HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Henrico County is constructing a new $22 million Human Services Building to accommodate a rapidly growing department and better serve its nearly 50,000 clients.
During a March Board of Supervisors meeting, county leaders announced they awarded a contract to Hourigan Construction to build the 40,000-square-foot facility. The three-story building will be located within the campus of the Henrico Government Center Complex, just up the hill from the current location.
The department offers services like help with SNAP benefits, foster care, and Medicaid. The staff has nearly tripled, growing from 86 positions in the 1988-1989 fiscal year to an estimated 244 positions by the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
"It is important to have a space that is safe and welcoming to our community and allows us to do the day-to-day business operations that the community needs from our department," Gretchen Brown, director for Henrico County Social Services, said.
The physical space has not kept up with the department's growth. Brown says at one point the building housed the County's Parks and Recreation department and the Virginia Cooperative Extension before space constraints led to it relocating to other another facility in the County. Currently the building houses the County's Social Services, the Department of Health and Community Connections programs.
"We are serving more clients today than ever," Brown said. "We have expanded as much as we can in this building on the first and third floors to the tune of having to double, triple, and behind me, there are five people in an office space sharing workspace."
Twelve companies made bids for the project before the county partnered with Hourigan Construction. Preliminary designs for the new facility have already been drawn up.
"We are designing space that is going to be... used to meet with families and community partners to provide safe and comfortable visitation space between children and their parents," Brown said. "We're going to be able to design that space with intention using things like technology and the ability to have virtual or hybrid meetings, at the same time in a new space instead of just adapting what we've been living with."
The current location has seen renovations over the years to maximize its utility.
"We were able to remove some offices and create an interview space that allows for some privacy here. But again, this is as far as we could go with adapting this space," Brown said.
The current building will continue providing services after the new location is complete by early 2028.
"This would remain a human services or benefits location," Brown explained. "So people will be able to, by identification of the building and messaging that we provide ahead of time, know where they need to go to conduct their business."
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