Last week, County Executive Matthew Ossenfort said that the recently approved county budget includes $30,600 for Danielle’s House, a homeless shelter in the City of Amsterdam run by Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless. Ossenfort said that he and members of the legislature had met with representatives of the shelter earlier in the year before including the amount.
In addition to humanitarian reasons, Ossenfort said the allocation was a “wise investment” given that it costs the county’s social services department less to place a homeless person at the shelter than at a hotel.
At a Common Council committee meeting last month, John Nasso, Executive Director of Catholic Charities of Fulton & Montgomery Counties and member of the shelter’s advisory board, said the shelter did not receive expected grant money this year, and would not be able to open this winter without an additional $90,000 in funding. At the meeting Nasso said he had originally asked Montgomery County for $60,000 to help cover the shortfall and asked the city to contribute $15,000.
A resolution sponsored by Alderman Ed Russo to contribute an unspecified amount of money was tabled earlier this month. The resolution is on the agenda again for this Tuesday’s Common Council Meeting at City Hall which starts at 7:00pm.
Photo by Waferboard, used under CC BY 2.0
