MONTICELLO – Officials in Monticello are concerned that Sullivan County continues to place at-risk individuals in motels within the village.
Mayor George Nikolados said there were three motels and when one was closed or condemned, the county shifted the residents to another one.
“They are taking people who ended up in jail or are in rehab or whatever and need help and you are not helping them by taking them out of where they came from and just dumping them in Monticello without any help,” he said.
The village would like the county to reassess the situation in an effort to provide better services to those in need.
“The Department of Family Services has made several internal policy and personnel changes over the last year to help our clients break out of poverty and obtain stable housing. We are actually housing a historically low number of people right now – 48 across the county, compared with 113 last winter, and nearly 200 during the winter months of 2017-18,” said Sullivan County Commissioner of Social Services John Liddle. “Regardless of the size of our homeless population, we appreciate the mayor’s concerns and look forward to working with him and all of our local partners on this complex issue. That partnership will be critical when the State and Federal moratoriums on evictions eventually expire. It will take a complete community effort to house all of our neighbors in the year ahead.”
