This article was originally posted by News 6, WRGB Albany.
Mayor-elect of Saratoga Springs John Safford says mitigating homelessness will be one of his priorities when he takes office, and has a particular system he wants to see used more, the community outreach court.
RISE says it has made a major impact for individuals in the city, tonight we ask how they’ve done it, and how the mayor plans to capitalize off of its success.
Lindsey Connors/RISE Associate Executive Director:
“It was just a revolving door of arrests, release, and then the recidivism that follows, it was just not working for anybody.”
To help solve that problem, RISE implemented their community outreach court in Saratoga springs.
Connors said:
“Sometimes at the time of arrest, if the responding officer is informed that this person is street homeless, this is the court docket that they’re going to put them on.”
Since it started in 2020, 80 percent of the individuals they’ve worked with have appeared at all of their court dates, 70 percent arrest-free during the case.
“We know where they are in the community, so at times it looks like going into an encampment in the woods, picking somebody up, giving them a ride in the van and bringing them.”
Connors gives major credit to judge Francine Vero, who steers an individual to a resource or organization that can help them take the next step in life.
Safford says it’s a system he wants to enhance once he takes office.
“The police have to be interested in handing those tickets out, and that has not been the case so far, so we’re going to try to reimplement that idea, and try to help people move through, move on with their life.”
It’s a piece of what he hopes will be more action taken to help individuals experiencing homeless find a new life, and that he’ll be working with county to create more synergy between resources.
“If we can get the homeless court, and the sheriff’s office kind of working together to help people actually start moving.”
With their success, RISE is looking for a similar partnership.
Connors said, “We would love to expand this into other municipalities, we would love to have a partnership with the county.”
When it releases its report in the coming months, Ron Kim’s homelessness task force is expected to help diagnose partnerships like that, along with evaluate the success of the low-barrier shelter, which, speaking of partnerships, has worked well with the court.
Connors said,
“One particular gentleman that we had over there that’s been there since day 1, almost completely non-verbal, without much further intervention other than safety, stability, having a place to clean himself, having a place to eat every day, he’s talking again.”
There are 30 beds at Saratoga’s low barrier shelter. Safford says the wait list is at 80, he believes a stronger partnership with the county can help utilize more of those resources to help more people.