News

Transitional housing proposed for Charles Williams

Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

COLUMBIA COUNTY — The former Charles Williams School at Third and Robinson streets will be named as the proposed site of the county’s transitional housing facility in a grant application to the New York state Office of Temporary Disability Assistance, Social Service Commissioner Paul Mossman told the Register-Star Monday.

However, due to details that needed to be ironed out regarding the site, the application will be filed late, which may diminish its chances of success.

The funding would be through the NYSOTDA’s Homeless Housing Assistance Program.

Meanwhile, citizens in the Second Ward were beginning to express their opposition to the project.

Mossman told the Human Services Committee Monday that he has been talking with Peter Young Industries in Albany about operating the transitional housing facility.

“They have a host of programs in Albany, Schenectady and Troy,” he said. “We were given the 2 1/2-hour tour.”

They visited a motel that had been converted to a homeless shelter. When people think of a homeless shelter, they think of a number of beds in one room, he said, but this facility has private rooms for individuals and families.

“It has a huge dining area, job training on-site and a certified culinary staff that will teach their skills,” Mossman said. They see their mission as a three-legged stool, he said: housing, employment and drug treatment.

“Peter Young was very interested in the site,” he said. “He believed with renovations they could provide housing for families and singles.”

The original plan, Mossman said, called for 10 units for singles and 10 for families. An architect will be visiting the site this week for more specifics.

Currently, he said, DSS is averaging between 50 and 55 persons monthly in transitional housing, located in motels scattered throughout Columbia and adjoining counties.

“This makes it very difficult to provide wraparound services,” he said, meaning that the county wants to offer services besides shelter on-site, as in Young’s three-legged stool.

“Should we be approved, my understanding is renovation could start as soon as this fall,” Mossman said. Even if the tardiness of the application should doom it for this year, he said he wanted to “get it on record that Columbia County is looking to do such a project and lay the foundation for future applications and initiatives.”

He said he thought the fact that it’s a new type of project for this area would count in its favor.

Hudson Mayor Rick Scalera said he would wait to see if the application was successful, then enter into discussions with the county.

Young, Scalera said, “runs first-class operations.”

There would be financial advantages for the city in that the building would be sold, and it would go on the tax rolls, he said.

“The operators would have to prove to the city and to the neighborhood that they could run an operation down there that would not be a detriment to that community,” Scalera said. “Nobody’s made a commitment to it.”

Alderwoman Wanda Hughes Pertilla, I-Second Ward, said she had been interviewing people on Robinson Street and in the Second Ward in general.

“Ninety percent say no [to the transitional housing],” she said. “There are a lot of kids over there. I’m at ‘no,’ until we get more information from the county.”

Robinson Street, she said, has seen an influx of young families and other newcomers who have recently bought homes.

“They’re wondering what’s going to happen with this building,” she said. “They want to keep the block quiet.”

Schuyler Court residents she talked to also said they were against it, because the area already has a high volume of crime, Hughes Pertilla said.

“It’s completely inappropriate to place sex offenders and recovering addicts in a residential neighborhood,” said Second Ward resident Victor Mendolia, the city Democratic chairman. Those who think this facility will be just for homeless families are mistaken, he said.

“The Board of Supervisors is trying to blindside the whole community,” Mendolia said. “As if it’s their noble duty, the poor families of the ward may need services. These are the worst of the worst, people who can’t find housing of their own. They’re trying to dump and ghettoize these services.

“The city is not going to take it, and the ward is not going to take it anymore,” he said. “The county is consolidating all this scattered housing to save money and put it in Hudson. They’re not having a problem where it is, but it’s expensive. To put a service like this in the middle of the Second Ward. If sex offenders wanted to move there, they couldn’t because it’s too close to John L. Edwards.

“I understand there’s a problem with cost, but to put it in the most blighted ward in the back corner next to residential properties and a school is unacceptable,” Mendolia said. “People are not going to stand for it. People are willing to meet and organize in opposition to it.”

“I don’t see the gain for Hudson,” said Supervisor William C. Hughes Jr., D-Hudson4. He said he wondered why the Department of Social Services should be moved out of the city at the same time as transitional housing is moved into it.

“I’d like to know who we’re housing in these hotels that would be going into the transitional housing,” he said. “There needs to be a broad range of conversation on all these issues.”

To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.

Reader Comments

Submit a Comment