Lindsey Connors, RISE Associate Executive Director, addresses solutions to homelessness in this WRGB Channel 6 News and in this Spectrum NEWS 1 article below.
Plans for permanent homeless shelter in Saratoga Springs unravel just four months after announcement
Plans to open a new homeless shelter in Saratoga Springs appear to be off the table, but new ones may be revealed soon.
“I was disappointed in Shelters of Saratoga basically walking away from this without notice,” said city Mayor Ron Kim.
It was just a four months ago city leaders and advocates gathered at the space to announce plans for the new shelter at 5 Williams St.
“The plan has been a dream of ours to be here,” said Shelters of Saratoga Executive Director Duane Vaughn during the October event.
Those dreams are now on hold with Shelters of Saratoga pulling out of the project as plans began to veer away from a permanent Code Blue shelter.
“The conversation began to focus on operating a 365-day, 24-hour per day shelter, including the idea of a low-barrier shelter,” sad Vaughn. “We made the effort to explore this idea.”
There is a Code Blue Shelter on Adelphi Street right now but the mayor says a more all encompassing space is needed.
“We think that’s essential for our city,” Kim said. “Code Blue is no longer sufficient for our city, we need additional services.”
The city-owned space on Williams Street, which formerly housed a senior center, neighbors the Saratoga Central Catholic School. Another hurdle as families and staff began raising safety concerns.
The Diocese of Albany Catholic Schools Superintendent Dr. Giovanni Virgiglio, Jr. declined an on camera interview Wednesday but shared a written statement which read, in part, “Each population impacted here – school children and the homeless – deserve our attention.” He went onto say the Saratoga Central Catholic community is committed to helping find a more suitable location.
“There really is no one-size-fits-all solution,” said RISE Housing and Support Services Associate Executive Director Lindsay Connors. The local organization is dedicated preventing homelessness.
“These are human beings, they’re individuals,” she said. “Everybody has got a unique and different reason for their situation and being out there and so the answer has to be comprehensive and multifaceted.”
Shelters of Saratoga does appear to be moving forward swiftly with a new plan.
“We are finalizing a new agreement for a new location, which we will share with you in the very near future,” he said.
In the meantime the future of the former senior center is uncertain. But Mayor Ron Kims says a committee will be formed to determine how to get the project back on track.
“It’s really just something members of our community should look at, study and determine,” he said.