Sullivan County takes on homeless issue

Change in operation considered

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY - When a family or individual faces a crisis in Sullivan County and find they have no home to go to, they often end up in a motel room, courtesy of the county.

The room provides refuge, but it’s often substandard, not up to code and fairly expensive. The county pays $2,000 per month per room to house the homeless, and last year it spent about $750,000 of taxpayers’ money to do so.

In a process designed to explore options in providing better services to the homeless population, lawmakers on February 21 met with John Harper of the private nonprofit organization Emergency Housing Group of Orange County.

Harper, who provides services to the homeless in Orange County through contracts with the county, said his organization houses the homeless on an emergency basis in a facility run by the organization. But, under terms of the contract, the group is required to move the homeless family or person into a stable, independent living situation within 90 days, and the time frame is often much shorter than that.

The Sullivan lawmakers were impressed that Harper’s group was able to achieve that result.

Harper said the key to success is treating homeless people with respect and dignity to which they respond positively. He said there are various factors involved in moving people from homelessness to stability. Many homeless people, in their early lives, had missed important elements of being part of a family. Therefore, homeless individuals sometimes adopt the Harper’s organization as a surrogate family. He said there are clients who’ve been living independently for 20 years who return to the facility on birthdays, or other significant days, for that sense of family.

Harper also said there were many practical matters that are important in the process, such as forging relationships with landlords. If landlords know that the organization is involved in the process, and will guarantee that the landlords get paid, it becomes much easier to find affordable housing for homeless clients, even though, said Harper, affordable housing is becoming harder to come by in both counties.

There was not unanimous consent that an entity like the Emergency Housing Group in Orange County would work in Sullivan County, but lawmakers did agree that the issue should be further studied, if not for somewhat different reasons.

At one point, legislator Kathy LaBuda said, “It’s a disgrace that these kids have to live in one-room motel rooms. In the long run, wouldn’t we cut the money we spend on homeless housing in half?”

Legislator Leni Binder responded, “It’s not about money, it’s about quality of service.”

To which LaBuda answered, “It’s also about dollars… you’re talking about three quarters of a million dollars to house the homeless.”

Joe Todora, the director of Community Services, said Sullivan County’s current programs to deal with the homeless were missing some important elements. He added, “We can’t change all this in three or four months, but we have to have the political will to begin the process, and I’m glad to see most of the people here seem to have it.”