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The dramatic increase was met with concern and heightened attention to its causes, namely a lack of affordable housing nationwide.

But if that 18% is cause for concern, the increase in Cayuga County is outright alarming. Homelessness spiked 37% there last year, according to the Housing & Homeless Coalition of Central New York.

Signs of that increase have become almost inescapable, particularly in downtown Auburn. Visibly homeless people are now a fixture at downtown parks and other public areas when the weather allows. The county has also been housing a growing number of them in hotels at significant expense, which is one reason why it is supporting the construction of a new 80-bed shelter on Grant Avenue.

To explore the recent spike in homelessness in Cayuga County, including causes, effects and possible solutions, ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» spoke to several officials, service providers and people experiencing it.

'Someone else suffers'

Last year's 37% spike in homelessness in Cayuga County is part of an overall increase of 64% there since 2021, according to the coalition.

Its data comes from the annual Point-in-Time Count, a nationwide effort to tally how many people are experiencing homelessness on a single, usually frigid night in January. About 770,000 people were counted last year, amounting to the 18% increase reported by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in December.

In Cayuga County, the biggest contributor to last year's increase was families with at least one child, going from 82 of 188 people (44%) in 2023 to 128 of 258 people (50%) in 2024.

Data from the Central New York Homeless Management Information System points to another big contributor to the spike in recent years: first-time homeless people. There were 558 from October 2022 to September 2023, an increase of 26% from the year prior. One of them was Leanna Nares, who now lives in an apartment in the village of Cayuga. Like many, her problem was affordable housing.

"It's incredibly hard to find a place," she told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» in November. "I make a decent living wage, but rent is still 50% (of my income)."

Christine Bianco, commissioner of social services for Cayuga County, told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» that the lack of affordable housing in the area is "at the very root" of the local increase in homelessness.

One way to fix that, Bianco said, would be for New York state to raise the amount of Safety Net Assistance it provides. It's $362 a month, only $179 of which is supposed to go toward housing.

"That's never going to buy rent for one month. It's peanuts, $179 is just impossible," she said. "Even if they take the total amount of $362, there still aren't places to rent for $350."

Bianco noted that the amount of Safety Net Assistance has not been raised in decades, despite social services commissioners like her and advocacy organizations pressing the issue with the state.

Meanwhile, rent has been raised — a lot. According to the , median rent in Cayuga County rose 20% from 2018 ($747) to 2023 ($895) after rising just 10% in the previous five years.

Nicole Gee, street outreach coordinator and housing director for the Cayuga Community Health Network, told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½»Â the end of COVID-19's eviction moratorium was the main cause of the increase.

"A lot of landlords were shafted for two years and didn't receive a dime. I get they want to replenish what they lost," she said. "But someone else suffers who can't afford $1,200 for a studio apartment."

The end of the moratorium led to many people losing their housing as well, Gee said. They reentered the market facing not only higher rents, but in some cases, a more rigid application process. A few of the homeless people who spoke to ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» in recent months said it has become common for landlords to charge applicants for background checks. The most the state to charge is $20.

Gee said that although some landlords do charge for background checks, other charges are in reality scams on websites like Facebook. The charge is also applied to rent for successful applicants.

Brian Bell, who was housed at the Rodeway Inn in Weedsport when he spoke to ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» in September, has encountered the charge often.

"How can I set money aside for a month's rent if it's taken me $400 to look at different apartments?" he said.

"You put 10 people through a day at $20 each, and you've collected a bunch of money from people you don't even plan to have live there."

'Uncomfortable and fearful'

Although Cayuga County shares one cause of increasing homelessness with the rest of the country — lack of affordable housing — another cause listed by U.S. officials is far less of a factor locally. 

The surge of migrants in the U.S., particularly major cities, was a big contributor to last year's 18% increase in homelessness nationwide, the Department of Housing and Urban Development said. 

It's perhaps for that reason that many in Cayuga County believe most homeless people there are from outside the area. Even many of the homeless people who spoke to ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» believe that.

But data from the Homeless Management Information System shows otherwise. Of 1,711 people entered into the system from 2020 to 2023, 62% listed a zip code in Cayuga County as their last permanent address. Another 14% listed a zip code elsewhere in New York, half of that in Onondaga County. About 5% listed a zip code outside New York, and the remaining 19% listed no zip code at all. 

"It's a recurring misconception that's very hard to break through. People do have this notion that people are just pouring in here from elsewhere," Bianco said. "But the majority of them are from here."

