The Dutchess County Legislature passed several resolutions on homelessness on Monday night. As Lower Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Elias Guerra reports, it's been an ongoing issue in the region.
“But let's get the people the help that they need where they live, right? And let's stop dumping in this area. The dumping in this area, let's get people the help where they want to be, where they should be, and stop just dumping in Ward Five, to be honest, Main Street.”
That’s the voice of Nikia Simmons, who said Poughkeepsie is overburdened with homeless shelters that are concentrated in a few neighborhoods.
The Dutchess County Legislature passed four resolutions Monday meant to address homelessness in Dutchess County. Notably, it also approved on agreement on a county homeless shelter at 26 Oakley St. in Poughkeepsie.
The four resolutions would create a County Action Plan on homelessness, add three staff to an outreach team responsible for approaching the chronically unhoused, study the current and future locations of shelters, and create a long-term plan to address homelessness in the county.
But, it's the new shelter that has been the most controversial.
On Monday, the legislature also approved, 23-2, an agreement between the City of Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County to create the emergency housing HOPE Center at 26 Oakley St, using a $13 million dollar grant from the state’s Homeless Housing and Assistance Program. This concludes the approval process for the shelter, County Executive Sue Serino’s office said.
The agreement to build the shelter came following a lawsuit by the city against the county, as city leaders and residents have maintained they have borne undue burden for county services like rehab and support for the unhoused.
According to the agreement, the shelter will serve adult women and men during an eight year “sunset period.” After that, the shelter will transition to serving single women and/or families only. The agreement also says the county will not construct any more emergency shelters in the city for 35 years.
Poughkeepsie residents packed the legislature Monday to say the city was already overburdened with homeless shelters and did not need another one.
Staff and young people, like Alijio Martin, from community group Community Matters 2, asked why the county and city could fund another homeless shelter but not a community center.
“People say endangered youth, endangered youth, but when there's nothing for them to do, it just makes them more endangered and leads to them doing things that they're not supposed to," Martin said. "I think that most of the funds should go to a community center instead of a homeless shelter.”
Janina Douglas is unhoused and lives in Poughkeepsie, and said really the city doesn’t offer much support to people who are unhoused.
“They point us in a million, they'll tell us to go left and then they'll tell us we have to go right, and then we have to go down, and we have to go up," Douglas said.
Douglas said she doesn’t go to the shelter at North Hamilton Street, because she says she feels safer outside.
She said often the police are the only people who are kind to her, and that people who are unhoused need a safe place, like a locker, to store their things and said that could prevent theft and arguments. She said they need a place to sit, rest, and shower, especially in winter.
And, she said, homelessness is especially hard for women.
“When people have this idea in their head that, like, people are out here and they must want to be because, 'why can't they fix it?' It is such an ignorant thought," Douglas said. "As a woman it's very, very difficult to have any type of job if you don't have a place to stay because you don't have a place to shower, keep your things. A lot of times men have jobs in which like, they're dirty anyway. You know, blue collar work ... it's a little bit easier for them to you know, have work, you know, I mean without a home. But women really, really need that or need one in general. And they shouldn't have to like say that they are abused in some way just to get help."
