County Seeks Mental Health Help

Improvements to mental health services and provisions to help prevent neighborhood deterioration were among the new items in Fairfax County's annual legislative package for its Virginia General Assembly delegation.

The Board of Supervisors approved the package, which requests and supports a variety of state legislation ranging from environmental initiatives to payday loan regulations, on Monday.

With this year's shootings at Virginia Tech still looming large, mental health issues are sure to be a major focus of January's General Assembly session.

County officials are asking for increased state funding of children's mental health services, to meet existing needs.

They also support clarifying the civil commitment process for people with mental illness and increasing the amount of state funding available to localities for emergency or crisis mental health care. The board also supports an expansion of community-based mental health services to reduce the need for such emergency care.

Several requests related to the county's continued efforts to crack down on overcrowded houses through its "strike team" were also included.

One proposal would hold subsequent property owners to conditions related to zoning enforcement on prior owners of the property. This would prevent a house from being "flipped" to a new owner who intends to continue to allow a boardinghouse or other violation, according to the legislative package.

Other requests related to overcrowded housing include shortening the appeal period for occupancy violations to less than 30 days to shorten the enforcement period and requiring the general district court to order people found liable for a zoning violation to remedy the violation within 30 days.

At Monday's meeting, the board also approved adding a resolution to the legislative package regarding payday lending. The resolution supports an interest rate cap of up to 36 percent on payday loans and asks the state to prohibit such lenders from getting access to a consumer's bank account or motor vehicle title as collateral for the loan.

The county cannot regulate lenders itself but supports state regulation, Supervisor Penny Gross (D-Mason) noted.

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