Gee, reemphasizing the role of the lack of affordable housing, summed up the spike in homelessness in Cayuga County another way. 

"The only thing that's really changed is the amount of rent people are asking," she said. "The issues are all pretty much the same."

Those issues, in the case of the homeless people who spoke to ÈËÊÞÐÔ½», range from generational poverty and domestic upheaval to medical bankruptcy and unemployability due to a criminal record.

Alan Richards, who was housed at the Cayuga Inn at the Finger Lakes when he spoke to ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» in November, is a trained computer technician who can't find work because of a 2015 robbery arrest.

"Are my crimes a life sentence?" he said. "I'm trying to rebuild my life, but people will just not let me do that no matter how hard I try."

Most of those people have also been limited by wages that have been  relative to inflation, and in recent years have not even kept pace with that economic problem.

According to data from the Ìý²¹²Ô»å Census Bureau, the U.S. cost of living rose 8.7% in 2022 — the largest increase since 1981 — and 5.9% in 2021. But Cayuga County's median household income rose just 6.1% and 2.7% in those years. The New York state minimum wage rose 5.6% in each.

Other common issues, Gee said, are mental health and substance use disorders. Almost half the people she sees have the former, and a third have the latter. Recurring mental health conditions include anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress. Substances range from alcohol to molly, a popular but highly addictive synthetic drug that's often altered with fentanyl, making it all the more dangerous.

For Richards it was heroin, a desperate habit he committed the robbery to feed. For Josh Sylvester, who was homeless in Auburn for 18 months in 2021 and 2022, it was heroin and molly.

Sylvester told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» in October that he believes many of the people on the streets of Auburn have similar disorders.

"All I was thinking about was drugs," he said. "The drugs made me think everything was alright. Living like that, it didn't bother me."

Sylvester needed rehab to get off the streets — and so would anyone else who is homeless with a substance use disorder, Gee said. Until they're willing to go, service providers like her can only make sure they have food and clothes. But the lure of substances can be strong. It's so strong that some of the people who seem homeless in downtown Auburn, Bianco said, do actually have their own homes. 

Those people could be seen in greater numbers than ever last spring, summer and fall at parks like Market Street and Buonocore. Although most of the people who have been gathering there are homeless, including those housed by Cayuga County at local hotels, others come from their homes to spend time at the parks, Bianco said. 

"Some of them are spending time there and they're obeying all the laws. And some folks are maybe choosing not to do that," she said. "Those are the folks that are really becoming concerning."

One concerned person is Noah Donch, owner of sports card shop Hot Corner 315, which was located across from the park on Market Street.

Donch told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» he witnessed drug use, vomiting, indecent exposure and fights on his doorstep there. Some of the people who frequent the park also tried to sell him cards, only to get aggressive when he declined. As the owner of a new business for children and families, he said, he was affected enough by such activity that he moved his business to Auburn Plaza on Grant Avenue last month.

"A lot of people who've lived here their entire lives avoid that part of the city now," he said, "because the people in the park and the activities that go on in the park make them uncomfortable and fearful."

That activity died down in the fall, Donch said, following calls to police. The result was not only fewer people in the park, but the removal of the black benches on Genesee Street near the park and the Hunter Dinerant. Auburn City Manager Jeff Dygert told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» they were removed due to "numerous complaints from residents and business owners regarding inappropriate activity and conduct."

Recently retired Auburn Police Chief James Slayton told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» in September his officers began checking the park more regularly after the calls Dygert mentioned. City park rules against smoking, drinking and other activities were enforced, leading to several arrests. But the people who left that park went to Buonocore Park around the corner in front of Wegmans — and its shoppers started calling.

That's why Slayton wants the department to do more to address homelessness than push people from one location to the next.

One way Auburn police try to do that, he said, is by building a rapport with homeless people. Officers carry what he described as a Rolodex of business cards for local service providers who can help them.

"The officers know their stories, what put them on the street, and they're compassionate to that," he said. "We always offer some form of assistance. But unless they want to, we can't force them."

Slayton said he wished he could have a dedicated homelessness task force, but department resources are too limited. Sometimes officers talking to a homeless person have to leave if they receive a call.

Another way Auburn police help with homelessness, Slayton said, is by using drones to make sure the city is positioned to help people living outdoors. The department started doing so when a person died last summer behind the former Mustad building on Grant Avenue. Those woods, and the ones behind Walmart down the road, are host to huge groups of homeless people, some of them told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½».

