Finding Common Ground on Housing: A Conversation with Sullivan County’s Health and Human Services Commissioner

Last Wednesday, New York’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, or OTDA, suspended applications for the state’s Homeless Housing and Assistance Program. The state grant was the main program that Sullivan County was looking to apply for to fund the Gateway Housing Project.

The next day at the Sullivan County Legislative meeting in Monticello, a new location for the housing project was rejected again, this time in a 5 – 4 vote against building the site at Sunset Lake Road in Liberty.

READ: New York Freezes Housing Funds as Sullivan County Legislature Stalls on Gateway Housing Location

Even in the face of a divided legislative council and a community wondering what is taking so long to address the housing crisis, Sullivan County Commissioner of Health and Human Services John Liddle is not giving up.

The amount of young people coming into Health and Human Services who are experiencing homelessness has increased significantly in the last month. September saw a large spike in the total of unhoused people in the county, Liddle says.

”As far as how the housing issue has developed in Sullivan County over the last five years,” said Liddle. “I have seen nothing but change.”

Homelessness rates around the country are at an all time high, with experts citing cuts to programs in the Continuum of Care, like Medicaid and mental health services, a lack of deeply affordable housing, and punitive measures for unhoused folks all as contributing factors.

Liddle has seen these factors play out in Sullivan County, including the most recent Village of Liberty Town Meeting that approved a local law to ban sleeping or camping in public areas.

READ: Village of Liberty Passes Local Law to Ban Sleeping or Camping in Public Areas

Over the summer, the Legislature approved a grant that would give $2 Million to the Sullivan County Department of Planning to protect low-middle income housing. Radio Catskill reached out to Heather Brown from the Sullivan County Department of Planning for a comment on the grant and the housing continuum, but have not heard anything back at the time of this publishing.

Still, the second rejection of the Gateway Housing Project has left many in the community cynical about the county’s priorities on housing. While Liddle asserts that all nine of the county legislature support the idea of the project, disagreements about the location are holding back a majority vote to pass the project.

As housing advocates anxiously await for the OTDA funding applications to be opened up again, Liddle is working to address the entire housing continuum. He also hopes to combat policies that allow for gentrification, especially now that more people are moving from New York City to the Catskills.

“Although my daily focus is on homelessness, I want to see the whole housing continuum improve,” said Liddle. “Because inevitably you do something for the other end of the spectrum, it’s going to help the lower end as well.”

Image: A row of rental homes in Sullivan County (Credit: SullivanNY.gov)