Ferguson seeks to keep homeless men out of hotel
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A former hotel that previously housed homeless individuals in Fredonia but was shut down due to poor conditions of the building is ready to be reopened.
At the same time, the village's top elected leader does not want homeless men to be allowed to stay there.
During the Fredonia Village Board meeting, Mayor Michael Ferguson announced that he met with Carmelo Hernandez, the Director of Community Mental Hygiene Services and Commissioner of Social Services for Chautauqua County about "the possibility of DSS programming returning to the former Econo Lodge" on Route 60.
"You know I worked hard to get that programming removed," Ferguson said, referring to stopping the facility from housing homeless individuals. "They have passed the remodeling of that hotel and are applying for it (DSS programming)."
According to Ferguson, the building has been reopened under the banner of America's Favorite Motel. "I expressed strong resistance to anything other than public transient agreement as a hotel for travelers or temporary locations for women and children in need," he said.
Last month, at the Chautauqua County Legislature's Human Services Committee it was revealed that the county was working with both the former Econo Lodge as well as the former as the Comfort Inn on Route 60 just outside of Jamestown. Both hotels had been banned from housing homeless people due to poor living conditions.
DSS workers told county leaders that if the hotels were reopened they wanted assurances that those buildings would not fall into disrepair again.
Ferguson, at Tuesday's meeting, expressed a similar sentiment. "We don't want them living in disgust with the way that building was taken care of," he said.
Ferguson also acknowledged that with cooler temperatures, there are people who will need emergency housing. "We are not cold to the fact that cold season is upon us and the county is working very hard on Code Blue stations. I am working with a couple of churches about Code Blue stations," he said.
It is unknown what effect Ferguson's words will have.
In a separate interview, Hernandez said that single men are the biggest need for housing and that a new single male shelter would reduce hotel use for the homeless by 60%.
Since the two hotels were shut down, Chautauqua County has been housing homeless individuals in both Erie and Cattaraugus counties.