A group advocating for the homeless are calling on Albany County to use a portion of the 71 buildings the Pine Hills Land Authority purchased last year on the Saint Rose campus as housing for the unhoused.
Bebhinn Francis experienced homelessness twice in her life, once in her teenage years, and again in her 40s.
The now 45-year-old said she slept on dirt basement floors? and in abandoned buildings during those times. The winter, she said, is one of the most challenging times to be homeless.
“It’s hell is what it is. It is hell. And when you wake up in the morning you are grateful that you woke up,” Francis said.
Francis is an organizer for the National Union of the Homeless’ Albany Chapter.
She is one of the eight people from the group who demanded at a meeting of the county legislature this week that the county use a portion of Saint Rose campus buildings to house the homeless.
Francis and the other advocates’ calls for action come after a 21-year-old homeless man – Dajohn Woodberry Jr. – was discovered dead outside the Albany County Airport parking garage last week.
Woodberry’s autopsy showed he died from hypothermia.
Francis said deaths like Woodberry’s are preventable and the Saint Rose campus has the resources to support the county’s homeless population.
“They have dormitories, they have residential areas, it’s a massive piece of property. It could be used, like I said, for wraparound services, for substance use support, for mental health treatment, for job training, everything could be done in one spot,” Francis said.
The Pine Hills Land Authority bought the property last year with $35 million in bonds backed by Albany County.
The Land Authority was created through state legislation to manage the redevelopment of the former college campus.
Ahead of Monday’s meeting, a spokesperson for Albany County Executive Dan McCoy’s office said the Pine Hills Land Authority has had no conversations about using the properties for homeless housing.
Wanda Willingham is the deputy chair for the County Legislature and chairs its Audit and Finance Committee.
Willingham said she has personally not considered using the Saint Rose properties for housing for the unhoused and the public does not have an understanding of the condition the buildings are in right now.
“I just don’t think people realize; you just can’t set up a shelter just anywhere. I mean there still is zoning and you know so forth and so on and I feel for what they think should be done but I don’t think its really possible right now for us to do it,” Willingham said.
The legislature also passed a resolution to hold a public hearing for a local law that would establish a plan for the county to pursue developing new affordable housing.
The plan creates a committee that falls under the purview of the Advance Albany County Alliance – the county’s economic development arm – and establishes a revolving loan fund to finance new affordable housing and the developers who build it
Willingham said an initial $2 million will be invested in the fund and that the plan will help the county tackle the affordable housing crisis that municipalities across the country are facing.
“We’re lacking not only affordable housing but housing units, period okay. And the housing stock has gone down so bad that it is obviously time to ensure that people have some place to live, as you could hear today with talking about the number of people that are homeless and, on the streets, and don’t have anywhere to live,” Willingham said.
According to the plan’s proposed language, 41 percent of renters in Albany County spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing.
And, a January report from the New York State Comptroller’s Office, estimates that in 2024 more than 1,000 people were homeless in the City and County of Albany.
A previous version of this story referred to Bebhinn Francis as a tenant organizer for the National Union for the Homeless. Francis is an organizer for the Union and a tenant organizer for the United Tenants of Albany.
