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County, shelters struggle with Cuomo’s homeless order HOMELESSNESS | BY JEREMY MOULE
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The unusually mild winter has allowed Monroe County, meaning both the community and the government, to dodge a serious, ongoing problem regarding a hard-to-serve segment of the area’s homeless population. When the temperature drops below a certain point, homeless people need to get indoors to stay safe; the National Coalition for the Homeless says that hypothermia can set in at temperatures as warm as 50 degrees. But some of the chronically homeless might not seek housing for several reasons, advocates say, ranging from fear to mental illness. “There's a segment of people that are going to live off the grid forever and always,” says Kelly Finnigan, social worker at the House of Mercy. “And then there’s a segment of people that have had severe mental illness and probably aren't able to think rationally enough to make a decision to go to shelter when they need to. But I think those are fairly small populations.” Others may be under temporary sanction by the county Department of Human Services. When social service recipients are sanctioned, typically for not reporting to a caseworker or failing to comply with one requirement or another, they can’t get any sort of county benefit, including housing assistance. Sanctions often last from 30 days to 180 days. Workers from the House of Mercy and St. Joseph’s House of Hospitality, two shelters that regularly work with the hard-to-serve homeless, say that they hoped that a recent order from Governor Andrew Cuomo would help the population. But Monroe County hasn’t made any noticeable changes to help the chronically
homeless, they say, and so the population remains at risk in the cold. (A January 16 county survey found 86 homeless people who are not in shelters. It also noted that many shelters are over capacity.) Cuomo’s order is meant to keep homeless people from freezing to death. It says that Upstate counties have to give homeless people access to warm, safe, indoor spaces any time the temperature or wind chill drops below 32 degrees. Counties have to find ways to extend shelter hours and to identify homeless people and find shelter for them, including those who can’t or won’t find it on their own. But James Murphy, a Catholic worker at St. Joe’s, recalls a cold night in January when the shelter was over capacity and he needed help placing sanctioned people and called a designated county after-hours line. It didn’t go well, he says. “The order says everyone, and to me that means whether you’re sanctioned or not,” he says. “But they refused to place anyone anywhere. It seemed everyone on the phone had no idea what I was talking about.” The governor intended his executive order to expand shelter access, but what it has actually done is create a bit of a mess. Shelter operators aren’t sure what they’re supposed to do to comply, and county officials, who provide shelters with guidance or rules, are trying to figure it out, too. (Counties and providers across the state are in similar situations.) No one knew that the Cuomo’s order was coming, so there was no time to prepare or plan, says Laurie Jones-Prizel, executive director