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Liberty and Legislature disagree over homeless center

Matt Shortall - Co-editor
Posted 2/25/20

LIBERTY — A county proposal to build temporary homeless housing at the Human Services Complex on Sunset Lake Road in Liberty is causing a tense debate between legislators and the town board.

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Liberty and Legislature disagree over homeless center

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LIBERTY — A county proposal to build temporary homeless housing at the Human Services Complex on Sunset Lake Road in Liberty is causing a tense debate between legislators and the town board.

Board members in Liberty were very critical of the idea at their Feb. 18 meeting when District 6 Legislator Luis Alvarez appeared before them to address their concerns. District 3 Legislator Michael Brooks also attended.

Family Services is proposing a single-story, 4,000-square foot intake center to house anywhere between 8-12 homeless single males and 4-8 homeless single females in separate quarters.

The Department of Family Services (DFS) argues this facility would be centrally located on their campus with

easy access to other social, health and community services for people who otherwise can't afford transportation.

DFS further argues they could provide greater supervision at their own facility than if the homeless were housed in motels throughout Liberty, which is currently the case.

“We control none of the elements in the nine places throughout the county where we have contractual or lease agreements where we place the homeless,” DFS Deputy Commissioner Bill Moon told legislators last week. “I've always felt that we'll halve [the homeless] population once we have facilities that we control,” Moon said.

Over the past five years, DFS officials say the average length of stay in emergency housing has dropped from over 60 days to less than 40 days.

Yet councilmembers, who were presented with a similar project by the county at a crowded town board meeting in 2018, remained concerned about the Homeless Intake Center's proximity to Hanofee Park less than a mile away on Sunset Lake Road.

“This is exactly what was presented to us over a year ago with no apparent recognition of any of our concerns from over a year ago,” Councilman Dean Farrand told Alvarez. “‘Homeless people' is a very broad category. I do have concerns about homeless sexual predators being next to a town park.”

Alvarez said that people convicted of sexual crimes have their own process for where they can and cannot live and would not be housed at this location. He stressed that the homeless people being discussed have committed no crimes.

“None of us are against homeless people, but [we'd like] something from the County in writing to make the promise to the Town of Liberty that there'd be no sex offenders in that complex,” said Councilman Vincent McPhillips.

Councilman Brian McPhillips, who described the project as a “disgrace to Liberty,” was skeptical that it would only be for long-time Sullivan County residents.

“The county is making money through the state to accept these people and give them housing,” Brian McPhillips said. “Liberty cannot sustain being the dumping ground any longer.”

Alvarez quickly shot back at McPhillips, saying he was “very much misinformed.” Health and Family Services Commissioner Joe Todora has previously stated that most social services are state mandated and the County never makes a profit but simply looks at ways to lower costs.

“We are not against homeless people. We understand people fall on hard times,” Councilman Farrand reiterated. “I am for protecting the youth in this town. That is our obligation and probably our most valid obligation.”

LEGISLATURE DISCUSSION

Earlier that morning, Deputy Commissioner Moon spoke to legislators during a meeting of the Health and Family Services Committee about the project.

“We're hoping that plans for the development of our center on the Liberty campus can move forward,” he said. “Focusing on the Liberty campus as a place to actually house a portion of these individuals has always made a lot of sense to us.”

Moon said they determined it would be more cost effective to construct a single-story, wood framed building with a poured concrete foundation from the ground up.

Once they get the plans finalized, Moon said their next step is to present them to the Town of Liberty Planning Board to get their input.

Moon said if there was enough momentum for the project then they could begin offering temporary homeless housing as early as late fall of this year.

“Sullivan has no homeless housing solutions that we actually do ourselves,” Moon said.

The county has a small operation on Hilldale Road in the Town of Fallsburg but, as Moon said, “we have a landlord there that we have to function with. Landlords can be difficult and they don't always meet the needs of their tenants.”

Moon said that they do partner with Catholic Charities (CC) at that location. “We've found that by partnering with CC we're able to provide certain individuals with much more direction than we used to be able to.”

District 7 Legislator Joe Perrello said he wanted to take the pulse of other committee members “to make sure we're not wasting our time.”

He raised the issue about a homeless intake center being so close to Hanofee Park.

“Our homeless population in this county is large,” explained District 2 Legislator Nadia Rajsz. “We have no housing and we hemorrhage money to these landowners. We're not speaking about criminals. We're talking about homeless people who need temporary housing.”

Moon stressed that through federal and state reimbursements, they could afford to have two sheriff 's deputies who would maintain a full-time presence at the complex.

“We're talking about a maximum of 20 individuals who would reside there ... This would be about several hundred feet from our office building,” Moon said.

He suggested organizing a public presentation in Liberty, whether through the County or the Department of Family Services, to educate people on the design and scope of the project.

“These kinds of issues do tend to become very emotional for some people,” Moon said. “Unfortunately, when the commissioner [Todora] and I went to the Town of Liberty and tried to talk about this issue they had already made up their minds. They frankly told us they're not interested in our facts. They had their facts and those were the ones that counted.”

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