A seasonal Saratoga Springs homeless shelter expects to close this week as progress on a permanent shelter continues.
With temperatures reaching well above 50 degrees after a slew of spring snowstorms, Shelters of Saratoga Executive Director Dwayne Vaughn says he expects the 75-bed Code Blue shelter to shut down for the season on Wednesday.
“It looks like we’ve got a full string of days that are not Code Blue days. We have had some here over the past that were not Code Blue days, however we decided to stay open to make sure that people had a place to stay, and we’ve had a little more time to work with people possibly on getting into other programs or into permanent housing,” said Vaughn.
The organization secured an additional $25,000 from the city late last year, ensuring the shelter could provide consistent care while temperatures lingered near 32 degrees.
Vaughn says SOS will be expanding shelter services at its Walworth Street location as well as adding nine more permanent supportive housing units this year.
RISE Healthy Housing and Support Services Executive Director Sybil Newell says her organization, which operates a temporary year-round shelter, is prepared for Code Blue’s closure.
“So, over the course of the last few months RISE and Shelters of Saratoga have been working together closely to figure out permanent or at least transitional, more appropriate, placements for everybody at our shelter and at Code Blue for when it closes. And we’ve had a good deal of success finding placements for people. Our waitlist is shrinking and we have some really good permanent housing plans for a lot of the folks who were in both Code Blue and the RISE shelter,” said Sybil.
Newell adds that her organization is focused on building and supporting permanent affordable housing, and is ready to hand over management of the temporary shelter to SOS.
For years the city has been trying to build a permanent 24/7 low-barrier shelter. Vaughn says he’s optimistic that stakeholders are approaching the finish line.
“The conversations are being had, we’ve had a couple of meetings with county representatives and city representatives. Everybody’s got a few goals and I think a lot of these goals align. There’s a lot of pieces that have got to come together but I think what’s important even if we don’t know what it’s going to be yet, having everybody invested in the solution and everybody working together is what’s important,” said Vaughn.
Republican Mayor John Safford's campaign prioritized completing that effort.
Speaking with WAMC, Safford says he’s hopeful the city will have a shelter running by next spring, when RISE’s contract for the temporary shelter would end.
“So there’s a lot of ifs about it. But, the one thing for sure is we’re going to find a way and that was the task force decision as well. They just weren’t sure where and they weren’t sure who was going to manage it. So, there are still a lot of questions. But there’s no question; we are going to find a solution for a safe 24-hour place that the homeless can be safe and hopefully get some services to help their lives get better,” said Safford.
Safford was referring to former Mayor Ron Kim’s task force on homelessness that picked a Lake Avenue plot as a preferred site for a permanent shelter in July.
Capital District Democratic Socialists of America’s Housing Committee co-chair Hannah Hurley was on the task force and wants to see consistent progress updates now that the task force has wound down.
“It is extremely disappointing to me that they have not moved on this at all. In fact, they’ve kind of been moving the goal posts on us that now it’s a funding thing, now it’s at the county. Now it’s this, now it’s that. But it doesn’t get to the issue of actually providing somewhere for these people to go,” said Hurley.
A recently passed plan to charge visitors $2 per hour to park between Memorial Day and Labor Day is expected to generate $1.6 million in revenue. Safford and other city councilors are hopeful the funds will go toward funding a permanent shelter.
