A Northern Virginia native, Scott McCaffrey has four decades of reporting, editing and newsroom experience in the local area plus Florida, South Carolina and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. He spent 26 years as editor of the Sun Gazette newspaper chain. For Local News Now, he covers government and civic issues in Arlington, Fairfax County and Falls Church.
Alexandria posted a significant year-over-year increase in the number of residents counted as homeless, with major upticks in the number of Black residents and children experiencing homelessness, according to new data.
A total of 189 people across the city were tabulated as experiencing homelessness in the 2026 Point-in-Time Survey, conducted in early February across the Washington region.