An effort to provide housing, medical help and hope is expanding again, despite funding challenges

Family Crisis Support Services is already expanding the campus it opened nearly two and a half years ago in Wise County to better meet the growing cases of homelessness and domestic violence in the coalfield counties of Southwest Virginia.

The growth comes despite the loss of a $226,000 federal grant in March 2025, during the early days of President Donald Trump’s second administration, when cuts were made to federal programs, and many were canceled or stalled.

FCSS is a nonprofit that helps victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and people who are homeless through a variety of programs. Its primary coverage area is Lee, Scott, Wise and Dickenson counties and the city of Norton.

The new $1.4 million facility is being added to the six-building Family Crisis Resource Center, which was built on former coal mine land in Norton. It includes a large center and five manufactured homes that provide emergency shelter for up to 76 men, women and children at a time. The shelters stay full, and there is a waiting list, according to Marybeth Matthews-Adkins, the nonprofit’s CEO.

The campus was unveiled in December 2023 and was fully operational two months later.

The new 4,500-square-foot facility is expected to be completed next month and open in June, according to Michael Wampler, the nonprofit’s project development administrator.

Leslie’s Center of Hope

The new building, Leslie’s Center of Hope, was named in memory of the late Leslie Gilliam. She and her husband, Richard, both Southwest Virginia natives, were philanthropists and coal entrepreneurs whose foundation supports community, education, health and economic development across Southwest Virginia and eastern Kentucky. 

A grant from the Gilliam Family Foundation paid for most of the construction of the new facility.

It will add a commercial kitchen that will serve nutritious meals to about 100 people daily, Matthews-Adkins said — an effort to help address food insecurity, which she said is a critical issue in the agency’s service area.

The new facility will also allow the agency to expand the basic medical care and health screenings it offers. More people, about 150 per month, are expected to benefit from the free services each month. The services will be provided by a nurse practitioner who already visits every Friday but has had to work out of the center’s conference room due to a lack of space.

Mental health and telehealth services will also be provided in the new building. Mental health professionals are expected to provide about 25 hours per week of counseling and therapy. About 100 people are expected to use these services per month.

The new building will also house a large laundry facility for clients’ use.

For the first time, the center will have room to board clients’ dogs and cats. Some people will stay in dangerous situations rather than lose an animal, Matthews-Adkins said.

“In the past, if we had money we would help pay for boarding a pet, because sometimes it’s the difference between a victim staying with their abuser or leaving. Their pets offer unconditional love and in an abusive situation that means staying,” she said.

Children staying at the center can also have some fun in a new indoor playroom called the enchanted forest and an outdoor playground on the campus.

The new facility will also provide office space for the center’s housing counselors.

The loss of federal grant money

Matthews-Adkins said she was informed that the grant was slashed in a letter from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which handled the program.

The cut represented nearly 20% of the agency’s annual victim services budget, she said.

“While the number is significant, the real impact is on what the funds covered: essential costs such as rent, utilities, daycare expenses for survivors that were starting over,” Matthews-Adkins wrote in an email. “One of the things I … am incredibly proud of is how much of our funding goes toward direct services. It’s about more than just a budget line, it’s about giving survivors the literal foundation they need to survive trauma and get back on their feet.”

The federal program helped victims of domestic and sexual violence and those who were leaving emergency shelters. It had been in place locally for five years, she added.

About $100,000 of the money was earmarked specifically to help survivors with housing. Financial assistance was available on a case-by-case basis, and supportive services geared toward safety and housing stability were provided. The program often paid past-due bills that prevented victims from getting housing, as well as deposits and payments for utilities and rent.

When the federal cut was made, the capital funding for the building project had already been secured, and the money had to be used for that specific purpose. But it’s important to somehow make up for the lost federal dollars, according to Matthews-Adkins, who is still searching for replacement funding sources or foundations that will help.

She was also disappointed to learn in a March 11 announcement by Gov. Abigail Spanberger that FCSS will receive level funding — rather than requested increases — for three state program grants designed to help with affordable housing and homelessness. At the same time, she was quick to add that she was grateful that the funding wasn’t cut.

FCSS has operated the three programs for several years. It will receive a total of $1.35 million this year for the Rapid Rehousing program, which helps homeless people return quickly to permanent housing; the Youth Innovation Program, which helps those between the ages of 18 and 24 with financial assistance and deposits for utilities and rent; and Permanent Supportive Housing, which helps clients who are chronically homeless.

Matthews-Adkins said she sought more money for this year because the homeless numbers have grown significantly in recent years. Her agency offers homeless support services for Wise, Scott and Lee counties and Norton.

For that area, between 2020 and 2025, the number of the homeless counted in those localities jumped from just 17 to 101.

She attributes the increased numbers to a host of factors, including the economy, inflation, the housing shortage, a lack of affordable housing and big increases in utility costs. With skyrocketing gas and food prices, the numbers are expected to worsen.