Roseann Titus, of Auburn, told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» in September the woods behind Walmart are "like a little city." She and many others lived in the woods next to Speedway on North Street until they were cleared last year because rodents and insects from the area were damaging nearby apartments, owner Next Door Properties LLC told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½».

Partners like Gee and the Auburn-Cayuga County Homeless Task Force provide the police with those wooded, less accessible locations where homeless people are, Slayton said. Drones are then used to scout the locations in the event responders need to access them to provide medical attention, he continued, or to extinguish the fires that are started for warmth in the winter but get out of control. 

"It's not to watch them, it's not to spy on them. It's, 'We're gonna go into this area, and we really don't know the layout,'" Slayton said. "God forbid something happened and we have to get in there."

The police chief said only a few of the homeless people his officers encounter are sources of problems like drugs and public disturbances.

However, many of the homeless people who spoke to ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» described their treatment by some Auburn police as harassment. 

Bobbie Walborn, speaking in Market Street Park in August, told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» she often sleeps in the downtown parking garage because it's the only place in Auburn where officers don't bother her. 

"They do nothing but harass you," she said. "You can't even lie down in the park, or be barefoot. They kicked a guy out (of Market Street Park) the other day because he wasn't wearing shoes."

'It just isn't a great situation for anybody'

Walborn and other homeless people don't have to sleep in outdoor locations like the parking garage. Instead, they can apply for emergency housing by the Cayuga County Department of Social Services. When the temperature drops below freezing, like it has this week, the county is in fact obligated to house them by the state's policy.

But Walborn, who said she has been sober since 2012, hasn't applied for emergency housing because she believes the hotels the county uses for most of it are "loaded" with drug use.

Bell, Titus and Richards said the same thing based on their experiences being housed by the county at local hotels. 

"It's hard to maintain a good program if that stuff's going on around you," Richards said. "They put me right back in the middle of it." 

That's just one of many challenges that come with the county using hotels as emergency housing, Bianco acknowledged.

"Hotels can be a place where people are very vulnerable," she said. "They can be preyed upon if they have an addiction or mental health issues, and they're not able to advocate for themselves."

Another challenge is the cost, which has only been rising in recent years as the county houses more homeless people in hotels.

According to the Homeless Management Information System, 2024 saw emergency housing provided to 418 adults and 157 children. Those numbers were down slightly from 455 adults and 175 children in 2023, the highest since the numbers began to be tracked in 2017. They are housed for an average of 85 days and 70% of them return to homelessness within two years, 26% within six months.

The record number of people housed in 2023 came at a cost of $1.3 million to the county — $2.6 million before reimbursement by the state.

Bianco shared that figure with ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» last April as the Auburn Planning Board reviewed the 80-bed homeless shelter on Grant Avenue, which has attracted some oppositionÌý²¹²Ô»å a lawsuit from the public. But Ray of Light Emergency Shelter on Grant Avenue, which would be demolished for the new one, and Chapel House on Franklin Street can only house a combined 25 to 30 people, she said. 

For the hundred or so others who need to be housed at any given time, the county works with the Cayuga Inn, Auburn Inn, Inn at the Finger Lakes and Grant Motel in Auburn. Outside the city, it works with Dilaj's Motor Inn and the Skaneateles Inn in Sennett, and the Rodeway and Red Roof Inn in Weedsport. How many people are placed in each hotel depends on its capacity at the time, Bianco said. 

"There have been days, for years, that we've struggled to provide housing for everybody that we have to," she said. "But at the end of the day we still have to find a room for someone."

On those days, Bianco said, the county has to get creative. Based on questions her staff ask when screening people for emergency housing eligibility, family might be asked to take them in, for example. Ultimately, more people are turned away than housed. That makes her puzzled by another misconception: that her staff rounds up homeless people to place in hotels in order to pad the county's statistics.

The Department of Social Services doesn't do street outreach like the Cayuga Community Health Network and other service providers, Bianco said. She went on to note, like Gee, that some homeless people don't want to be housed, particularly in the summer. For them, a tent or car may be preferable to a hotel or shelter. The latter may come with a curfew, among other rules and restrictions.

Along with that, and caution about drug use, another reason homeless people aren't enthusiastic about being housed in a hotel is simply because it's not as extravagant as some might think. 

"Your ability to have your own home is limited when you're in a hotel. You're in one room and it's crowded and you don't have a kitchen and you don't have your own yard. It just isn't a great situation for anybody to be in and it's unfortunate that this is what's happening," Bianco said. "They're living their lives, trying to raise their kids, trying to get by. Having their own place would be so much better."

