Homelessness: A Meeting Mired In Misinformation

A proposed ordinance to restrict “camping” on city-owned property unleashed a torrent of anger from some members of the public during a marathon meeting of the Saratoga Springs City Council on July 1, 2025, that saw the public hearing lasting over three hours. While many who spoke against the ordinance were well-meaning and no doubt saw themselves as defending the most vulnerable in our community, their comments often reflected a lack of awareness of the resources the city is currently devoting to address homelessness and an unfortunate misconception that the purpose of the ban was to criminalize and incarcerate the homeless.

The ordinance prohibits anyone from sleeping, lying, or sitting on city property, including public sidewalks, street medians, public parking garages, and parking lots. Blankets, tarps, sleeping bags, milk crates, chairs, and tables cannot be placed on city property.

An Event Reflecting The Caring World Of Saratoga Springs

One of the admirable qualities of Saratoga Springs is its citizens’ unusual commitment to and involvement in their community. This commitment was evident in the number of people who turned out to speak about the ordinance during the public hearing that took up over three hours of the almost five-hour meeting.

I was struck by the earnestness of many of those who spoke against the resolution. While a few of the speakers indulged in irate attacks on Mayor Safford, Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll, and Public Works Commissioner Chuck Marshall, who supported the resolution, most were courteous and restrained, even if often misinformed.

Myths That Subvert

The recurring themes of those who spoke in opposition to the ordinance were:

1. The city has done little to address the needs of the city’s homeless population.

2. The purpose of the ban on camping on city-owned property was to criminalize and incarcerate the homeless.

Here are just two examples:

These speakers and others who voiced the same criticisms appeared to be completely unaware of the resources the city is currently devoting to this challenging issue.

Saratoga Springs annually spends $500,000.00 of local tax revenue on the homeless. Additionally, the city allocates hundreds of thousands of discretionary federal dollars to address homelessness issues. These same elected officials who were the subject of withering criticism on July 1 (Safford, Coll, Marshall) have supported the appropriation of these substantial sums. You would never know this from the statements criticizing them at the public hearing.

No other city in this region, many of which have a much larger tax base than Saratoga Springs, spends any local money to maintain shelters for their homeless population. That includes Albany, Schenectady, Glens Falls, and Rensselaer. Most of these cities have private missions that rely on funding from state and federal governments, as well as private donations.

In addition to funding the RISE shelter, part of the city’s annual contribution of $500,000 is directed to funding the city’s Outreach Court (formally known as the Homeless Court), overseen by Judge Vero, who works closely with RISE (the not-for-profit that runs one of the city’s shelters). The very purpose of this court is to provide Judge Vero with an alternative to the incarceration of the homeless who appear before her on a variety of charges. That’s right, the purpose of her court is to try to keep the men and women who come before her out of jail. Judge Vero has enjoyed the enthusiastic support of Safford, Coll, and Marshall.

In addition, under the Public Safety Commissioner, Tim Coll, the city Police Department has established a “peer-to-peer” program in collaboration with RISE. A RISE staff person is embedded with the police to assist in dealing with homeless individuals the police encounter. The department also maintains an ongoing relationship with Shelters of Saratoga, which currently provides housing for the homeless during the winter months.

These steps are not sufficient to resolve homelessness, but to characterize the supporters of the controversial bill as seeking to address homelessness by putting everyone in jail is patently false and unfair.

Protecting Credibility

It is one thing to argue that the city is not doing enough. It is quite another to carry on an impassioned crusade that ignores both reality and a thoughtful path to solutions. Many of those who testified at the public hearing seemed simply incapable of acknowledging both the major initiatives the city has been pursuing or of conceding that the promoters of the “camping” resolution might be sincerely concerned about the dreadful conditions of many people living on our city’s streets. What these people do not understand is that by misrepresenting the city’s response to homelessness, they undermine their own credibility and effectiveness.

A Plague Of Disinformation

The confusion of many who oppose the resolution is understandable, given some of the postings that have appeared on social media.

In particular, Democratic Mayoral candidate Michele Madigan’s Facebook page is a major promoter of a false narrative with statements like:

“Now the City Council under The Republican majority voted 3-2 (along party lines) not to provide more resources, not to support our low barrier shelter, but to target [JK: for arrest] unhoused residents just as track season begins.

Michele Madigan July 3, 2025

This comment is problematic not only for Madigan’s inaccurate characterization of the vote’s meaning, but also for her attempt to make the vote a partisan issue. As Ms. Madigan well knows, one of the three yes votes was Tim Coll. While Coll was endorsed in 2023 by the local Republican Committee, he is a registered Democrat and has been endorsed this year by the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee. She will be running on the Democratic line with him in November.

RISE has not been helpful either. Their poorly considered threat to close their shelter just before the Belmont unless they were funded for another year gratuitously upped the temperature and was meant to portray the city as the enemy. It is a testament to the integrity of Safford, Coll, and Marshall that they are still working on funding RISE in next year’s budget. These officials are able to rise above such provocative behavior in the interest of the homeless and the city.

Saratoga Springs Cannot Solve Homelessness on Its Own.

In the early seventies, New York State closed its facilities for the severely mentally ill and had a supposed plan to set up small homes throughout the state to encourage better incorporation into communities and help promote independence.

This was all really a sham. The real purpose was to save money. Very few homes were ever set up. The number of mentally ill homeless people mushroomed.

The state also established what were meant to be protections against the forced institutionalization of the mentally ill. This also ended up contributing to the dramatic increase in homelessness, particularly among those struggling with mental illness.

The trend of high construction costs further exacerbates the problem of homelessness. The cost of homes and rent has skyrocketed.

Finding affordable and accessible land in Saratoga Springs for a shelter is also a huge barrier. Past proposals for multiple sites for a homeless shelter have been successfully opposed by neighbors. A committee set up under former Mayor Ron Kim selected a controversial site out along Route 29 for a facility. Nothing ever happened with that project. One homeless advocate on the committee opposed the location because of its distance from downtown.

Given the dearth of facilities for the homeless, finding quality housing is a huge problem not only in Saratoga Springs but throughout the world.

Providing Proper Services Is A Real Challenge

The problem of homelessness is a Gordian knot that will not be untied easily. There are very disturbed people who are homeless, and the current facilities and resources that are available locally cannot properly help.

The reality is that some very disturbed individuals on the streets of Saratoga Springs are belligerent and potentially dangerous to others and to themselves. Shelters of Saratoga, as well as the low-barrier facility RISE, lack the staff and facilities to adequately address the increasing demand for services and shelter.

Even RISE, which has the most liberal policy for accepting the most challenging of the homeless, turns people away. I have been told that RISE has rejected clients from Albany and sent them back there by bus. Other clients with severe anti-social behavior are denied shelter at the RISE facility, and RISE uses the police to deal with these people, characterizing them as trespassers.

What Can Be Done?

It is an illusion that the city can solve our homelessness problem on its own. We need to face this difficult situation honestly. Demagogues may play on people’s concern for justice, but what this community needs to do is ask some hard questions about how best to ameliorate the state of homelessness, rather than presume we can eliminate it.