Board Expands Emergency Housing

By WRILEY NELSON
OTSEGO COUNTY

The Otsego County Board of Representatives authorized the Department of Social Services to contract for 10 additional rooms for emergency housing at Motel 88 in Oneonta at its meeting on Wednesday, August 2. The $621,000.00, 18-month contract doubles the number of rooms at Motel 88 and brings DSS to a total of more than 60 rented rooms at local hotels. The county DSS is required by New York State to provide emergency housing to eligible families.

Len Carson, the Oneonta Common Council member for the 5th Ward, where the motel is located, spoke against the measure during the public comment period. He also brought it up at the Common Council meeting on Tuesday, August 1. Carson said that neither the county nor the Oneonta-area county representatives notified city authorities of the new contract. He also said that some DSS clients at lodgings in his ward had had run-ins with law enforcement, and that the city could not handle the cost of frequent police calls.

“Eighteen months ago, we had a structure fire at Motel 88,” Carson said. “It was a DSS client. We’ve had numerous calls to Motel 88 and the Townhouse Motor Inn. I was told more than two months ago that we had more than 500 calls to the Townhouse Motor Inn… We’ve had a sewer line backup from the Townhouse Motor Inn filled with hypodermic needles.”

Carson asked the County Board to table the resolution.

The Board discussed the resolution in executive session and continued consideration after reopening the meeting to the public. All four representatives for the City of Oneonta sponsored the measure. Rep. Michelle Catan (R-Town of Oneonta) voted no, explaining that she wanted the county to study more complete solutions.

“This is a large issue that needs more attention than just putting a Band-Aid on it…We need a way to help and not just put people in hotels and go from there,” she said.

Rep. Clark Oliver (D-Oneonta Wards 1 and 2) said that DSS reported “no reason to believe that the extra 10 rooms will constitute an influx of new people… it is simply a mitigation strategy, as Rep. Martini said, of the inevitable spillover of Code Blue.” Code Blue is a statewide policy mandating provision of emergency shelter to unhoused or under-housed people on winter nights when the temperature is below freezing.

Rep. Adrienne Martini (D-Oneonta Wards 3 and 4) said that a high of 84 people approached the Oneonta warming station to invoke Code Blue in one night last winter.

“Nobody is enthusiastic about the situation,” Martini said, explaining that the new contract was part of ongoing efforts to improve social services and bring case management services to Motel 88.

Martini offered an amendment strengthening county code enforcement at the motel, which passed 62-14 under the Board’s population-weighted voting system.

“As a motel, they should be undergoing regular code inspections anyway, but we want to reinforce that in the contract,” Board Chair David Bliss (R-Cherry Valley, Middlefield, Roseboom) said in discussion.

“I just want to note, on a human level… that the unhoused community in Oneonta are being grouped together as some kind of monolithic community when that is not the case,” Oliver said. “As much as we hear about crimes that they commit, or things that may go awry while they are under DSS care, that these things happen to people, and that these people are put under a microscope…We should focus on the positives as well, on the good work that DSS is doing,” Oliver continued. “They’re trying to improve supervision of individuals who are housed there. I also just want to remind everyone that it is very easy to fall into poverty, to give in to mental illness, to fall victim to addiction… I hope that in these conversations we lead with empathy as much as we lead with fact.”

In response to Oliver’s concerns and Catan’s reservations, Bliss said, “I agree with both of your points: This is an 18-month contract. We’re not going to solve these issues in 18 months. This is not unique to Otsego County, it’s happening all over the country and the world… in the meantime, we just have to take care of people while we work toward better solutions.”

Rep. Richard Brockway (R-Laurens, Otego), a co-sponsor of the resolution, pointed out that the emergency housing measure simply fulfils a state mandate.

“We are required to provide housing to these people. As much as we may not want to, we don’t have a choice. If we can keep the funds down and work toward getting help for these people, we’re moving in the right direction,” he said.

The amended resolution passed 56-20, with three representatives, who account for 24 votes, absent.