Various county officials such as Saratoga County Supervisor Joanne Yepsen and Mayor Scott Johnson, along with representatives from many of the Housing Alliance’s organizations, shared their experiences from the day and discussed the difficulties they faced along with possible solutions for those problems.
Supervisor Yepsen said she was surprised by the number of people at the Transitional Services Association, a nonprofit that offers care to individuals dealing with mental illness and chemical dependencies.
“If people think of Saratoga Springs as wealthy, they’re wrong,” Yepsen said. “We do have a large homeless population.”
One possible solution that occurred to Yepsen after her experiences visiting different agencies throughout the day was to create a single point of access that the homeless can use at one place.
“It was one thing after another,” Yepsen said. “I would love for the county to have a single complex that houses all of these agencies to put all the pieces together.”
A common theme between participants throughout the evening’s discussion was that the amount of paperwork that the homeless must fill out to receive services can be overwhelming.
Nancy Defibaugh from the Saratoga County Office of the Aging was assigned to visit Southern Adirondack Independent Living (SAIL), and found that filling out the forms to receive Medicaid, food stamps and other services was an “eye-opener.”
“It taught me a lot of things,” Defibaugh said. “A lot of us turn the other way and don’t realize what’s out there. The services they receive are not just handouts.”
Terry Lee from the Saratoga Hospital Foundation visited Saratoga County’s Department of Social Services, and agreed with Defibaugh about the large amount of paperwork that must be filled out.
“They have to fill out all this paperwork, which can probably be maddening,” Lee said. “You could be there all day filling out paperwork—you could be there for three days filling it all out.”
Other participants also agreed that the paperwork aspect of the services were lengthy, asked what could be invasive and personal questions, and confusing.
Overall, most of the participants walked away with good impressions of the many agencies in town that serve the needs of the homeless. The common issues that arose were the paperwork problems and unfriendly employees at the Social Services office. The homeless citizens that were present at the meeting also brought up the catch-22 that each of them faced when applying for jobs: Job applications ask for the permanent address of applicants, but when they put that they are living in a shelter or don’t have an address at all, employers will discard their applications. The same goes for apartment applications—most apartments won’t accept residents that are unemployed.
“I never thought I’d be in the situation I’m in,” said Robert Curry, one of the homeless attendees. “But how are we supposed to apply for jobs without a permanent residence?”
A 19-year-old homeless teenager named Dylan Barber was also present at the meeting, exemplifying the kind of homeless person that can fall through the cracks of government.
After living at home with an abusive, alcoholic mother and no father, Dylan was on the streets at age 16. Living in his car, he found a way to work but was soon laid off, at which time he sought out help from the Department of Social Services. Since the department only qualifies people ages 21 and up as adults, they told Barber he needed to get child support from his mother in order to receive services from DSS.
“My mother is poor,” Barber said. “If I made her give me child support, she’d be right out in the streets with me—I’m not gonna do that to her. They just wanted me to go after my parents when I really needed help.”
Barber also said that being homeless may have ruined his potential career in the Air Force: After meeting with a recruiter, he told Barber that since he didn’t have a permanent address he wouldn’t be able to sign up.
Since then, things have been looking up for Barber. He now pays $70 a week to live at Shelters of Saratoga, and recently began working for the printing company Quad/Graphics for a little over $11/hour.
“Shelters of Saratoga saved my life,” Barber said.
After hearing his story, Cindy Phillips, co-chair of Saratoga County Housing Alliance, sympathized with him.
“We have to fight the government sometimes, and that’s tough,” Phillips told him. “You’re exactly the kind of person who falls through the cracks.”
To learn more about the Saratoga County Housing Alliance and what their agencies do for the homeless, visit their website at www.saratogacountyhousingalliance.org. To learn more about Shelters of Saratoga, visit their website at www.sheltersofsaratoga.org.
