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24/7 shelter to be located in downtown Saratoga Springs

The Saratoga Senior Center
Lucas Willard
/
WAMC
The Saratoga Senior Center

After years of effort, a new 24/7 homeless shelter and navigation center will be located in the City of Saratoga Springs.

For five decades, the Saratoga Senior Citizens Center has operated downtown. As the senior center prepares to relocate to its new home at the branch of a YMCA on West Ave., the building that has hosted meals and activities for seniors will have a new role.

Democratic Mayor Ron Kim made the announcement Monday afternoon:

“We’re going to be building a permanent low-barrier shelter and navigation center on this site in the first quarter of 2023,” said Kim.

The establishment of a permanent shelter has been a goal of city officials – and local donors – for years.

The Mitzen family first offered to fund a permanent Code Blue emergency center more than four years ago.

Kim acknowledged the generosity of community benefactors including the Mitzens who wanted to see the project completed.

“They just needed a place to put it. And we, the city council, has stepped up and said ‘This is gonna happen.’ And we’re just thankful the Senior Citizen Center’s project has gone along enough that now we can reliably say that would happen,” said Kim.

As the shelter, to be managed by Shelters of Saratoga, prepares to move in, hours will be extended at the city’s Code Blue shelter, which has been operating on Adelphi Street.

Code Blue serves more than 180 individuals.

As rain poured outside, Lisa Mitzen, a Shelters of Saratoga board member and volunteer who is supporting the project along with her husband, spoke to an audience inside the senior center.

“These individuals that are living without homes in our community deserve a safe and warm place to be. In fact, I looked around this room and I’m almost a little too warm in my outfit and I’m thinking, ‘Think of all the people right now that are outside in this weather,’” said Mitzen.

The Mitzens have not disclosed how much they will contribute to the project.

Bill Dake, Board Chair of the Stewart’s Shops convenience store chain and trustee emeritus of the Saratoga Regional YMCA, is pledging $3 million to fund the project that will provide space for the senior center at the Y.

Lois Celeste, Executive Director of the Saratoga Senior Citizens Center, said the conversation to relocate the senior center began with the previous city council and former Mayor Meg Kelly.

“Bill Dake then, probably a year and a half ago, took the reins and said, ‘Here we go, we’re going to do this.’ And then with the new council that came in, we actually met and talked to all the incoming council members before they even came in, right at the end of December, and said, ‘This is the momentum we have and we need to continue. This is your building, it’s up to you what you do with it.’”

With a goal of relocating the senior center and establishing a permanent low-barrier shelter on Williams Street set for the first quarter of 2023, the possibility of building transitional housing could be gaining momentum.

Dake asked the people of Saratoga Springs to become involved in the long-awaited project.

“So for the public that’s listening, you will be solicited by various representatives by the Y and Senior Citizens because there is a broader perspective to this. The citizens, who we haven’t mentioned yet, who are participating are going to be a very significant part of it,” said Dake.

Lucas Willard is a reporter and host at WAMC Northeast Public Radio, which he joined in 2011.
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