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Questions, concerns raised over St. Charles proposal
By John Mason
COLUMBIA COUNTY — Reactions to the county’s new plan to turn the St. Charles Hotel into a homeless shelter varied from neutral to skeptical to irate. Everyone had questions.
Columbia Opportunities Director Tina Sharpe said she was “not on board and not opposed” to the idea; Chamber of Commerce President David Colby said, “I have concerns;” and county resident Tim Shook said he is leading a movement to stop it.
Social Services Commissioner Paul Mossman announced Monday he is investigating entering a long-term, seven-year lease with East Coast Realty, a company interested in purchasing the St. Charles. The hotel’s second and third floors, with 17 rooms each, would be used for emergency housing for homeless persons. The first floor, with 3,100 square feet, would be dedicated to a Hudson satellite office for the Department of Social Services.
Sharpe’s agency is often the first stop for people who have become homeless. “We will send them to DSS, who have the legal responsibility for providing them with a place,” she said. Once housing is secured, the person comes back to Columbia Opportunities to begin working on a plan to move them from the shelter to permanent housing.
Sharpe was on a task force Mossman convened to talk specifically about transitional and emergency housing, but she said that to her knowledge, it has not met in some time. She is also on the Columbia-Greene Housing Coalition, which was formed in 2002 with a particular concern for the development of appropriate housing opportunities for low-income people in Columbia and Greene counties. That group last met in March.
Sharpe was weighing the pluses and minuses of Mossman’s idea Tuesday.
She said the plan “would appear to provide a safer and even more efficient method of providing emergency housing: It’s clearly a much better physical setting than where people are currently staying. I appreciate the fact that the county recognizes people receiving services need to be close to those services. I wish they’d recognize that as an issue when they talk about moving social services to Ockawamick.”
As for DSS, “the current facilities are inadequate,” Sharpe said. “They aren’t conducive to good work, good service or positive family outcomes. It’s too crowded, there aren’t any great provisions for privacy. It’s not welcoming, not comfortable. I certainly recognize there needs to be a better plan for delivering services to this high-need population.”
On the other hand, she said she was “surprised and somewhat concerned about what this might mean to the city of Hudson and the whole idea of the different comprehensive plans that have been developed. It seemed to be in conflict with those.
“You need to be clear about your intents and purposes,” Sharpe said. “It seems to me we’re doing pickup sticks: The chips fell here, do this; they fall there, do that. It comes back to ‘what’s the plan?’”
On the one hand, she said she likes the idea of having emergency housing services located where people can “receive supportive services to help them along on their quest for self-sufficiency.”
But on the other, she said she had concerns about the process.
“There are many elected officials and community-based organizations that are standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the trenches providing services to homeless people,” she said. “It doesn’t appear there was any opportunity for them to have input into the process. To me there are still a lot of questions: Who is this real estate company? What is their experience ? What is their philosophy going to be? Who’s going to be the security?”
Colby, contacted Monday evening, encouraged county officials to “strongly look at the economic development implications of this — look at the whole picture. On behalf of the existing businesses in the Chamber of Commerce, anything that’s done by the county needs a consideration of impact.
“We think it’s important for the county to look at the big picture when moving forward,” he said. “Is this what the community should have as the gateway when people drive into the main business district of the county? A lot of questions need to be answered.
“We’re going to continue to have discussions,” Colby said. “We have concerns on the impact this is going to have. What is this going to do for tourism; the park has been the venue for the county Tourism Office to distribute information.
“As a community, we have to continue to look at Columbia County,” he said. “You can’t cut out different towns: It’s all about advancing Columbia County.”
“I’m going to be fighting for it not to be a homeless shelter,” Shook said Tuesday. “With everything on Warren Street, the tourist system, it’s going to affect it.”
Shook called for the resignations of Board of Supervisors Chairman Art Baer, R-Hillsdale, and Planning and Economic Development Commissioner Ken Flood for their support of the idea, although Flood did not learn of it until Monday’s announcement.
Shook was the office manager for the Hudson Valley Economic and Environmental Coalition, a group devoted to supporting St. Lawrence Cement in its application for a plant in Greenport in the first half of this decade.
He said he would be reviving his “blue army” to fight this.
“We’ll call the supervisors and find out where they stand,” he said. Shook said the shelter should be built at Ockawamick. “They have the land out there,” he said. “It’s ridiculous to make our only hotel a homeless shelter.”
“We used to have great times in there,” he said of the St. Charles. “Dinners, meetings, everything. It’s not large enough for the caseload they’re going to have.”
Shook called on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, and U.S. Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls, to find some money for a homeless shelter.