Her staff participates in the annual Point-in-Time count of homeless people in the area the agency covers. The count is conducted every year across the country in late January.

This year’s count tallied 81 homeless people. But it was done on one of the coldest nights of the winter, and the staff couldn’t stay out until midnight as they normally do, so the real number is likely higher, according to Matthews-Adkins.

It’s also hard to believe that a count on one night each year tells the full homeless story, she said.

She and Joie Cantrell, a public health nurse who works in Wise, Lee and Scott counties, said they are now seeing more homeless encampments.

“You can be driving along our roads and look over into a wooded area and there’s a tent,” Cantrell said. “A lot of times they seem to pick spots by rivers. I guess maybe it’s less conspicuous to the average person.”

Cantrell, who said she and Matthews-Adkins have worked together off and on for many years as community partners, also volunteers and is co-chair of the board for Higher Ground, a women’s recovery and sober living residence in the Lee County town of Pennington Gap.

Some of the women staying at Higher Ground know people who are homeless in the area, and they grew increasingly concerned during the brutal cold snap in January, when overnight lows dipped into the single digits.

Cantrell wound up asking for donations from the public and using the money to buy supplies like sleeping bags and backpacks that they stuffed with food, gloves and hats for the homeless, who were happy to get them, Cantrell said.

She and Matthews-Adkins also agree that they are seeing more cases of domestic violence in the coalfields, with both saying that substance use, domestic violence and homelessness often go hand in hand.

The number of domestic violence and sexual assault cases has significantly increased in Norton and the counties of Wise, Lee, Scott and Dickenson, according to statistics from Matthews-Adkins. In 2020, FCSS provided victim services to 308 domestic violence victims and 88 sexual assault victims. Five years later, the numbers jumped to 462 for domestic violence cases, a 50% increase, while the number of sexual assault victims increased by 139% to 211.

The number of domestic abuse and sexual assault victims who landed in FCSS’s emergency shelters increased by 158% between 2020 and 2025, according to the statistics provided. In Wise, Scott, Lee and Dickenson counties and the city of Norton, 143 individuals sought shelter in 2020, while 369 were in emergency shelters in 2025, according to Matthews-Adkins.

With the escalating costs of utilities and rent, the money FCSS gets doesn’t go as far as it used to. In recent years, the grants that are supposed to last for a year instead run out around September or October, Matthews-Adkins said.

She fully expects that to be the case again this year. Between Jan. 1 and March 31, just one of FCSS’s programs spent nearly $211,000 to help people experiencing utility terminations and rent they couldn’t pay, she said.

Many people in Southwest Virginia are working minimum wage jobs and finding it harder to pay their bills, she added.

Due to money running out or reimbursement delays, there is a constant cash-flow gap at FCSS, Matthews-Adkins said.

“My policy is that services do not stop unless we have completely exhausted every financial resource available, including our line of credit. In this role, you have to be strategically smart to ensure a gap in a government check doesn’t result in a gap in life-saving services. FCSS is extremely fiscally disciplined to make sure the doors stay open while the paperwork is submitted and clear. … So, when there are DELAYS, agencies can suffer and honestly close doors and halt services. It has come very close,” she wrote.

One state program that has helped FCSS and its clients is the Virginia Eviction Reduction Pilot, which was just expanded through legislation that was signed into law by the governor.

FCSS, which has an annual budget of $4.3 million, uses this money to pay delinquent rent and utilities for up to six months for qualifying households.

This program, which started in 2020 and is expected to provide the agency with $776,000 this year, also allows financial assistance for car repairs and medical bills.

A success story

Robin Phipps of Norton was addicted to meth and stuck in an abusive relationship in March 2019, when she wound up in one of the agency’s emergency shelters. Though she was grateful for the help, which she said came without judgment, her stay didn’t last long. On March 31, she was arrested for failing to appear in court on a drug charge.

Due to several outstanding drug cases against her, she wound up remaining in jail for about six months. Once she was released, with all her charges settled and now sober, she reached out to Matthews-Adkins for help.

Phipps was offered a job in one of the two stores run by FCSS, the Red Barn Thrift Store in Norton, where she’s been ever since.

 “I never expected anybody to give me a chance, but she did,” Phipps said. “She believed in me and having someone believe in me at that point in time in my life, when I was just out of jail, it helped me believe in myself. … Marybeth never gives up on anybody — ever.”

Phipps enjoys working to help people and noted that the stores sell items but also give them for free to those in need. If someone comes in during the winter without a coat, one is provided to them, she said.

Currently, she is working to become a peer recovery specialist — someone who has experienced mental health or substance use challenges and who helps others on their journey to recovery.

Once her training is completed, Phipps will work at the center campus and at the thrift store. Matthews-Adkins said. 

“I still remember the day Robin was arrested,” she said. “I told her then that if nothing changed, I was afraid she wouldn’t survive. Seeing where she is now — everything she’s accomplished — it’s more than pride. It’s proof. Proof that change is possible, and that the work we do truly makes a difference.”