News
Homeless issues committee proposed, agenda unknown
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| Hudson Mayor Richard Scalera tours the old Charles Williams school building on Third and Robinson streets, which the city has offered to the county to be renovated for use as transitional housing for homeless women and families. Plans call for the formation of a committee to discuss homeless issues. (Jamie Larson/Hudson-Catskill Newspapers) |
By Francesca Olsen and Jamie Larson
HUDSON — After many debates and disputes, representatives for the county of Columbia and the city of Hudson will sit down to discuss the wide range of issues contributing to homelessness in a committee with members chosen by Board of Supervisors Chairman Art Baer, R-Hillsdale, and Hudson Mayor Richard Scalera.
The group, currently called the City/County Homeless/Transitional Committee, will evaluate the county’s options for transitional housing locations, starting with the Charles Williams school building on Third and Robinson streets in Hudson, which the city has offered the county for $400,000
Baer has chosen Director of Social Services Paul Mossman, Richard Keaveney, R-Canaan, Columbia Opportunities Executive Director Tina Sharpe, Lynn Kutrki who works on homeless issues for the Department of Social Services, and Fran Reiter, who lives part-time in Columbia County and was deputy mayor for Planning and Community Relations in New York City during the first Guiliani administration.
The Hudson Half of the committee will be comprised of Mayor Scalera, Alderman Wanda Pertilla, D-2nd, Supervisor Rev. Edward Cross, D-Hudson 2nd, Supervisor William Hughes, D-Hudson 4th, and the citizen member, Linda Mussmann, owner of the Time and Space Limited Warehouse, and local community activist.
“The committee will have to figure out how they’re going to proceed,” Baer said, “I expect they’ll look at a lot of different experiences from other counties. This is an issue that isn’t going to go away. We’ve been dealing with it on a case by case basis, but given the size of the issue right now, we need to take a long-term look at the solutions.”
“I think there will be discussions about everything from the root of why people are homeless to how the homeless should be treated. I certainly don’t have any reservations,” said Scalera, who expects the committee to meet “a couple of days” after he announced his choices.
“Now, with Tina Sharpe being on this committee, I think we can do some good things,” said Scalera. “That’s how you get things done — you sit down and you hash them out. You’re not always going to agree, but you get some degree of answers and conclusions and then you move forward.”
Sharpe said that to get the ball rolling, she’d like to see an in-depth discussion about what the causes of homelessness are. “Before we can propose a solution, let’s be clear about what the causes are,” she said.
According to Sharpe, the most common causes of homelessness tie together. Poverty and the lack of affordable housing take the top two places, followed by lack of affordable health care.
“Many of the people who wind up losing their homes, whether they be renters or homeowners, lose it as the result of a serious health condition that prevented them from being able to work,” said Sharpe. Other causes are domestic violence (victims of domestic violence often find themselves with no place to go), mental illness, and addiction disorders.
“We have to look at the bigger picture,” said Scalera. “The first thing I’d like to know — I’d like a list of people who have been deemed homeless.” The mayor also wants to look at individuals on a case-by-case basis. “We might be able to remedy that situation if we just look at some of the unique situations” that exist in the county, he said.
“I’m excited that there is a dialogue going on,” said Mossman. “Now that it’s out in the open that this is the direction we’re heading — the more input to whatever the solution is, the better off we’re going to be down the road.”
Mossman said he expects the committee to look at what other counties have done to address the problem of temporary and chronic homelessness.
“The bigger picture is: how do you provide those wraparound support services, not only to prevent homelessness, but to provide that support transitioning someone from a temporary housing situation into a more permanent and safe housing environment?” said Mossman. “The next step is, once you’ve done that, how do you prevent people from becoming homeless? How do you locate affordable housing? What does the county have to do to provide more affordable housing?”
The county’s lack of a centralized emergency housing program is also something Mossman said he’d like the committee to discuss right away. “Columbia County, as with many other counties, rely on motels, which is something that doesn’t allow you the flexibility in regard to what types of services you can provide,” he said.
Baer said he hopes Fran Reiter will bring a different perspective to committee discussion. “She has offered to help us examine all the issues and give us the benefit of her experience in the city,” he said.
Reiter has a consulting firm in New York City called Reiter and Begun Associates, LLC and does a lot of government relations consulting. She says it is her first impression that “the majority of the problem seems to fall to people who are homeless by virtue of economic circumstances.”
Addressing the needs of homeless individuals in a rural county is very different from addressing the needs of a homeless population in a large city like New York, which has quite a lot of useful infrastructure. “You’ve got much greater distances to travel here with no public transportation infrastructure,” said Reiter. “It presents a different set of problems.”
Involving non-profit organizations is also a goal. Mossman said he has already been in contact with one local non-profit who is seeking federal funds for improving the situation right now. He did not disclose the name of the non-profit because the application for funding has not been officially submitted.
“I’m really excited about their application,” he said. “They work directly with the same population that we work with. There’s a common thread.”
In order to obtain funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), specific objectives must be articulated. This could suggest the creation of a strategic plan to end homelessness.
“One of my objectives would certainly be a development of a strategic plan that would end homelessness of any kind in Columbia and Greene counties,” said Sharpe.
