Counties Take Leadership Role in Tackling Homelessness

By Joe Mahoney
NYSAC Contributor

There's no place like home -- except when home is a park bench or a cold street.

In the quest to find long-term housing solutions for residents with no homes of their own, New York county officials have been in the vanguard of crafting coordinated strategies that match the scale of the need and meet people where they are.

Officials in Ulster, Tompkins and Jefferson counties discussed their housing assistance efforts following the release of a statewide study issued by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli that took a snapshot of unhoused residents data in all regions of New York.

The latest survey found that homelessness declined by 7.9 percent statewide in January 2025, dropping to a total of 145,560 individuals, after doubling between January 2022 and January 2024. Even so, the comptroller's report noted that the share of children in the overall homeless population remained "stubbornly high" in New York, representing 31.7 percent of the total.

Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger said more people are facing challenges in keeping up with rising costs for housing, food and other supplies, which has helped nudge the number of unhoused people upward.

The scarcity of affordable homes in the county was aggravated by an influx of downstate residents flocking to communities north of New York City amid the COVID pandemic, she noted. That coincided with investors seeing opportunity to convert houses to short-term rental properties

"Homes that would have been good for first time buyers were taken off the market to be used for short term rentals," Metzger recalled.

Upon taking office in January 2023, Metzger made the county's housing affordability crisis a major priority.

Three years ago, Ulster County lawmakers approved Metzger's proposal earmarking $15 million to begin a Housing Action Fund, to construct, revitalize and preserve affordable housing. Since then, the county fund has helped create hundreds of affordable homes and apartments with affordable rents, Metzger noted.

One of the county's most recent signature affordable housing developments is the 164-unit Golden Hills Apartments in Kingston, with nearly half of the units reserved for seniors and 48 units set aside for households in need of supportive services.

Located at the site of the former county jail, Golden Hills features all-electric buildings, built with energy-efficient standards, as well as a rooftop solar system that received state support. "This project is really near and dear to me," said Metzger, noting it offers child care services and has access to public transportation and features a community garden.

An important component of the affordable housing strategy, Metzger said, is to offer diversity in the mix of units, with some aimed at residents with incomes at 30 percent of the median income level, others that can be acquired by households at 80 percent or below the median income level, and households at 100 percent or below the median income level for other units.

Kingston's first affordable housing cooperative for home ownership, Elizabeth Manor, is a 15-init project at the site of a former boarding house that had fallen into such disrepair that it had to be demolished. It will feature a combination of one-, two- and three-bedroom co-op units.

Metzger said the county government has also sought to work closely with local town and village governments. Winning their support for affordable housing projects, she said, is often key to getting such projects accomplished.

When it comes to the upstate region's notoriously chilly winters, some of the most bone-chilling conditions can be found in the North Country.

Reached at his Watertown office, Jefferson County Administrator Ryan Piche said finding solutions for homelessness has been a top goal  since he joined county government in September 2024.

"The first and most important decision we made is to self-fund our warming centers," Piche said. "The state funds Code Blue in the winter but we decided to self fund them during the non-winter months and basically keep those Code Blue locations open year round."

A state mandated program, Code Blue provides shelter to any person who asks for it when temperatures fall below the freezing point.

Previously, the warming centers had opened in late fall and closed in early spring. "There are three centers we had contracts on and we extended those contracts year round," Piche said. "And that has been quite effective because now there is consistency. And now the unhoused folks know where they need to go and where the services they need are, and know that they are open on a regular basis."

Piche said the state bureaucracy has set standards and programmatic mandates for facilities to be designated as official shelters, greatly increasing the costs. The Code Blue approach, though, achieves the goal of providing a bed and meals, keeping people warm and fed. "That has worked extremely well for a medium sized, somewhat rural county," Piche said.

Another important component of Jefferson's strategy is its investment in lining up street outreach teams, using a total of four full-time employees of two contractors to go into the streets.

"The outreach teams are on the streets every day, connecting with people, trying to build relationships, giving them socks and water," he said.

State policies and decisions, such as the closure of scores of beds at psychiatric centers and a 33 percent reduction in the population of incarcerated persons have led to more people being greatly challenged when it comes to finding  traditional housing, he noted.

The state comptroller's snapshot of New York homelessness data was based on a count conducted in January 2025. County officials cautioned that an approach using data that could be highly variable depending on weather conditions at the time may hinder the ability to discern trends within geographical regions.

"As much as I loved hearing our homeless population decreased by 14 percent, I'm not sure that's the case," said Tompkins County Legislature Chair Shawna Black.

Black added: "The numbers were not indicative of an eviction process that happened recently at one of the housing developments. About 50 people from that process slowly entered our streets. When we are talking about 200 people living outside, another 50 people greatly impact the situation we have now."

Black said she is deeply concerned that the state funding for Code Blue in her county has taken a significant hit.

She said the deep cut to the funding will mean the county will either have to pick up the difference or find other services to cut.

Engaging with people when they enter a Code Blue facility provides a critically important opportunity to assess eligibility and thus help them find a  stable housing situation, Black noted.

She said the planned cuts to Code Blue will leave counties struggling at a time when they are already facing reductions to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding as well as potential "massive" cuts to Medicaid.

Still another concern is that federal housing voucher money is recaptured if the vouchers are not used, Black said. "We end up losing the vouchers completely," she said. "That means the ability to house people is being restricted by the federal government.

Meanwhile, Black said she would like to see a much stronger focus on the housing needs of people dealing with mental health and substance abuse issues. "Until we really invest in and address those two issues, our communities are really going to struggle," she said.