On January 14, 2025, Pathway Homes, a regional nonprofit providing mental health services—starting with safe, stable housing—to individuals marginalized by poverty and inequity, announced that it will be moving into a 19,000-square-foot building located at 4010 University Drive in Fairfax City. The commercial space will be built out by early 2027 as Pathway’s new mixed-use headquarters that will include at least 10 units of supportive housing to help people with serious mental illnesses and other disabilities who are over 50 to age in place.
We got on a brief phone call with Pathway Homes CEO Sylisa Lamber-Woodard to catch the excitement! “Pathway Homes needed a new home and we found our new home in Fairfax City thanks to Mayor Catherine Read’s tireless efforts and the generous seed money from the Potomac Health Foundation. We plan to make it one that serves our community even better. It will give us the space to run the nonprofit while also providing direct services and housing to clients,” explained Lambert-Woodard. “We are excited to transform a commercial property into an innovative, multi-use facility that will help us address the affordable housing crunch that hinders our ability to serve more people.”
Pathway envisions that the embedded housing will be permanent supportive housing units with access to WIFI and other smart features for the region’s most vulnerable—those with income 30% or below the Area Median Income. The ADA accessible, one-bedroom units will embrace universal design—which creates spaces to suit all abilities—and feature a private kitchen and living area along with effective resident services to promote resident independence.
Currently, Pathway Homes leases, owns, and manages more than 500 properties across Northern Virginia that provide supportive services using the Housing First Model. Pathway Homes’ supportive services focus on helping individuals attain and strengthen the skills needed to manage their mental and physical health and remain stably housed. Its highly skilled team provides the coordinated care and intensive treatment participants need to maintain their home, enhance personal relationships, develop healthy life habits, and achieve their personal goals.
In addition, Lambert-Woodard shared that they will have a mobile vehicle (whose name will be shared in the future, maybe as a picture) that can serve unhoused individuals where they are. This vehicle will carry showers, laundry and nursing care along with many more needed services. “Our new building will be the hub that enables us to be even more creative and collaborative in finding solutions to help people live their best lives. We look forward to more funders joining us in making this a successful endeavor for Fairfax” Lambert-Woodard added.
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 the Housing First model, Pathway Homes is a partner in preventing and ending homelessness, touching nearly 2,000 lives in 2024 and ensuring access to affordable stable homes in permanent supportive housing units. For more information, to donate or volunteer, please visit Pathway Homes website at https://www.pathwayhomes.org.
