Eddie Sundquist

Plans for two emergency homeless shelters that will have a total of 30 beds are coming together in the City of Jamestown.

Mayor Eddie Sundquist said a third round of meetings on homelessness in the city took place Thursday between community groups, faith based groups, resource providers and medical providers.

He said as winter weather is on the horizon, the group wanted to make sure there was emergency shelters in place for “Code Blue” nights when the temperature drops below 32 degrees, “What’s unique about these shelters is that they’re different from anything else we have. One shelter will primarily focus on families that may need emergency sheltering and support during cold nights. And another one will focus on co-ed singles, something that we do not have here in the city. We’ve experienced in a lot of encampments those issues.”

Sundquist said the city still needs state and county approval, but the proposed shelter locations will be at Joy Fellowship Church on 7th Street and the Mental Health Association at the Gateway Center.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist addresses Jamestown City Council (October 17, 2022)

The City of Jamestown has received a $194,000 HUD grant to help deal with homelessness issues.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist, in his Mayor’s report to City Council, said the city will have to develop a plan for use of the funds with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development encouraging that it be used for rapid response.

He said resource providers, local church organizations, and medical providers have met to discuss both long-term solutions and short term emergency shelter.

Sundquist said Chautauqua Opportunities, Inc. has taken the lead with the county on the issue and that one to two sites have been identified as potential emergency winter shelters, “So, it would be a nighttime, usually from around 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. Those sites would also then provide security at the locations, food, we’d have other churches and other groups provide resources there. We’d have social workers and other resource providers come to that location and we were also talking about potentially having once a week a medical provider come on site.”

Sundquist said they hope to get details finalized in the next week. He said with the weather turning cooler there is a need for emergency shelters, “On an average night across Chautauqua County when there is a ‘Code Blue,’ the weather is under 32 degrees, they have about seven people across the county that they have to shelter. That number is expected to double or triple this year with just Jamestown alone.”

Sundquist said resource providers are also discussing creating a shelter just for people with addiction needs or who are in recovery. He added that most of the current shelters in Jamestown are full.