A fiscally beleaguered Fairfax County nonprofit group cut most of its staff and all of its financial aid to low-income families this month after an unsuccessful appeal for county funding, the group’s director said Wednesday.

Western Fairfax Christian Ministries had sought $120,000 from the Board of Supervisors in late April to cover its ballooning rent and expenses.

The group said it would need to close its doors unless it got the funds.

After the county rebuffed the request, Executive Director Dorothy Fonow said the group returned its existing county funding, let go 12 of its 16 staff members and ended the two rental assistance programs that together served more than 50 families.

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“We’ve got people in desperate need, and we don’t have time for whatever game it is [the county] is playing,” Fonow told The Examiner.

Some supervisors who doubted the group’s financial stability had approved additional money contingent on closer scrutiny of its accounting.

In a June 21 memo, County Executive Anthony Griffin wrote that the nonprofit’s follow-up “does not satisfy our requirement that additional financial oversight and stewardship have been put in place.”

He said Wednesday he hoped the group would survive but that the county was not prepared to fund it “without some assurance that the money will only go to benefiting their clients and not bailing out the organization.”

But Fairfax County Supervisor Michael Frey, who represents the Sully District, questioned why the county had adopted a hard-line stance on Western Fairfax Christian Ministries while agreeing to requests from other nonprofits.

He said the county would likely incur the cost of aiding the group’s former clients.

“It’ll end up costing the county as much money, or more,” he said.

wflook@dcexaminer.com