County sees rise in cost for housing homeless in hotels, motels

Mar. 23—Niagara County spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to provide rooms at local hotels and motels for a particular class of homeless people: Individuals and families who do not have homes or apartments of their own in which to live.

At the end of 2023, the county's cost for the service increased by $275,000.

While there are a variety of factors involved, Meghan Lutz, commissioner of the county's Social Services Department, which oversees the county's temporary housing assistance program, said rising costs and the end of an eviction moratorium that was in place during the COVID-19 pandemic were contributing factors.

"The cost of housing overall and the people that are homeless who may not have jobs or are having trouble finding jobs or who are unable to pay the cost of rent these days is significantly higher than during the pandemic," she said.

SHELTER SITUATION

Niagara County as an entity does not oversee any homeless shelters. Instead, the county works with partner agencies that provide shelter and other forms of assistance to homeless people.

The county's primary homeless shelter is Community Missions, Inc., located on Buffalo Avenue in Niagara Falls. Community Missions is certified to operate 27 beds for crisis housing. The county also partners with a pair of private shelters, Lockport CARES and the Gospel Rescue Mission in Niagara Falls. Community Missions provides shelter and other services to single individuals only.

The county pays for hotel and motel rooms for people when the 27 units at Community Missions are full and in instances where families — moms and dads with children — in crisis require shelter.

"When (Community Missions is) full, we use motels," Lutz said in an email in response to questions from the newspaper. "The number of motel rooms used depends on our homeless housing needs on any given day."

BY THE NUMBERS

In the first part of its ongoing series "Homeless in Niagara," the newspaper reported last week that while keeping an accurate count on the number of homeless people in the county is not an exact science, data kept by the county social services department shows the overall number of individuals in need of shelter and services has been on the rise in recent years.

"Homeless Services Plan" data, which is compiled by the county using information compiled by the department and several other local providers, shows there were 730 persons served in shelters between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. Over the same period the following year, the number increased to 851. The number showed a significant jump from October 2022 to September 2023, up to 1,183 individuals over that time frame.

The county also tracks annual emergency shelter placements. In 2022, the social services department recorded 426 active clients and 194 households under the category "specific placements into emergency shelters."

Last year, in the same category, the number of active clients nearly doubled to 802. Household placements rose too, up to 364.

HOTEL AND MOTEL COSTS

When Community Missions and the two other local shelter options are at capacity or unavailable, the county has arrangements to place homeless individuals and families in rooms at six partner hotels and motels, including Niagara Falls Motel, Pelican Motel, Enjoy Motel, Red Roof Inn, Budget Host Inn and B Cozy.

The county pays the same daily rate as any other hotel or motel customer so the amount spent per day varies.

At the end of 2022, the Social Services Department spent $600,000 to address homelessness or assist clients facing an imminent loss of housing.

At the end of last year, Lutz said the number increased to $875,000.

She noted that the figures do not include costs for other social service programs typically utilized by homeless individuals and families, including cash assistance and Medicaid.

It's part of the reason county officials have been strongly opposed to being forced to provide housing accommodation to migrants from New York City, a matter county lawmakers agreed to fight over in court in a legal battle that ended with New York City officials dropping its lawsuit over the county's authorization of an emergency order that barred county hotel and motel owners from providing shelter to migrants.

"We have a hard enough time finding housing for our own people," Lutz said. "To be able to provide it for other people would be difficult for us."

Lutz said individuals who qualify for temporary shelter assistance from the county are required to meet with a housing case manager at least once per week and often more. As part of program oversight, she said individuals qualifying for help must also continue to perform searches for more permanent housing and meet other regulations. Failure to follow the rules can result in sanctions, she noted.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING NEED

Lutz has said that the sheer number of people presenting as homeless in the county has been "increasing significantly" in the wake of the pandemic.

She said people have also found it difficult to find affordable and available permanent housing options locally, which is a contributing factor to the county having to pick up costs related to their need to stay in shelters or hotel or motel rooms longer.

Lutz cited a need that is not unique to Niagara County and that is for more affordable housing. She noted that, following the pandemic, many landlords either upped rent for their properties or got out of the rental business altogether.

"The housing stock that is out there, there's not a lot of it," she said.

Lutz noted that some landlords have also changed their rental standards following the pandemic and, as a result, are now requiring more stringent background and credit checks as well as upfront security deposits. For individuals already dealing with economic challenges in their lives, the standards for being cleared to rent an affordable apartment can be difficult to meet, she noted.

Lutz said there's always room for improvement within the system and that she and her colleagues in other counties across the state continue to advocate for legislation and reform that would promote the development of more affordable housing in Western New York and statewide. In the meantime, she said, when it comes to helping the homeless, the county is bound by the regulations that are in place and the options that are available.

"It's just the system we have to work with," she said.