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Richmond Social Services reports high caseloads, processing improvements and plans move to East Franklin customer center
Summary
Shonda Giles, director of Richmond Department of Social Services, told the Education and Human Services committee the department serves roughly 45% of the city’s population and reports an estimated $992,000,000 economic impact from services; she also announced a planned October–November move of customer-facing operations to a newly designed East Franklin Street facility.
Shonda Giles, director of Richmond Department of Social Services, told the Richmond Education and Human Services Standing Committee that the department currently serves roughly 45% of the city’s population and that services delivered through the department generate an estimated $992,000,000 in economic impact.
Giles outlined the department’s major programs, staffing and recent performance metrics, and updated the committee on a planned move of the customer-facing operations to a new facility on East Franklin Street. “We are the second largest social services department in the Commonwealth of Virginia, second only to Fairfax,” Giles said. She told the committee the department currently employs about 373.8 full-time equivalent positions in the current budget and that the vast majority of the department’s funding (84.5%) is reimbursed by the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS).
The presentation summarized caseload and workload figures the department is tracking. Giles reported roughly 225 youth in foster care and said the Adult Protective Services hotline received about 1,200–1,300 complaints in the most recent unaudited reporting period; investigators validated about 62.7% of completed APS investigations. She also said the department serves about 166 youth through the Healthy Families home-visitation program across 37 active families and that childcare applications currently have a wait list of 786 as of May 2025.
Giles described processing benchmarks and explanation for recent dips in timeliness. She said Medicaid applications must be processed within 45 days and noted the department’s timeliness is trending upward after dips caused by staffing demands during a water crisis, system outages and the end of COVID-era waivers. She explained many applicants submit combined applications for Medicaid, SNAP and TANF so processing patterns often align across those programs. Giles said Richmond compares favorably with other “level 3” agencies in the state’s central region on several timeliness metrics.
On SNAP accuracy, Giles reported Richmond’s current positive error rate is 14.1% and summarized steps the department is taking to reduce that rate before a federal change scheduled to take effect in October 2027 that could alter state matching requirements for administrative costs. “All of our staff now are enrolled in SNAP refresher training,” Giles said, adding the department has created an internal quality assurance and quality control team and increased case reviews in partnership with the state.
Giles also described trauma-informed and resilience work for staff and clients, a proposed LCSW supervision program to help retain social work staff by allowing clinical hours to be accrued inside the agency, and partnerships with community providers to support displaced youth and families. She outlined that adult services remain voluntary while Adult Protective Services investigations can lead to court actions for guardianship or conservatorship when necessary.
On facilities, Giles said the department expects to move client-facing operations to a new East Franklin Street location in October–November and that customer service at the existing Southside Plaza location will continue during the transition. Committee members pressed for financial details; Giles said the first full-year rent for the new facility is $3,200,000 and that 84.5% of rent costs will be reimbursed by VDSS. “We will continue to be at Southside Plaza,” she told the committee, and said the department is coordinating move logistics to minimize client disruption.
Committee members asked follow-up questions about the department’s economic impact calculation, the scope of reimbursed costs and the expected effect of federal and state policy changes on workloads. Giles said some details remain under discussion with the city chief administrative officers about staffing and operational adjustments to meet new state requirements, including more frequent Medicaid redeterminations for some populations beginning in 2027.
Giles invited committee members to tour the new facility and offered to provide additional charts and breakdowns of the department’s economic-impact figures to the committee clerk.
