From the outside, all the Marian Homes in the Arlington diocese look just like any other tidy suburban family residence. But these are houses with a mission: They are group homes for the intellectually and physically disabled.
The ninth Marian Home — in Winchester and the first outside Fairfax County — was opened and blessed Sept. 28, a milestone celebrated the previous night with a fundraising gala at the Country Club of Fairfax, which raised $15,000 for the charity.
“As an organization, we were at a point where we wanted to grow,” said Marian Homes President Jim McHugh. “And we want to grow outside of just Fairfax County. It’s gotten very, very expensive to purchase a home in Fairfax County.”
The median listing home price in Fairfax County, according to Realtor.com, is $750,000.
“There is a great need throughout the commonwealth for individuals with intellectual disabilities to have a group home,” McHugh said. “There are parents who are struggling, and not as well off as the parents are in Fairfax County. And we need to help them.”
In 1994, Knights of Columbus Council No. 8600 at St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax — realizing there were few community-based housing options for neighbors with intellectual disabilities — did what Knights do: They stepped up.
Under the leadership of Dick LaFrance, who also acted as primary fundraiser, the council navigated a maze of bureaucratic barriers, incorporating in February 1996, and opening the first Marian Home in Fairfax in 1998.
Other locations followed between 2010 and 2022: Regina Home (Fairfax); Queen of Peace Home (Fairfax); Mother of Mercy Home (Fairfax City); Our Lady of Light (Annandale); Queen of Hope (Springfield); Mother of Good Counsel (Fairfax); and Our Lady of Angels (Fairfax).
“Every single house is at a different parish,” said McHugh. “Now that’s the Holy Spirit at work. We didn’t realize it; we weren’t trying to do that.”
The council’s foresight seems truly inspired because in 2016, such housing opportunities became drastically limited with the closure of the Northern Virginia Training Center. Opened in 1973, the center, located off Braddock Road in Fairfax, was one of five large regional institutions in Virginia and home to 73 residents with intellectual challenges.
McHugh said the disabled are often easily overlooked. They are “people our society today would just like to forget. When you talk about intellectual disabilities, when you talk about finding housing for them, nobody really talks about this,” he said. “And we’re hoping to change that. We can do that by being in their neighborhoods, and by showing them what love and compassion really looks like.”
KOVAR, a Virginia Knights charity established in 1971, provides financial assistance through grants and home loans, as do federal Community Development Block Grants. Once a home is purchased and renovated, Marian Homes partners with caring service providers Chimes and enCircle to assist with residents’ daily needs.
“We know that we’re not going to stamp out the unavailability of affordable housing for people with intellectual disabilities,” said McHugh. “But for the 40, and soon to be 45, people our homes house, it’s a start.”
Older parents whose child has a disability can also know that, once a resident with Marian Homes, there is safety. They know their son or daughter will be taken care of after they are gone, McHugh said.
That was a question for Tom and Rita Komara of Fairfax, 76 and 74, whose son Tommy lives with cerebral palsy. Both Tom and Tommy are Knights of Council No. 8600.
“There has always been — as Tommy became an adult and we were aging — (the question of) what his future and our family’s future is going to look like,” said Rita. “So, we’ve always prayed for some solution … that is secure for him and still keeping close to family, and that family support.”
Marian Homes was the answer to that prayer.
“It was a bridge to the future,” said Tom. “What we wanted to do is to make sure he would be secure in independent living and feel comfortable in the surroundings. And to feel also comfortable that he would be taken care of.”
“It’s like five minutes away from Mom and Dad,” said Tommy, 48, who lives at the Our Lady of Angels Marian Home. Tommy added he has great roommates, and the staff take care of all the residents’ needs. He even convinced Bishop Michael F. Burbidge to bless his room twice.
Heatherington is a freelancer in Alexandria.
