Monroe County set to open new emergency shelter for families

The first emergency housing facility owned by Monroe County is now online.

The Moving Forward Family Center, which can accommodate up to 58 families, is expected to open Monday at the edge of the Corn Hill neighborhood.

It will be operated by Volunteers of America, which the county selected after soliciting proposals. The organization operates its own 15-unit emergency family shelter and has a rapid rehousing program.

"This shelter represents our dedication to providing immediate relief to families in crisis, ensuring they have a safe place to stay and access to vital services they need to rebuild their lives," Junior Dillion, president and CEO of Volunteers of America of Upstate, said during a news conference Wednesday.

The family shelter will offer meals and wraparound services such as case management, child care, and medical services, said Thalia Wright, Monroe County's human services commissioner.

"We want the families who utilize the Moving Forward shelter to come with dignity, to feel the dignity, to feel safe, to feel supported, to feel empowered, to feel a little loved while they're here," Wright said.

The three-story building used to be a hotel. It can house families of up to eight people.

Plans for the shelter emerged last summer and were initially met with some pushback from neighbors. Wright and County Executive Adam Bello said they saw the approach as a way to get away from placing families who need emergency shelter in hotels, which the county has had to do with increasing frequency.

Emergency housing where families can stay together has been in very short supply, and demand has been on the rise. Bello said the county has seen a 223% increase in family placements since 2021.

Last year, the county saw just over 1,000 families seeking emergency housing placements. Of them, 680 were temporarily placed in hotels.

"The Moving Forward family shelter is more than just a shelter, though, and this is really important," Bello said. "It offers support beyond lodging and certainly beyond what can be offered at a hotel."