Life on the Board VII - Homelessness

Our topic for today is homelessness.  This is a little more extensive and comprehensive, since I"ve been in the middle of all this for all eight of my years on the Board.

In NYS, Counties have some substantial responsibility for providing services to the homeless population. In Otsego County, this costs taxpayers about $1M/year., which is a lot of money. Until recently, that money went to local hotels, mostly in Oneonta, at the rate of $50/night/person.

It's still $50/night/person to house a homeless individual in a hotel, but we have, over a somewhat long period of time (4-5 years) been developing some alternatives.

CROSSROADS: One of our solutions kind of fell in our lap in about the best possible way. Out on State Rte. 7, between Oneonta and Otego, is an old motel called The Crossroads (that's what it's called now; I don't know what it was called when it was still a motel). A number of years ago, a couple bought the property and turned it into a half-way house for people recovering from addiction – mostly, people coming out of rehab and trying to re-integrate into that dangerous world that hadn't worked out so well the last time.

Brad and Noel took this on as a faith-driven mission, at least in part. They provided support, encouragement, personal investment, and drove their clients to job interviews, services appointments, and anything else that might give them a leg up. There were a variety of reimbursement sources, but a great deal of their revenue came from rent charged to, and paid by, the clients themselves.

Maybe around three years ago, their lives took a turn that required them to look for a more reliable financial base, and they, and Otsego County DSS, devised a creative solution: DSS would pay for every one of Crossroads fourteen (I think) rooms every night of the year, and would be charged $35/night/person, a $15/night/person savings over what we were already doing.*

It was DSS's job to make sure that every one of the rooms was occupied every night – we paid even if the room was empty. Empty rooms have not, since then, been a problem.

Doing the math, which is not my forte, seems to suggest that if the system worked perfectly (all rooms full every night) the savings would amount to $76,660 in a year. Reports I have seen indicate that the system is working to a capacity in the mid-90s, percentage-wise, and that money is being saved. Considering that Crossroads also provides transport and whatever casework they can, it's an even better deal than that.

Brad and Nicole recently applied for a DSRIP ** grant of around $82,000 to support more casework services, and some other services. They got the grant, so the quality of this collaboration will improve even more.

TINY HOMES - There are Counties which own properties designed to house homeless individuals. We're not jumping into this realm with both feet yet ***– just the NIMBY challenges alone are daunting – but we are in the midst of providing homeless individuals with a place to stay that is owned by the County. It's called the Tiny Homes project.

If you're not familiar with the Tiny Homes movement, it's a fascinating idea that's worth a Google. Basically, they're what they say they are: houses that are around 400 square feet and smaller. The Otsego County Planning Department collaborated on a $350,000 grant to build a few Tiny Homes on the empty land behind the Meadows County Office Building. The building trades program at Delhi Ag and Tech (I believe it was the Residential Tech program, but not sure) teamed up with us to build the homes, for the cost of the materials alone, and we wrote other grants for other parts of the project, like a small community center (washer/dryer, social hall, interview room) and the geothermal heating/cooling systems.

Right now, the pads have been prepared and two units are in place. The social hall is under construction, and the geothermal folks will be on site soon (the buildings will be powered by solar panels). Security is being developed, hopefully as part of an existing contract. There is already regular public transit service to the Meadows. And the casework can be coordinated right from the Meadows itself, since DSS has a variety of services based there.

Again, my wobbly-at-best math suggests that each unit, if occupied each night all year, will save us $18,250. And remember – we haven't paid a dime for this system as of this point, and we're not likely to pay much, if anything, for heating and cooling. There are a few very persistent cases of homelessness – individuals who, for a variety of reasons, are homeless for very long periods of time – and right now the plan is to populate the Tiny Homes with these folks.

We have a long way to go here, even with Crossroads and Tiny Homes. At best, given, say, five Tiny Homes, we will solve less than half of our $1M fiscal problem. However, twenty homeless individuals each night will be getting a much more significant chance to move on – to get a sustainable foothold in the housing market – than was true before.

Which brings us to the inevitable next step: providing adequate affordable housing in Otsego County, so homelessness will be, at worst, only temporary. “Affordable housing in Otsego County” is a massive topic, and although it is probably the number-one long-term issue for the County Board to address, I'm not going to try to summarize it this time. There are a couple of serious proposals for large (for this area) affordable housing projects that are currently being discussed – the Riverside Apartments and the “Lofts on Dietz Street” project – each with it's own opportunities and challenges. But anything that increases the stock of affordable housing in Otsego County is going to have a positive effect on all levels of our population.

PS: A twist on the homelessness issue that was added about a year and a half ago, was the Governor's initiative called “Code Blue.” This changes the rules regarding accepting homeless individuals into shelters when the weather gets dangerously cold. Details here. “Warming Stations” have, and continue to be, developed, mostly in Oneonta.

PPS:  PPS:  Opportunities for Otsego operates a homeless shelter in Oneonta, and they charge us $75/night/person.  They are by far the best options for families - really the only good option.  More here.

* - I tend to say “we” because I'm the Chair of the Human Services Committee, which oversees DSS. I take no credit for any of the great creative stuff they do.

** - DSRIP is a State funding stream dedicated to support the Medicaid redesign (which is another whole big thing). For further details, Google: NYS Medicaid takeover DSRIP.

*** - There are some very, very preliminary investigations at the moment into some funding which may expand our ability to do this.