CATSKILL - A chessboard-style strategy is being utilized by Greene County Department of Social Services Commissioner Kira Pospesel, needing to keep a handle on the swelling and shifting realities of homelessness.
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, in a recent report, declared that, “homelessness falls statewide, but rises in many regions.
“The decline of 12,459 was the largest among States, and was driven predominantly by New York City,” the report says.
“However, declines were not universal across the State. In 17 of 25 regions known as Continuums of Care, homelessness grew,” the report says.
“In 11 regions, it grew by more than 10 percent, with the highest increases in Columbia and Greene counties, Troy/Rensselaer County and Schenectady,” the report concludes.
The soaring local figures, more than tripling, come as no great surprise to Pospesel, a regular visitor to the county legislature chambers, giving updates on what she unhesitatingly terms “a statewide crisis.”
Pospesel, in a subsequent phone interview acknowledged, “our numbers are through the roof” while looking beyond the data and statistics.
“The model we have [for handling homelessness] is an absolute failure,” Pospesel said, relying on a network of hotels, reiterating what she has steadfastly been telling lawmakers.
“We need a shelter,” Pospesel continued. “It is a failure by the county, not building a shelter. I say that at every meeting of department heads.
“A hotel is not what the clients need. It is what some of them want,” offering an absence of rules associated with a shelter, such as restrictions on smoking or alcohol, and amenities like TV, etc..
The homeless, “need services, not games and crazy things that can go on in a hotel,” Pospesel said. “They need a meal, health care, in some instances day care, mental stabilization.
“The goal of DSS is to treat whatever issues they have. People die in these situations. The pain and suffering I see…” Pospesel said, not finishing her thought.
Homelessness is a complex subject. DiNapoli’s report hails the positive drop in the Big Apple while citing the “troubling increase” elsewhere, particularly in Greene and Columbia counties.
The Comptroller’s report does not offer specifics on what has happened to the 12,000-plus former homeless; whether they have established sustainable roots or simply gone somewhere else or off the grid.
And, despite the decline, the report says the share of homeless children “remains stubbornly high: at 31.7 percent,” pointing out that “New York’s rate is more than double that of the rest of the nation.”
Legislature chairman Patrick Linger has seen the DiNapoli report, saying, “I don’t agree with it at all,” in terms of the factual analysis.
There is no disputing the upward homeless population in the county but the issue is larger than bar graphs. “This boils down to the State mandating things but not paying for them,” Linger says.
“Some years back we were going to do a 19-bed shelter” on county-owned land adjacent to the county jail in the town of Coxsackie, Linger said.
“Once you go above that bed count, there are more requirements such as meals and laundry facilities. We talked to Catholic Charities about maybe administering it. The requirements became onerous,” the chairman said.
“I would not say there is any talk about doing a shelter now. If the State requires us to do it we would have no choice but that is an enormous expense to put on our taxpayers,” Linger said.
Meanwhile, back at the DSS ranch, “Kira is pulling her hair out. She is the one tasked with putting people in housing. She is doing the best she possibly can with what she has,” Linger added.
Lawmaker Michael Bulich (District 1, Catskill), was critical of the State report, opining that DiNapoli is a “flat our liar.”
Bulich, a frequent objector of State policies, questioned whether Greene County should be obliged to house out-of-county homeless.
“We should really look at who our actual residents