Photo by Mike Smoker
Pictured is a location in Fredonia in a wooded area where some homeless individuals are living.
BARCELONA — He was seated at Route 5 and North Portage Road in this small hamlet that boasts a thriving summer shoreline and pier along Lake Erie. Holding a cardboard sign, the individual made a humble and desperate plea.
“Homeless. In need of cash.”
Residents and tourists who stopped at the intersection took notice. Some offered loose change while others handed him dollar bills.
His plight is one that is growing all too familiar in Chautauqua County. Since the State of Emergency that was issued two weeks ago by Mayor Kim Ecklund in Jamestown, homelessness has been a hot-button and high-profile issue for nearly every community.
By many accounts, the area has reached a crisis situation that brings no easy answers.
In the south-county city, the visibility of the problem cannot be understated. Through the heart of downtown to the former Brooklyn Square, camps are evident near the Chadakoin River and viaduct area.
Ecklund’s state of emergency points to mental health as being one of the key factors. In making the declaration the evening of July 25, there is no denying this issue has become too great for a municipality of 28,500 residents — the largest in the county — to handle.
Elected officials believe that since Jamestown is home to the only treatment facility within a 55-mile radius, many who arrive cannot return home. This has proliferated a problem that began shortly after the COVID pandemic and the closing of Lakeshore Hospital in Irving in February 2020.
“The city has been actively pushing for the establishment of more mental health evaluation centers throughout Western New York to address this issue more effectively and provide crucial support to those in need,” city officials said in a news release last month. “In collaboration with UPMC Chautauqua, the city of Jamestown is urging the governor to assess the need for an additional 939 facility in Western New York or a neighboring county.”
As noted in a previous article on this topic, that type of location is a reference to state Mental Hygiene Law Section 939, which permits the involuntary commitment of individuals with mental health conditions who are deemed a danger to themselves or others. City officials say people are often brought to Jamestown under Section 939, as well as state Mental Hygiene Law sections 941 and 945.
Those transports are bound for UPMC Chautauqua from throughout Western New York. Ecklund, who is still waiting for some type of response from the state, had no other choice.
Other county municipalities are not immune from what is happening in Jamestown. That proof is in the poverty rate that stands at 17.4% within Chautauqua County.
In the north county, the situation also exists though some of it is hidden. One Post-Journal reporter visited a location in Dunkirk-Fredonia where the homeless have set up camp that is not in plain sight to the residents. Though he found the area to include remnants of individuals being at the scene during a recent weekend visit, he saw no individuals at the location, which is to the west of Vineyard Drive in a highly wooded area.
Partners in Kind is one of many groups or nonprofits making an effort to ease the burden. This Dunkirk-Fredonia collective of community members dedicated to addressing the unmet human needs, has helped a transient population for years — especially through the winter months. The organization places gloves and socks in plastic bags at numerous locations in the north county in recent years. At certain times, those items go quickly — to community members in need or those who are traveling through and looking for assistance.
Back in Jamestown, that human element cannot be ignored. Churches and charities have offered assistance and members of the community spoke in support of doing more during a council meeting last month.
“Granted they probably have a lot of issues,” said Cynthia Schoberg. “That’s probably how they got here in the first place. So I’m hoping that we can use an example of some other cities. Austin, Texas, I know, has a program where they moved them all and moved undomiciled people to tiny houses. They need security. They need a place they can lock up what little items they have. They need dignity.”
But there is another side to the issue as well involving crime. In recent police reports — at both ends of the county, there are more of these homeless individuals being charged in illegal activity, most of it is considered minor though that’s not always the case.
One incident on May 19 involved Eric Chartier, 34, being indicted by a grand jury last week on first-degree and second-degree arson charges. That fire injured another individual staying at the condemned residence at 234 Fulton St.
A more tragic tale involves an April 2018 death of 47-year-old Brian Heyden, also classified as homeless, who was found off Route 20 in a wooded area near Corell Creek in Portland. To this day, officials have no answers as to what happened.
While the spotlight shines greatest on Jamestown, there is no denying this is a dilemma facing all of Chautauqua County though it is not being addressed in other communities or in the Legislature. Earlier this week, a resident who once owned property near Chautauqua Lake reached out to us from Mechanicsburg, Pa., after reading about the issue in our newspapers. He said he left the region after becoming frustrated by the lack of private investment within the area.
That individual had the means, and made a choice to relocate. Those who have gathered in Jamestown are not as fortunate, which is a part of the reason they remain.
Additionally, those camps have created a different type of community. A new location to call home for those with nowhere to go.
John D’Agostino is the editor of The Post-Journal, OBSERVER and Times Observer in Warren, Pa. Send comments to jdagostino@observertoday.com or call 716-487-1111, ext. 253.