The Catskill Chronicle

Story and photos by Ted Waddell

Steve White, Sullivan County Federation for the Homeless (SCFH) program administer takes a close look at the proposal to build a shelter for homeless women and children.

MONTICELLO – Women and kids are looking for shelter from the storm.

At present, although the problem of homelessness is increasing in an impoverished local area beset by economic woes, there is no shelter for the homeless, except in county-funded hotels and motels.

The Sullivan County Federation for the Homeless (SCFH) is at the forefront of a plan to create a shelter for homeless single women and women with children at the Federation’s existing building located at 9 Monticello Street.

Along with several agencies, folks at the SCFH are concerned about substandard living conditions provided with county funds at privately owned emergency homeless shelter motels rooms.

A detail of the mural painted by an inmate tells an emotional story.

As of January 1, 2010, there are a total of 165 emergency shelter rooms available to homeless single men, single women or families: Catskill Motel, Liberty (4 rooms); Budget Inn, Liberty (15); Howard Johnsons, Liberty (2); Roscoe Motel, Roscoe (4); Heritage Inn, Monticello (22); Liberty Motel, Liberty (10); Lakeside, Loch Sheldrake (28); Delano, Monticello (22); Travel Inn, Monticello (25); Days Inn, Wurtsboro (2); Lincoln, Liberty (14); Ocean Surf, Parksville (2); and the Raceway Motel, Monticello (15) for a reported average length of stay of approximately 85 days.

Although Safe Passage via CACHE, a not-for-profit agency, operates a women’s shelter with dedicated beds for both women and children who are victims of domestic violence, there are no beds in the county dedicated to runaway and homeless youth.

Two community based agencies in the county offer limited transitional housing, but both are at 100% capacity: Rehabilitation Support Services (RSS) hasa total of 52 beds in 24 residences and 28 apartments, dedicated to formerly homeless individuals who have a metal health diagnosis, and the Recovery Center provides seven beds for transitional housing to formerly homeless individuals with a substance abuse diagnosis.

In a request for grant funding to establish a homeless shelter for single women and kids, the SCFH quoted the Sullivan County Division of Health & Family Services (DHFS) who on July 1, 2009 reported “…we have 250 adults and children in emergency housing-motel placement. In addition, untold numbers are staying with friends temporarily due to being ineligible for our programs either by income or sanction.”

On January 27, 2007 Jonathan Rouis, chair of the Sullivan County Legislature faced the issue of a lack of a homeless shelter during his annual county address.

In part, he said, “As the cost of living continues to rise, our legislature must continue to develop a permanent housing solution for our county’s homeless population. We spend a tremendous amount of money housing homeless individuals and families at private establishments, and we need to develop a solution that expends our resources more efficiently.”

“It is my hope that by co-locating these individuals and families in one secure location, we can ensure they receive the medical attention and workforce development training needed to help them regain their footing and lead more productive lives…”

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the fair market monthly apartment rent in Sullivan County is as follows: 1 bedroom $541.00, 2 bedroom $694.00, and for a 3 bedroom apartment, $831.00.

Yet in a recent story published exclusively online by The Catskill Chronicle, is was disclosed that the county’s DHFS was paying a private landlord at the Delano in Monticello $1,690.00 each month for a stiflingly cramped room a single mom shares with her two kids, ages four and six years old.

“Yes there are people living in abandoned buildings and things of that nature, but the majority of [the homeless] go through social services and are in motels all over the county,” said Steve White, SCFH program administrator.

“There isn’t one room available, there is a waiting list, [and] the Section 8 housing list is a mile long.”

The SCFH recently applied to the state for a $1.5 million grant to revamp the Federation building into a 35-bed homeless shelter for single women and women with children.

In the grant proposal, the authors outlined the problem affecting single women and single moms trying to take care of their kids.

“Presently the target populations are housed in motels without supervision and sporadic services. The project will serve as a safe and healthy environment where services by the linkage providers will be provided on-site in a coordinated manner.”

Services would include health, mental health, substance abuse counseling, legal aid, educational and employment preparation in a secure and structured environment.

“Without this program…most of the targeted population will continue to live in a perpetuated state of homelessness,” added the proposal.

White said that by his best estimate, there are probably 260 single women and mothers with youngsters living in motels, and that figure doesn’t include single men and families.

“The numbers are staggering,” he said of the homeless situation nationally and as it trickles down through the states and into small rural communities like Sullivan County.

The mural on the front of the SCFH building was created by an inmate from a local correctional facility.

He said three of the primary goals of the proposed shelter are to provide a safe living environment for the county’s homeless women and children, save the county some big bucks, and offer a wide variety of social services in a coordinated and cost-effective manner.

“Many of the landlords, the motel guys are making more money housing the homeless than they ever did dealing with the public, and not only are the living conditions deplorable, you can have a single woman living next to an old man, there’s no protection really.”

“It’s not a safe place for a young woman with a child, what do you thinks going to happen? It’s not a good situation.”

“There has to be an obligation that if you’re taking money to house people, you’ve got to provide certain living conditions…[at least] from the human compassion point of view.”

“It can’t just be that you’re making a fortune off this stuff,” he added, of the some of the landlords a lot of folks living in the homeless motels call “slumlords”.

  “I’m not saying that everyone should be given a golden spoon, but I think that the money that’s being spent to house people should be re-evaluated and used more efficiently for a better outcome,” said White.

“That’s why social services is behind this shelter, they want to see better outcomes and better use of the money.”

The stories told by homeless moms with kids living in temporary, but expensive rooms are seemingly endless, but they are rampant with tales of their kids going to school with bed bug bites, and not getting enough sleep because the neighbors are up all night drinking and yelling at each other, or just howling at the moon or perhaps their plight in life.