“Hudson Park,” he said. “They were saying they built it because of the hotels in Hudson. This is the wrong idea: Art Baer should shut it down right now. People are going to lose thousands of dollars; it’s a bad idea.”
To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.
Columbia Opportunities Director Tina Sharpe said she was “not on board and not opposed” to the idea; Chamber of Commerce President David Colby said, “I have concerns;” and county resident Tim Shook said he is leading a movement to stop it.
Social Services Commissioner Paul Mossman announced Monday he is investigating entering a long-term, seven-year lease with East Coast Realty, a company interested in purchasing the St. Charles. The hotel’s second and third floors, with 17 rooms each, would be used for emergency housing for homeless persons. The first floor, with 3,100 square feet, would be dedicated to a Hudson satellite office for the Department of Social Services.
Sharpe’s agency is often the first stop for people who have become homeless. “We will send them to DSS, who have the legal responsibility for providing them with a place,” she said. Once housing is secured, the person comes back to Columbia Opportunities to begin working on a plan to move them from the shelter to permanent housing.
Sharpe was on a task force Mossman convened to talk specifically about transitional and emergency housing, but she said that to her knowledge, it has not met in some time. She is also on the Columbia-Greene Housing Coalition, which was formed in 2002 with a particular concern for the development of appropriate housing opportunities for low-income people in Columbia and Greene counties. That group last met in March.
Sharpe was weighing the pluses and minuses of Mossman’s idea Tuesday.
She said the plan “would appear to provide a safer and even more efficient method of providing emergency housing: It’s clearly a much better physical setting than where people are currently staying. I appreciate the fact that the county recognizes people receiving services need to be close to those services. I wish they’d recognize that as an issue when they talk about moving social services to Ockawamick.”
As for DSS, “the current facilities are inadequate,” Sharpe said. “They aren’t conducive to good work, good service or positive family outcomes. It’s too crowded, there aren’t any great provisions for privacy. It’s not welcoming, not comfortable. I certainly recognize there needs to be a better plan for delivering services to this high-need population.”
On the other hand, she said she was “surprised and somewhat concerned about what this might mean to the city of Hudson and the whole idea of the different comprehensive plans that have been developed. It seemed to be in conflict with those.
“You need to be clear about your intents and purposes,” Sharpe said. “It seems to me we’re doing pickup sticks: The chips fell here, do this; they fall there, do that. It comes back to ‘what’s the plan?’”
On the one hand, she said she likes the idea of having emergency housing services located where people can “receive supportive services to help them along on their quest for self-sufficiency.”
But on the other, she said she had concerns about the process.
“There are many elected officials and community-based organizations that are standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the trenches providing services to homeless people,” she said. “It doesn’t appear there was any opportunity for them to have input into the process. To me there are still a lot of questions: Who is this real estate company? What is their experience ? What is their philosophy going to be? Who’s going to be the security?”
Colby, contacted Monday evening, encouraged county officials to “strongly look at the economic development implications of this — look at the whole picture. On behalf of the existing businesses in the Chamber of Commerce, anything that’s done by the county needs a consideration of impact.
“We think it’s important for the county to look at the big picture when moving forward,” he said. “Is this what the community should have as the gateway when people drive into the main business district of the county? A lot of questions need to be answered.
“We’re going to continue to have discussions,” Colby said. “We have concerns on the impact this is going to have. What is this going to do for tourism; the park has been the venue for the county Tourism Office to distribute information.
“As a community, we have to continue to look at Columbia County,” he said. “You can’t cut out different towns: It’s all about advancing Columbia County.”
“I’m going to be fighting for it not to be a homeless shelter,” Shook said Tuesday. “With everything on Warren Street, the tourist system, it’s going to affect it.”
Shook called for the resignations of Board of Supervisors Chairman Art Baer, R-Hillsdale, and Planning and Economic Development Commissioner Ken Flood for their support of the idea, although Flood did not learn of it until Monday’s announcement.
Shook was the office manager for the Hudson Valley Economic and Environmental Coalition, a group devoted to supporting St. Lawrence Cement in its application for a plant in Greenport in the first half of this decade.
He said he would be reviving his “blue army” to fight this.
“We’ll call the supervisors and find out where they stand,” he said. Shook said the shelter should be built at Ockawamick. “They have the land out there,” he said. “It’s ridiculous to make our only hotel a homeless shelter.”
“We used to have great times in there,” he said of the St. Charles. “Dinners, meetings, everything. It’s not large enough for the caseload they’re going to have.”
Shook called on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, and U.S. Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls, to find some money for a homeless shelter.
“Hudson Park,” he said. “They were saying they built it because of the hotels in Hudson. This is the wrong idea: Art Baer should shut it down right now. People are going to lose thousands of dollars; it’s a bad idea.”
To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.
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