Mayor: Here’s what we are doing as to downtown dayspenders & homeless

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

Mayor Bill Collins says, “Homelessness is a growing problem….It’s so startling in Glens Falls to see this. It’s not startling.It’s an actual presence in Saratoga, Schenectady, Albany, Burlington, in Rutland.

“I think we’re doing both a great job, and need to continue to do more and be changing our approach all the time. I also don’t want to take anything away from the concerns and the complaints.”

He reiterates his directive: If you see inappropriate activity, “please call.”

The mayor said, “This is a multi faceted issue, with problems on (all) sides” that involves “law enforcement, mental health, social services…all happening all at the same time. As the mayor, I’ve spent dozens and dozens of hours, meeting almost weekly, and we are addressing this.

“What I was trying to say in the Council meeting is that we are continuing to work on this, and there’s no one solution there. There just couldn’t be.”

He added, “It’s never one group of people. It’s always changing. People get housing. Social services finds an apartment To people outside looking at this, they go, ‘It’s a problem, and it’s gotten worse,’ but then this summer, people were congratulating me and telling me what a great job I was doing,” as the situation seemed to lessen.

“It didn’t go away. Several of the main players got housing or moved away.

“And we made them uncomfortable, first at the gazebo, and then when they went over to the to the park area.”

The City enacted a curfew at City Park.

“We had over 300 calls in a year’s time [there],” the mayor says.

“We’ve made dozens of arrests there. We’ve gotten not nearly as many, but many calls at the bus stop. That’s new. It’s an ever changing situation.”

In the last month, Mayor Collins said he’s observed more people hanging out in the CDTA bus stop across from City Hall.

He says he and Police Chief Jarred Smith met with CDTA CEO Frank Annicaro. The mayor said, “It is their property. They’re now patrolling that area.”

The mayor said that if people don’t move along when asked by CDTA, “We’re able to arrest them for trespass.” He cites “over a dozen arrests, maybe two dozen, in the last six months at the bus stop.”

The City reports an average of 12 calls to the CDTA stop, May through July, and 23 calls in August, when CDTA begain increasing attention to the stop.

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