Campaign Discouraging Panhandling, Street Outreach Continue In PW County

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA — Prince William County supervisors received an update Tuesday on efforts to address panhandling through street outreach and a communications campaign discouraging donations to panhandlers.

In October 2024, the board had deferred action on a funding proposal addressing panhandling that included a jobs program. However, supervisors expressed interest in moving forward sooner with the communications component of the proposal. On Nov. 26, supervisors approved funding for a communications campaign to discourage residents to not give directly to panhandlers.

The county's messaging campaign, named "Give Where It Counts," launched in December 2024. The campaign urges residents to donate to local nonprofits addressing needs like housing, food, mental health and job training rather than giving directly to panhandlers.

Nikki Brown, communications and engagement director for Prince William County, briefed the board Tuesday on how the campaign is going and a look ahead for summer.

"Our goal for the campaign was really to change the behavior of the giver," said Brown. "So instead of the giver giving directly to a panhandler, the giver would give to an organization that would then be able to provide services to the panhandler to address the root causes hand handling."

Brown noted a significant portion of the $60,000 the board allocated for the communications campaign was utilized during the holiday season when giving increases. Along with messaging on the county's website, the county has shared the campaign through social media, videos showed at the movie theater at Virginia Gateway and Potomac Mills, streaming service ads in English and Spanish, posters at Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center, Potomac Mills digital ads, and ads in Inside NOVA. There were also free outreach options like newsletters, ads in OmniRide buses, sharing through community partners and coverage from a press release.

A large bulk of impressions for the campaign — more than 689,000 — came from streaming. Movie theaters ran the video 23,000 times, creating an estimated 270,000 impressions. There were also an estimated 400,000 visitors to Stonebridge's development where posters were displayed, and Potomac Mills' digital ads created an estimated 600,000 or more impressions. Social media platforms generated about 118,000 impressions, and ads on Meta's social media platforms created 197,000 impressions.

The communications office is continuing the campaign in the summer. Brown noted the streaming part of the advertising isn't recommended to continue due to the cost. Platforms for sharing the campaign in the summer with the remaining funds will be movie theater videos over Memorial Day and July 4 and outreach at Manassas Mall, Stonebridge, social media, newspapers, gas stations, and potentially Jiffy Lube Live and gas stations. Free outreach will continue through variable message boards at intersections, newsletters, OmniRide buses, community partners, parks, libraries and more.

One finding from the campaign has been that it could have more of an impact depending on which source shares it.

"Interestingly enough, this feedback when we posted the ads versus when police helped post them was very different, I won't say all the time, but there was more of a positive sentiment when police posted it," said Brown.

Supervisor Kenny Boddye (D-Occoquan) highlighted another area of success — 89 percent of people watching the video on streaming all the way through.

""That's unheard of, especially in this day and age, of people literally clicking through maybe three to five seconds of a video," said Boddye.

Brown said she plans to report back to the board on the results of spring and summer outreach.

"As it gets warmer, there's more folks who are out, so it'll be very interesting to see what the results are from this spring, summer timeframe," said Brown.

Street Outreach to Panhandlers

Department of Social Services director Phyllis Jennings-Holt presented the board with an update on how street outreach is connecting with panhandlers and directing them to services.

Jennings Holt said the outreach team has counted 78 panhandlers between June 1, 2024 and April 15, 2025, which includes 31 non-homeless and 47 homeless people.

"The street outreach team tries to respond in real time when DSS receives a concern in no later than 48 hours," Jennings-Holt told the board. "What we know is that everyone that's panhandling is not homeless. And so as we're collecting the data, we have it separated into two groups. We have community outreach, which [are] the non-homeless clients, and then we have street outreach, which are homeless clients."

Prince William County's Department of Social Services has three people working on street outreach, including two temporary positions that the board voted to make full time in the latest budget. The outreach team covers Gainesville and Brentsville on the west end of the county, the Sudley Road corridor and cities of Manassas and Manassas Park in the central area and Woodbridge, Lake Ridge, Occoquan and Potomac on the east end. The outreach team's count from June 1, 2024 to April 15, 2025 included 30 panhandlers in the central district, 25 in the west district and 17 in the east district.

Since the outreach team's count, the Prince William County Department of Social Services opened a mobile unit on April 17 at Manassas Presbyterian Church, which runs Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The outreach team collected reasons for panhandling. Among the panhandlers, 38 pointed to homelessness.

"Among the non-homeless clients, the reasons varied most tied to economic instability and gaps in the safety net, such as unstable employment, employment in general, disability, medical needs, hotels and motel cost and housing insecurity," said Jennings-Holt. "For the 38 folks there were in the street...the primary reason was essentially not having somewhere to live and needing money to pay for a hotel or motel, lack of affordable housing, unemployment and having some type of financial hardship and housing challenge."

According to the panhandling data, 46 of the panhandlers counted by outreach teams were reported to be white, 15 were Black or African American. Hispanic or Latino, Middle Eastern or North African, and indigenous people made up the remainder. Disabilities were reported among 40.4 percent of the homeless panhandlers and 29 percent of the non-homeless. Veterans accounted for 9.7 percent of the non-homeless and 4.3 percent of the homeless, and domestic violence survivors made up 3.2 percent of the non-homeless and 8.5 percent of the homeless.

Outreach teams provided referrals to the panhandlers, including basic needs support, shelters and drop-in centers and more. Panhandler outreach cases may close for several reasons, such as finding housing. Jennings-Holt said 10 recent clients found emergency shelter beds and are receiving case management there, and two others found permanent housing. However, another client died due to opioid abuse.

Supervisor Yesli Vega (R-Coles) asked about the outreach timeline as panhandling often ramps up during the warmer months. Jennings-Holt agreed that outreach should continue in the summer.

"Typically the numbers will increase, probably through till we start getting to our colder days," said Jennings-Holt. "I do think that it also helps gather data, you know, long term trends."

Vega said she will continue to push for an ordinance that bans exchanging items between pedestrians and cars. She noted concerns with people selling food that may not be properly refrigerated and could make someone ill.

"We talked about it used to be we have folks selling flowers or selling water. Where can we put these people?" said Vega. "They're trying to get honest living. We're not trying to kick them while they're down. We want to help, but at the same time, it is our duty to keep pedestrians and those in vehicles safe."

Supervisor Andrea Bailey (D-Potomac) has observed some panhandlers in her district have children with them. Jennings-Holt said the county has dealt with those calls before.

"We try to respond in real time. And what I mean by that is, if a child is out with a parent and they're in the median and safety is an issue and it's a concern, then it goes through our CPS hotline....and someone that responds out immediately," said Jennings-Holt. "Now there are times when we got out there, word has gotten out there and they're gone. But if we know where they went, we will follow back up with them to assess their situation. And there are some times...they're still there, and we will assess their situation for services."

Concerns about a person panhandling may be reported to the county at 703-792-3939 Pwcpanhandling@pwcgov.org,