MONTICELLO, NY – Sullivan County opened its two warming centers last week in Liberty and Monticello:

• United Methodist Church, 170 North Main Street, Liberty
• St. John’s Episcopal Church, 15 St. John Street, Monticello

The Monticello warming center recently moved from its location last year. Both facilities will remain open to anyone who needs them from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. every night through Saturday, April 15.

“While last winter was relatively mild, we still had significant usage of both shelters,” noted Sullivan County Health & Human Services Commissioner John Liddle in a statement when announcing their opening dates.

He said nearly 150 people used the Liberty shelter, for close to 1,000 stays since it opened last November. Monticello opened in December and served 123 people for just under 500 stays overall, he said.

He said he expected the centers to get more use this year. “Because of a sharp increase in evictions in recent months and a shortage of affordable and supportive housing inventory, we expect utilization to be higher this winter,” he said.  “Fortunately, the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance supported our requests for additional funding to expand our operations this year.” 

More than a place to sleep

Warming centers protect unsheltered people from the cold of the winter. But Liddle said these locations offer more than a place to sleep. Their experienced staffers are trained in working with people who have complex and severe service needs, he said. Human service providers from across the county help those in need gain access to medical care and other social service benefits. 

Warming centers also give the vulnerable a place where they can feel safe, he said. The Liberty warming center is directly across the street from the Village of Liberty police station, and additional funding granted by state this year will provide onsite security at the Monticello warming center.

“We’re very fortunate to have such strong community partners,” said Deputy Social Services Commissioner Giselle Steketee. “The team at the New Beginnings Community Worship Center and United Methodist Church have been exceptionally reliable and supportive as we’ve expanded our services in Liberty. We greatly appreciate St. John’s Episcopal Church stepping up to help this year in Monticello as the Ted Stroebele Center gets the renovations it needs to serve the Monticello community for years to come, and we can’t thank enough Kathy Kreiter and the Federation for the Homeless for stepping up once again to provide life-saving services to those in need.”

Evictions spike in Sullivan

The number of evictions in the United States decreased during the COVID pandemic under certain measures, including moratoriums on evictions, emergency rental assistance, and an expanded safety net. But with the end of the COVID emergency, those policies are no longer in effect.

New York State recently instituted some new protections to address the issue (please see sidebar).

Last year, Sullivan County’s eviction rate surpassed most other counties, according to the Cornell ILR Eviction Filings Dashboard for New York State, presented by the Cornell University ILR School Buffalo Co-Lab. (blogs.cornell.edu/nysevictions). Sullivan had the sixth-highest eviction rate out of 62 New York counties in 2022, with 8.3 percent of renter households evicted that year.

According to the Cornell dashboard, Sullivan County had 8,868 renter occupied units and 736 eviction filings in 2022. The eviction rate in 2019 was 5.8 percent then came way down during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, to 1.3 and 1.4 percent, respectively.

Only three New York counties increased their evictions at a greater rate from 2019 to 2022: Herkimer, Wayne, and Orleans.

The counties that had a higher eviction rate than Sullivan during 2022 are Rensselaer, Bronx, Schenectady, Niagara, and Suffolk.