As Bell put it, "I'm not an inmate. You can't live out of a microwave and a minifridge. A hotel room is not designed for that."

Conditions at the hotels used by the county were described as substandard by the homeless people who spoke to ÈËÊÞÐÔ½». They include stained linens and carpets, unpleasant smells and insect activity. ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» observed those conditions while volunteering to deliver food at some of the hotels with the Safe and Warm ±è°ù´Ç²µ°ù²¹³¾.Ìý

Bianco said the county will sometimes visit hotels in response to complaints about their conditions, and in Auburn will typically refer them to the city's code enforcement office. She added that none of the hotels have been a major problem in that regard. The county has good working relationships with their owners, who have been responsive to complaints from residents and concerns from the public. 

Some of those concerns were voiced at an Aug. 22 meeting of City Council, where a few South Street residents about the Cayuga Inn at the Finger Lakes, formerly a Days Inn, at 37 William St. Their comments mostly focused on sex offenders, whom they believed were housed there, but they also mentioned drug users and homeless people as part of what they called a health and safety issue.

Bianco said the county does provide housing to sex offenders. But it usually places them in hotels like Dilaj's and Grant, where they won't be around families, women, children or schools. 

The Cayuga Inn still responded to the residents, Bianco said, by asking the homeless people there to stop using an outdoor common space in the parking lot. A new enclosed common space made Bell feel like they were "prisoners," he said, as did restrictions on pets that aren't certified service animals. But in the end, Bianco continued, hotels are businesses that can make such rules as they see fit.

"The owner told us he wants to be a good neighbor, but he doesn't want people having to stay in their rooms all day either," she said. "That's why this kind of housing just isn't ideal."

'An ever-evolving issue'

With 80 beds, the new homeless shelter on Grant Avenue would significantly decrease the number of people Cayuga County pays to house in hotels. But that's not the only benefit, Bianco said.

Operated by the Rescue Mission, the shelter would also provide case management and other services, as well as on-site security.

"There'll be things we wish were available now, in a way that's more safe," Bianco said. "Having intensive supports for folks like that is critical. Our ability to give them one-on-one attention is tough." 

Another benefit, Gee said, is that police would have a place to take homeless people to wait to be screened by the county. She called it a "one-stop shop," like the Rescue Mission's shelter in Syracuse.

Many of the shelter's services would be provided by organizations that are part of the City of Auburn/Cayuga County Homeless Task Force, which is linked to the Housing and Homeless Coalition of Central New York through a . The task force's chair, Renee Jensen, told ÈËÊÞÐÔ½» its providers work together to meet homeless people where they're at, building trust and relationships. 

"We're really trying to help meet their needs and reduce barriers to getting them housed," she said. "It's an ever-evolving issue."

Along with support for mental health and substance use, services can include assistance with paying rent and applying for Social Security.

Many of those services are combined through permanent supportive housing, which provides long-term case management and more to people with a history of homelessness and a risk of returning to it. 

The Grant Avenue shelter would include nine permanent supportive housing units and its developer, Syracuse nonprofit Housing Visions, seeks to build 12 more at a $6 million complex at 197 State St. in Auburn. Other local examples include the Rescue Mission's  in Auburn and the new Church Street Apartments in Port Byron. 

Permanent supportive housing shows promising data, Jensen said, and she and Bianco hope more funding for it can be secured. Until then, recent grants will support several of its component services.

Through the Continuum of Care, Auburn and Cayuga County will see part of a  the Department of Housing and Human Services announced in October for programs for homeless central New York youth. The county is also receiving state grants of $380,000 for rent assistance for families, $330,000 for family case management and $70,000 for rental arrear assistance, Bianco said.

As part of another new program, both the Department of Social Services and the Cayuga County Jail will provide referrals for people to rent transitional apartments. The Cayuga Community Health Network will rent the apartments from their landlords, and tenants will receive case management for 90 days. One hope of the program, Bianco and Gee said, is that landlords will become more trusting.

"The landlord will see that the tenant in this program has been able to do well," Bianco said. "I think that's helping landlords to feel a little more comfortable taking on some of these folks as tenants."

In that way, the program would undo some of the damage of the spike in homelessness in Cayuga County — as would the shelter, Gee said. 

"At the end of the day, the hotels can go back to what they're intended for," she said. "We'll still need help, but it's a start."