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A few weeks ago in this space, we opined that County Executive PJ Wendel and Mayor Eddie Sundquist should begin planning for a possible influx of newcomers from New York City.
Of course, at that time the thought was the city would be sending migrants after groups acting on the city's behalf were found to be reaching out to landlords to rent space for migrants. It turns out moving migrants from the city to rural areas has been harder than Adams thought, so now he's using his city's muscle -- and deep pockets -- to move the homeless out of the city in order to make room for the migrants.
Adams is extending the city's housing voucher program statewide -- basically allowing New York City residents who occupy the city's low-income housing to move anywhere in the state and have part of their rent paid on the city's dime for five years or more.
Wendel responded with a new executive order prohibiting any person, business or entity within Chautauqua County to accept a rental voucher as payment for housing without obtaining prior written authorization from the County Executive. Anyone who may knowingly violate this Emergency Order is subject to a criminal charge by the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office, a class B misdemeanor.
The color of the faces and the language people speak may be different now than they were under Adams' previous efforts, but the basic issue remains the same. As Mayor Eddie Sundquist told City Council members just a couple of weeks ago, the city is ill-equipped to handle an influx of people who aren't self-sufficient.
Those who need a reminder should look no further than the struggle to open homeless shelters in Jamestown last winter. It wasn't easy -- and those involved with the homeless are asking for more help from Sundquist and Wendel. Jamestown and Chautauqua County simply don't have the infrastructure necessary to act as a sanctuary for either migrants or the homeless. That doesn't matter to Adams, nor does it apparently matter to the federal government who refuses to deal with the influx of migrants coming to the border or the majority of those who are already here.
Wendel and Sundquist are the two little pigs while Adams is the big, bad wolf. Adams is huffing and puffing, and Wendel and Sundquist are hoping their house doesn't get blown away. The three little pigs at least had plans to build stronger houses. What's our plan?