Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor
Far fewer, if any, homeless or housing-insecure people are congregating in City Park downtown than in recent years, but they’re still in the community, says Glens Falls Ward 2 Councilman Bob Landry, who chairs the City “Day Spenders” Task Force.
“We’re hoping that some of the things we’ve done up to this point may have helped,” Mr. Landry said. “We asked the Police Chief to increase bike patrols downtown, we’ve had more walk-throughs by City police officers and by the police department social worker in the park.
“We asked for an extra patrol car to just be parked over on Maple Street, as a reminder to everybody that it’s safe and secure in our park.”
“There’s still concerns about the sleeping on park benches and in bus shelters and picnic tables downtown,” Mr. Landry says. But those doing so “appear at this point in time to be more manageable.”
“We’ve seen encampments crop up, more out in the periphery of the City or in the Town of Queensbury. There’s some thought that people who may have congregated downtown are now congregating around the encampments.”
Mr. Landry acknowledges, “We don’t think there’s a specific thing we’re going to address and then it’s going to go away.
He said, “The group has decided, even though this task force probably was expected to have an end, it may not.
“It’s a long-term process. It hopefully will be a combination of trying to make our streets in our downtown area look nice and be acceptable, so people feel safe — while at the same time understanding that a homeless population in a city like ours that’s growing and has good social services and has a hospital and good shelters — that they’re here to stay.
“We have to find out how we make that population coexist with the other people in our town.
He said they aim to “spread the word” — “we’re not looking to chase people that are homeless out of town. We’re looking to work with them and help them integrate into our community.”
“We don’t want to get to the point where Burlington Vermont is” — with what Mr. Landry says is a “massive” encampment of 50 to 70 homeless people in tents along the waterfront bikeway.
He said business owners told him on a recent trip that the homeless presence led to business closures in the downtown.
Mr. Landry adds, “We don’t want to get into community disagreement over how to handle the homeless people, like they’re dealing with in Saratoga,” where he says officials “trying to arrest their way out of it” have encountered dissent.
“This task force is a good combination of local not-for-profit, social agencies and local government,” Mr. Landry says, with business leaders’ input in its earliest going as well.
“The County also just ventured into the world of homelessness,” he notes, with plans to convert an unused County building on Gurney Lane for a family shelter.
“So they’re engaged in it, too” alongside the Sheriff’s Department and Glens Falls Police,” he said.
“The City of Glens Falls and Catholic Family Charities, both represented on our task force group, have applications to get a grant from the opioid settlement monies that the county got,” Mr. Landry says.
They hope to fund a second police department social worker. He says the current social worker “is swamped so often with domestic violence situations here in the City, she can’t get to the homeless.”
How it might be paid for long term, Mr. Landry said, is “not sure yet,” depending on the grant award.
“Many applicants, limited funds.”
A homeless individual came to speak at one of the meetings, Mr. Landry said.
“He said he was in a homeless shelter in Plattsburgh and met a guy who’d been here in Glens Falls, and said, You ought to go to Warren County. Your social service department is wonderful. They’re easy to work with, and they got great shelters and programs.”
That’s good and bad news, Mr. Landry says. Expected CDTA plans to connect the Glens Falls region to Saratoga and Albany could bring more people seeking such services into this community.
The task force aims to meet again in late August, after the County awards its opioid settlement grants, he said.
Other members of the task force formed by Mayor Bill Collins are Mr. Landry, Ward 3 Councilwoman Diana Palmer, Warren County Board Queensbury At-Large Supervisor Nate Etu, Queensbury Hotel owner Ed Moore, Glens Falls school administrator Kristy Moore, WAIT House director Jason McLaughlin, Open Door Mission executive director Jamie Munyon Glens Falls Police Department social worker Darlene Hafner, Community member April MacLean, Catholic Charities director Jolene Munger and developer Peter Hoffman of Glen Street Associates.
Mr. Munyon was omitted on last week’s list of Task Force members that The Chronicle pulled from the City Website.
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