickly turned off his flashlight as we ambled past the path that enters the Tysons Forest to the east. Frankly, though I had seen unhoused individuals in Tysons, principally around the entrances to our new Silver Line Metro stops, I was somewhat astonished that no one had found the beautiful natural areas of our neighborhood. 

After walking around almost every part of the Tysons area, with and without the dog, I could draw a map of areas that are amenable to hosting the unhoused, particularly when the weather is warm. I do not know if this individual was pushed out of Washington, D.C. by the National Guard and federalized police now clearing the encampments downtown (I was not going to interview him, especially since he discreetly turned off his light). 

The irony is that this man was camped out in the shadow of the Amazon-financed affordable housing high rise, a stone’s throw from the Porsche and Land Rover dealership, and in sniffing distance of my 20-dollar cigar. The new housing complex, while commendable, will never accommodate this individual, who I dare conjecture brings in nothing like the 60% of “average median income” needed to qualify for the new apartments.   

Also of note, the Tysons Forest has been home to the unhoused since the Paleolithic Era. During a cleanup of this beautiful watershed, a Park Authority expert showed us where he had found the makings of flints by human beings who lived here long before the Native Americans, White Europeans and freed slaves inhabited it. Yes, Tysons as you will see in an earlier blog post, was home to a community of freed slaves – notably Alfred Odrick, whose White Virginian master freed him after purchasing him and bringing him here from Haiti. ( Odricks Corner, Virginia – Wikipedia) 

We at Tysons Interfaith are working with the Tysons Community Alliance (TCA) and the county to find a site for a meditation garden, most likely in the Tysons Forest. It would be fitting to honor Odrick and his predecessors with a sign or some sculpture. It would be even better if we could find a way to house this newcomer. 

This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.