A homeless encampment near the Washington Street bridge is pictured on Friday. County safety net costs, which include spending to house the homeless, are $3.5 million over budget in 2025. At the same time, the Chautauqua County Homeless Coalition is asking for permission to join the New York Balance of State Continuum of Care, which could bring more resources to the county to help with the homeless. P-J photo by Michael Zabrodsky

Chautauqua County’s safety net costs are millions of dollars over budget.

During the legislature’s Human Services, and Audit and Control committee meetings, county officials approved a resolution to move $2,385,000 out of the county’s reserves to cover the costs.

A final vote on the move will take place Wednesday during the legislature’s monthly meeting.

Counties’ safety net costs are expenses for programs that provide basic assistance, primarily encompassing temporary food benefits, housing/shelter, and other local support for people in need.

The resolution notes that safety net costs are funded at 28% by the state of New York and at 1% by the federal government. The county pays the balance.

Blake Ihrig, the Director of Administrative Services with the county’s Finance Department, said they are actually $3.5 million over budget.

“We’ve been monitoring safety net all year. We have seen an increase,” he said.

The additional $1,115,000 would come from the state and federal government, as well as departmental income.

As of the end of August, the county has been averaging $1 million a month in safety net expenses, but only had budgeted $8 million for the entire year.

Ihrig said they’re hopeful that the additional $3.5 million will cover the needed costs through the end of the year. “As we all know, safety net is hard to predict. With the current trends we’re hopeful we don’t have to come back before the end of the year but that is obviously subject to change,” he said.

Legislator Dan Pavlock, R-Ellington, said he wasn’t too surprised about the increased need.

“We knew (last year) that $8 million was marginal and probably not enough but we realized that we had a large fund balance that we would be able to make up the difference of probably $3 or $4 million, so we anticipated it,” he said.

Pavlock said had the county budgeted $12 million last year, it would have been difficult on the state imposed tax cap as well as possibly cause an increase in the county property tax rate.

“We elected to use the fund balance for this at a later date,” he said, advocating for a large fund balance.

Democrats on the county legislature have been critical of the county’s large fund balance. When the budget was adopted last year, the fund balance was estimated to be around $37.9 million, about 13.3% of the budget.

Carmello Hernandez, Commissioner of Mental Hygiene and Social Services, said the county receives around 100 applications a month for housing assistance.

“That’s not including the 200 that we’re already serving,” he said.

Hernandez said they haven’t been very successful at finding housing but they have had some limited success to help people from being evicted, which prevents them from going on the safety net program.

Hernandez was asked what was causing the increase.

“There are many factors. Mental health is one of them. Substance use is another one. … physical health, aging, homelessness – so multifaceted factors,” he replied.

Ihrig said they are planning on increasing the safety net budget for 2026. That would need to be submitted by the county executive and later reviewed by the legislature to take effect.