PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (WCAX) – More and more people in the North Country are finding themselves without a warm bed and a roof over their heads. That has Clinton County officials and organizations taking action to help.
Homelessness is a growing issue in Plattsburgh, one that is becoming more visible to people who live in Clinton County.
“I see more and more of it,” said Julie Drumm of Plattsburgh. “I know we have people under bridges, we have people that live in the woods, they have tents, they make their own homes.”
It hasn’t always been that way, at least not to this extent, according to Clinton County Commissioner of Social Services Christine Peters, who says there are around 160 groups of people that are currently homeless.
“They are up probably four times to what they were to a year ago, two years ago,” Peters said.
Peters says the county uses local motels to help house people for short periods of time. New York’s Code Blue rule requires that anyone who seeks shelter when the temperature drops below 32 degrees be housed. From October to February, the county provided motel rooms for a total of roughly 1,650 groups, most of which were comprised of the local homeless population.
Peters says the motel service works but with the homeless population growing, another alternative has emerged.
“We have been looking at a warming center, we have been looking at trying to look into projects that would encourage more permanent housing,” Peters said.
She says they haven’t dialed into a specific location for a potential warming center yet, but it would be the first for the county, which also does not have a homeless shelter.
In a statement from the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Champlain Valley, Executive Director Amanda Bulris-Allen said, in part, “Collaborative projects like the warming center will be an opportunity for community to come together to serve community; and to give a hand up.”
However, some residents say a shelter is long overdue.
“They should also have a permanent shelter for them because it is going to be a non-ending situation,” said Pam, a Plattsburgh resident.
But Peters says a shelter isn’t something the county is ready to tackle.
“I think shelters are a large undertaking,” she said. “And I am not sure that any of the individuals that are community partners to DSS have wanted to go there yet.”