“To go along those lines, you would have to have a series of short and long term goals,” said Mossman. “As a committee, it would be important for that committee to think about those goals and to work towards them. It’s just a matter of getting everyone at the table, and talking about the issues and come to a consensus about what direction they really want to go in.”
“It’s about income. It’s about affordable housing,” said Sharpe. “If we can seriously address those issues, a lot of the people who are homeless today will not be homeless again.”
The group, currently called the City/County Homeless/Transitional Committee, will evaluate the county’s options for transitional housing locations, starting with the Charles Williams school building on Third and Robinson streets in Hudson, which the city has offered the county for $400,000
Baer has chosen Director of Social Services Paul Mossman, Richard Keaveney, R-Canaan, Columbia Opportunities Executive Director Tina Sharpe, Lynn Kutrki who works on homeless issues for the Department of Social Services, and Fran Reiter, who lives part-time in Columbia County and was deputy mayor for Planning and Community Relations in New York City during the first Guiliani administration.
The Hudson Half of the committee will be comprised of Mayor Scalera, Alderman Wanda Pertilla, D-2nd, Supervisor Rev. Edward Cross, D-Hudson 2nd, Supervisor William Hughes, D-Hudson 4th, and the citizen member, Linda Mussmann, owner of the Time and Space Limited Warehouse, and local community activist.
“The committee will have to figure out how they’re going to proceed,” Baer said, “I expect they’ll look at a lot of different experiences from other counties. This is an issue that isn’t going to go away. We’ve been dealing with it on a case by case basis, but given the size of the issue right now, we need to take a long-term look at the solutions.”
“I think there will be discussions about everything from the root of why people are homeless to how the homeless should be treated. I certainly don’t have any reservations,” said Scalera, who expects the committee to meet “a couple of days” after he announced his choices.
“Now, with Tina Sharpe being on this committee, I think we can do some good things,” said Scalera. “That’s how you get things done — you sit down and you hash them out. You’re not always going to agree, but you get some degree of answers and conclusions and then you move forward.”
Sharpe said that to get the ball rolling, she’d like to see an in-depth discussion about what the causes of homelessness are. “Before we can propose a solution, let’s be clear about what the causes are,” she said.
According to Sharpe, the most common causes of homelessness tie together. Poverty and the lack of affordable housing take the top two places, followed by lack of affordable health care.
“Many of the people who wind up losing their homes, whether they be renters or homeowners, lose it as the result of a serious health condition that prevented them from being able to work,” said Sharpe. Other causes are domestic violence (victims of domestic violence often find themselves with no place to go), mental illness, and addiction disorders.
“We have to look at the bigger picture,” said Scalera. “The first thing I’d like to know — I’d like a list of people who have been deemed homeless.” The mayor also wants to look at individuals on a case-by-case basis. “We might be able to remedy that situation if we just look at some of the unique situations” that exist in the county, he said.
“I’m excited that there is a dialogue going on,” said Mossman. “Now that it’s out in the open that this is the direction we’re heading — the more input to whatever the solution is, the better off we’re going to be down the road.”
Mossman said he expects the committee to look at what other counties have done to address the problem of temporary and chronic homelessness.
“The bigger picture is: how do you provide those wraparound support services, not only to prevent homelessness, but to provide that support transitioning someone from a temporary housing situation into a more permanent and safe housing environment?” said Mossman. “The next step is, once you’ve done that, how do you prevent people from becoming homeless? How do you locate affordable housing? What does the county have to do to provide more affordable housing?”
The county’s lack of a centralized emergency housing program is also something Mossman said he’d like the committee to discuss right away. “Columbia County, as with many other counties, rely on motels, which is something that doesn’t allow you the flexibility in regard to what types of services you can provide,” he said.
Baer said he hopes Fran Reiter will bring a different perspective to committee discussion. “She has offered to help us examine all the issues and give us the benefit of her experience in the city,” he said.
Reiter has a consulting firm in New York City called Reiter and Begun Associates, LLC and does a lot of government relations consulting. She says it is her first impression that “the majority of the problem seems to fall to people who are homeless by virtue of economic circumstances.”
Addressing the needs of homeless individuals in a rural county is very different from addressing the needs of a homeless population in a large city like New York, which has quite a lot of useful infrastructure. “You’ve got much greater distances to travel here with no public transportation infrastructure,” said Reiter. “It presents a different set of problems.”
Involving non-profit organizations is also a goal. Mossman said he has already been in contact with one local non-profit who is seeking federal funds for improving the situation right now. He did not disclose the name of the non-profit because the application for funding has not been officially submitted.
“I’m really excited about their application,” he said. “They work directly with the same population that we work with. There’s a common thread.”
In order to obtain funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), specific objectives must be articulated. This could suggest the creation of a strategic plan to end homelessness.
“One of my objectives would certainly be a development of a strategic plan that would end homelessness of any kind in Columbia and Greene counties,” said Sharpe.
“To go along those lines, you would have to have a series of short and long term goals,” said Mossman. “As a committee, it would be important for that committee to think about those goals and to work towards them. It’s just a matter of getting everyone at the table, and talking about the issues and come to a consensus about what direction they really want to go in.”
“It’s about income. It’s about affordable housing,” said Sharpe. “If we can seriously address those issues, a lot of the people who are homeless today will not be homeless again.”
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