Mayor Eddie Sundquist provided the Jamestown City Council with an update on the city’s efforts to address homelessness. The city met Monday with a coalition of community organizations to find solutions to the issue. The city is also meeting with pastors from local churches today to discuss how faith-based groups can help the city handle the rise in homelessness. P-J photo by Timothy Frudd

Mayor Eddie Sundquist presented the Jamestown City Council with the latest update on how the city plans to handle the recent rise in homelessness.

Recently, the council met with Sunquist about the issue of homelessness. Sundquist thanked the City Council members for presenting suggestions at the recent meeting.

City officials met with a group of different organizations Monday that play a crucial role in providing housing and services for those in need.

“Today we did meet with a group of various organizations across the city that are dealing with homelessness,” Sundquist said. “We had some really good discussion.”

The Salvation Army, the United Christian Advocacy Network City Mission, the department of development, Chautauqua Opportunities, Southern Tier Environments for Living, UPMC, Evergreen Health, Mental Health Association, Lutheran Social Services, the mayor of Falconer and members from various county departments attended Monday’s meeting.

While other organizations and individuals expressed interest in attending the meeting on homelessness, Sundquist said the groups represented at the meeting were each part of the county’s homelessness coalition.

According to Sundquist, the recent rise in homelessness reflects a significant change in the homeless population in the city.

“What we have normally seen in the past includes folks that have been kicked out of shelters or have been sanctioned by the county and other providers for whatever violation of services they have provided,” he said. “We normally see about 25 to 30.”

Sundquist said the city now has found encampments of homeless residents with as may as 50 to 70 people. He said the city is trying to deal with the increase in homelessness, but that the changing factors that have contributed to the problem require difficult solutions.

“That is a new challenge for these organizations,” he said. “We now have individuals that don’t want to accept service or have gone through all the services and are just choosing to live outside. In some cases they have moved here or left and then come back, so these are not the normal groups of folks that we’ve seen.”

As winter approaches, Sundquist warned the council that if the city does not have an adequate plan, individuals will begin seeking shelter in places such as abandoned houses to stay warm.

Nevertheless, pointing to a more hopeful future, the mayor said Monday’s meeting led to “great discussion.” He said the homelessness coalition would be hosting another meeting at the end of the month.

In addition to Monday’s meeting, the city will also be meeting with Jamestown’s church leadership to seek additional support for the issue of homelessness.

“We’ve called the pastors from the majority of churches in the city and asked them meet with us tomorrow night to talk about homelessness and the ways that our faith community can assist us in this process,” he said. “There are very few, if any, faiths that I know of that don’t talk about helping people that our down on their luck and need assistance, and homelessness is certainly one of those things.”

Based on the research the city has conducted of other cities across the country, Sundquist said one of the most effective solutions for homelessness seems to be a partnership between resource organizations and faith-based groups. Sundquist said the city is currently working with both groups.

While Tuesday’s meeting is not open to the public, Sundquist believes it will be another positive step toward alleviating the rise in homelessness in the city.

“My hope is that we can start to find a solution,” he said. “There were some solutions that came out of today’s meeting that could help in the immediate time. It’s not going to solve all the problems, we don’t have all the solutions, but we do have steps in the right direction.