Meléndez releases report on homelessness

After a series of testimonies from advocacy organizations and community providers in October, Rochester City Council President Miguel Meléndez on Monday released a report focused on tackling the homelessness crisis.

Advocates and providers throughout the community have long pointed with concern to Rochester’s growing state of homelessness, pushing local policymakers for an immediate and permanent end to the city’s use of encampment sweeps. Meléndez heard from 41 experts and 227 city residents, culminating in the report.

With eight key recommendations, the report is meant to serve as a foundational framework for efforts developed at all levels of government. Recommendations include:

■ a declaration of a joint emergency order on homelessness by Monroe County and the city of Rochester;

■ supporting the expansion of the Peace Village 2.0 model;

■ increasing the number of low-barrier shelter options;

■ protecting a community housing-first continuum;

■ investing in neighborhood ambassador programs and community opportunities for the unhoused;

■ increasing investments in youth-specific shelter and support;

■ continued consideration for public health and safety regarding street homelessness; and

■ data-driven solutions with consistent coordination and collaboration among partners.

When Meléndez spoke with the Beacon in October, he saw the report as a way to balance the perspective of advocates with reported concerns from residents on the public health risks they faced from living in proximity to outdoor encampments, such as potential litter and medical waste. One primary solution set forth in the report seeks to establish clearer protocols for how the city will provide relocation and social services to support those living in outdoor encampments before being deconstructed.

The report also states 49 percent of surveyed residents expressed a need to address failing systems of support for the unhoused, while other respondents noted a disproportionate rate of encampments throughout the city’s historically underserved neighborhoods.

The City Council president’s pledged goal is a state of functional zero throughout Rochester: a threshold, often measured month-to-month, where the number of individuals facing homelessness at any time does not exceed the rate of those being permanently housed.

“As a city legislator, I recognize how easy it can be to assign blame or shift responsibility. Yet the reality is that the challenges we face surrounding homelessness are shared and the circumstances confronting our unhoused neighbors could affect any one of us,” Meléndez writes in the report. “It is therefore incumbent upon all elected officials, community leaders and system partners to acknowledge that we can and must do better.”

For the city’s network of providers and community organizations, moving forward with the report’s recommendations must come with a permanent end to encampment sweeps. Advocates continue to maintain residents’ concerns of litter and medical waste can be addressed while simultaneously preventing unhoused communities from being displaced by the sweep of an outdoor encampment.

“We’re seeing what I think is a momentum shift in how we treat our unhoused neighbors, especially with the (emergency) declaration of homelessness,” says Lisle Coleman, Western New York community organizer with VOCAL-NY. “While we really appreciate the attention towards low-barrier shelter and housing-first models, (the report) fails to deliver on our current task, which is to completely end the practice of encampment sweeps.”

Narm Nathan is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and a member of the Oasis Project’s inaugural cohort.

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