MONTICELLO – Homelessness remains on the rise in Sullivan County. The homeless census was as high as 313 as of the submission date in Health and Human Services Commissioner John Liddle’s latest report presented to the Legislature on Thursday, April 11. Although Liddle said that the census was down to 288 as of Friday, April 5, it is still an increase from last month’s 275. 

Liddle said the homeless census includes about 42 families with slightly over 100 children. 

“Most of the population is single,” Liddle remarked, “but it is a troubling number of families.”

He noted that his team and the Department of Social Services (DSS) have done a lot of hard work to get people moved on from the hotels and into permanent housing, which is work that continues. 

A contributing factor to the homeless census increasing is evictions. Sullivan County Undersheriff Eric Chaboty reported during the Public Safety Committee meeting on Thursday that during the first quarter of the year, there were 114 evictions conducted by the Civil Division.

Potential housing 

resource

One potential housing resource that Liddle said that he and his office are looking into is Lazarus I. Levine Residence Hall (Laz Hall), the main dormitory building behind Paul Gerry Fieldhouse at SUNY Sullivan. Liddle met with the Officer in Charge of SUNY Sullivan, Casey Crabill, last month to gauge interest on using the residence hall as a transitional housing for local families in need of assistance. 

Liddle said that he then met with reps from Honor EHG – a shelter based in Middletown and the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) as well as Sean Welsh, Vice President for Administrative Services at SUNY Sullivan, on Wednesday, April 10 to look at Laz Hall. 

“We took a look to see if there are opportunities to creatively reuse Laz Hall as a housing asset for the county,” Liddle said. “We’re very early in this process so I certainly don’t want to make any grand announcements before we sort out a lot of issues that need to be sorted out, but it was a very positive first conversation looking through the building.”

Liddle said that the building is in fairly decent shape but it needs significant repairs to the roof and in-room HVAC units. He said that they are starting to dig into numbers and see if it makes sense from the college’s perspective and the county’s perspective as a resource.

In the report, Liddle noted that it appears to be an opportunity for a significant win-win for both parties, with funding available from OTDA to address deferred maintenance issues.

“We are pretty hopeful of what we saw,” Liddle noted. “The reason that this is coming up as an opportunity is because of State SUNY’s requirements as far as how dormitories are operated. They have been progressively closing chunks of the dorm down because of the roof issue.” 

Liddle said that SUNY Sullivan is limited in their ability to make the required repairs for the sake of the dorms. He also said that they have enough capacity in the EcoGreen Townhouses behind the dormitory to move students out.

Liddle also said that SUNY Sullivan expects the last of their students currently living in Laz Hall to move out by the end of the spring semester. The dorm has a little over 320 beds according to Liddle.

“A lot of the discussion that has to happen is how that can be reused,” Liddle said. “It is also important to note that the dorm is under the control of the dorm corporation as dorms are separate from the campus. There are a lot of legal issues that will have to be sorted out.”

Liddle said that they are looking to start with having the building as an emergency shelter for families before transitioning it to more permanent housing. 

In conclusion, Liddle said, “While our need [for housing] is significant these days, it’s not at the level of 320 beds.”