Fighting Homelessness In Central New York
Oswego County works to give homeless a home
[gn_dropcap style=”1″ size=”3″]A[/gn_dropcap]lthough smaller in population compared to Onondaga County, and Syracuse, Oswego County also faces high homeless numbers. In 2011 according to Oswego County Department of Social Services the number of people without a home in in the county was 263, and 24% increase from 2009. This is the number of reported homeless citizens, but 263 is small compared to the 2,683 people who received emergency assistance from Oswego County Opportunities- Crisis Intervention Services. Emergency assistance is classified as food, clothing, shelter, housing, or safety.
Oswego County Opportunities (OCO) is the Community Action Agency for Oswego County. It is a private, noto-for-profit organization that provides a number of different services to county citizens in need. Transportation, crisis intervention, education, health, nutrition, and residential services. A large part of OCOs services is to homeless, and property stricken families.
Oswego County Opportunities Homeless Services Program Manger Brian Coleman, explains some of the things OCO does to fight homelessness in Oswego County.
OCO does a lot to improve homelessness in Oswego County, but services only go so far, and an important thing the county lacks is an established homeless shelter. According OCO’s Homeless Services Program Manger Brian Coleman, under New York State law the local department of Social Services is still required to provide housing for their homeless population. “Basically, Social Services puts [the families] in a motel for whatever period of time…That’s what the majority of people end up doing, and it’s not the most effective way to go, but unfortunately without having a shelter here in the county, it’s really the the only option here right now,” Said Coleman.
Having no established shelter in Oswego County is costly to tax payers, and makes for an unstable process for people looking to get back on their feet. One Oswego County resident would like to change this. No, it’s not a politician looking to get the sympathy vote in their next election, A concerned parent, or rich businessman looking to give back, or even someone who battled with poverty in their life and wants to change it for others. It’s a 12-year-old Oswego middle school student, named Emily Bradshaw.
Emily has been volunteering since she was 5-years-old when she started bell ringing for the Salvation Army. She has been doing various community service projects since. Making care baskets for troops overseas, shaving her hair for St. Baldricks Foundation, to name a few. One morning in September, Emily was at Oswego Middle School when she saw that some of her classmates were having to brush their teeth and clean up in the school bathrooms. She was curious as to why they were having to do this. Emily found out that the students didn’t have a home to do these things in. She wanted to do something to help, and after finding out that Oswego County did not have a homeless shelter, she made it her goal to help her classmates, and all homeless families around the county by working with county legestlatiors to start the process of building a shelter.
Knowing that the process will take a long time until it would produce anything, Emily started doing what should could to help families. In September she started making personal hygiene bags. Filling zip-lock baggies full of shampoo bottles, soap, shaving kits, and tooth paste and floss, to be donated to people in need.
After a short time Emily, realized that she would need help with this project, and put out a call for donations. The public answered, sending her over 8,000 hygiene and personal care items. Since September, emily has made 1,300 of these personal care bags. “It’s touching to see that I can do some things to help the community, that some people just can’t do,” Said Emily. “When I ask for donations, the amount of people that donate is incredible, absolutely incredible, and people who didn’t know about homelessness before are starting to realize that it is a problem, and it is a crisis that needs a solution, and it’s really just good to see.”
Emily is working along side Oswego County Opportunities and other local groups to get a shelter built in Oswego. Although nothing has been brought to Oswego County Legislation, plans for a shelter are moving forward.
Recently, Emily received national recognition for her charity efforts. She was named a national semifinalist in Build-A-Bear Workshops Huggable Heroes campaign. Check out the video below to see Emily talk about some of the things she does for her community as well as what it means to be a “huggable hero.”
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