Around 100 people gathered in the Warring Elementary gymnasium to watch a video update from city leaders and discuss their opposition to the plan, which would replace the temporary shelter at the nearby Dutchess County jail, or the “PODS,” with a more than 100-bed shelter at 26 Oakley Street.
Residents say the Fifth Ward, a predominantly Black and Latino community, already hosts a slew of social services, like the jail, that are holding it back. Jasmaine Clay, of the nonprofit Saving Our Tomorrow, says the PODS are already unsafe for residents and neighbors.
“The current shelter is unsuitable to be in the Fifth Ward. Why would we put a new one there?" she asks. "We have to protect our youth who are sitting here, and we have to protect our seniors who can’t defend themselves.”
Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County have been arguing over the shelter’s location and design for years, but in recent months Democratic Mayor Yvonne Flowers and Republican County Executive Sue Serino tried to reach a compromise. Their offices negotiated a deal that would have kept the shelter at Oakley Street, but only for unhoused families and single women. Serino walked away from the deal this month, citing a lack of support from the Republican caucus in the county legislature.
The city is considering legal action, something multiple speakers at Thursday’s rally, like Carmen McGill, voiced support for.
“It’s time to find a good lawyer," McGill notes. "And then if everybody could open your pockets, so we can have some good money to go with the good lawyer.”
Dutchess County cites multiple reasons for building the shelter at Oakley Street. Firstly, a $13 million state grant the county received last year is tied to that specific location. Serino, who was not in office when the grant was applied for, says she asked the state if it could be transferred to another site, and was denied.
County Legislature Chair Will Truitt, a Republican, tells WAMC Poughkeepsie is the best spot for the very reason residents oppose it: because it already houses so many social services. The shelter plans include on-site case management for those struggling with mental health and substance abuse, and a lot of the emergency services for those issues are already nearby.
Furthermore, he opposes the compromise deal because it leaves out single unhoused men, who make up a majority of the county’s homeless population.
“We voiced our concern that, if we changed the original concept of Oakley Street, that we would now be stuck, still, with a piecemeal solution where we have to house out homeless individuals all across the county, which we do not believe was the best solution," he explains.
The county legislature is divided on this. At its last meeting, members of the Democratic minority caucus voiced their frustrations alongside residents, saying they didn’t know the county was moving forward with the original plan until the decision was already made and in the press.
"It's not just a political move. It is betrayal," said Assistant Minority Leader Barrington Atkins, who represents Poughkeepsie. "And let me be very clear: I'm not against a shelter. I'm against a process that was rooted in exclusion, soaked in racism, and designed to do more harm than help."
"It’s been publicly debated; it’s been talked about," refuted Legislator John Metzger, a Republican from East Fishkill. "But it was not the decision of the Republican caucus to spend the last year with the mayor of the City of Poughkeepsie trying to find a different solution. We made a decision, we wanted to move forward with this decision. It was stalled for an entire year...This is not something that just got pushed out, this is something that's been in the years making, and the decision was made almost a year ago.”
That didn’t sit well with Poughkeepsie Councilman Christopher Grant.
"We’ve been negotiating with the county for the past year! So that means you guys were negotiating in bad faith," he told the legislature. "You guys already knew what you were gonna do, had us going through hoops, multiple meetings, changing up wording, changing up the verbiage of each document to come back and say you’re not gonna sign it."
That sentiment — that the county negotiated in bad faith — was prevalent Thursday. Residents agree more needs to be done to address homelessness, but they feel Poughkeepsie has done its fair share. Multiple speakers accused Dutchess County and other counties of using Poughkeepsie as a “dumping ground” to concentrate the region’s poor in one location. Notably, the compromise plan would have barred Dutchess County from building any additional shelters in Poughkeepsie for the next 40 years.
“I would love to have a great shelter in Poughkeepsie — and a great shelter in Beacon, and a great shelter in LaGrange," says resident James Foote.
Jordan Schinella says she’s been speaking against the Oakley Street shelter at meetings for over three years. She was at the county legislature meeting last week, and she’s tired of not feeling heard.
“I’ve seen that room filled with as many people as last week, multiple times, and then they continue to vote on a resolution against what 50 people have come out and spoke against," she says. "While five people have come out and spoke against like a rural agricultural topic, and then they table that, because they want to take their feelings into consideration. So I’m sorry, I’m a little frustrated that we’re picking and choosing.”
Serino expects construction to begin in spring 2026 for a summer 2027 opening.
