Tompkins County DSS details shelter operations, Code Blue use and barriers to moving people into housing

Kit Kephart, commissioner of the Tompkins County Department of Social Services, told the countyad advisory board that sheltering remains driven by state-funded programs, limited local shelter capacity and a growing number of people with complex needs.

Kephart said Social Services administers the statead-regulated Temporary Housing Assistance (THA) program and the New York State Code Blue program locally, and that both programs come with limits that shape how the county shelters people. "The goal [of THA] is to get somebody signed up and eligible for THA. It comes with evaluation for the need for mental health, substance abuse, medical treatment," Kephart said. She added that Code Blue is intended "to keep somebody alive" when people are living in places not meant for habitation.

Kephart outlined recent shelter counts and program trends: Social Services is assisting 98 individuals sheltered in hotels; 81 of those are in the THA category (70 adults and 11 children). Separately, 17 people in hotels are recorded under Code Blue (10 adults and 7 children). The separate congregate Code Blue shelter the county ran this season averaged between about 25 and 40 people per night, Kephart said. Since November 2024, her office has recorded 332 people in shelter under THA and 153 unique people who spent one or more nights at the Code Blue shelter in the 2024ad2025 season.

Why counts and stays vary: Kephart said census levels change with economic conditions and individual circumstances. She said the average length of stay for THA motel placements was about 51 days, Code Blue motel placements about 58 days, and that the congregate Code Blue site had a shorter average stay (about three days). Kephart said the average length of stay across shelter placements was about 42 days as of March.

Barriers and outreach: Kephart emphasized two categories of barriers. First, regulatory and programmatic barriers: THA requires application, eligibility determinations and participation in treatment when referenced, all of which some people decline. Second, engagement barriers: people living in encampments are often hard to engage; Kephart said outreach estimates for an encampment called "the jungle" put the population between about 35 and 40 people, but she cautioned those figures change rapidly.

She also described practical sheltering limits: the county used a temporary congregate site in a county-owned former bank this winter and relies on multiple hotels for placements. Kephart said the county is seeking a nonprofit shelter provider and will post an RFQ on the county procurement page. She noted many nonprofits are financially strained and regulatory requirements make operating shelters more difficult.

Special populations and complexity of need: Kephart said the sheltered population now includes more women and many more families with children than in prior years. She said Social Services is seeing rising complexity: people discharged from hospitals into shelter, older adults needing elder/medical care, people with acute mental health or substance-use needs, and people who previously would have been served in inpatient or group-home settings. "We have people that come to us, come into shelter directly from the hospital," Kephart said. She added shelters are not treatment settings and lack nursing and sustained clinical supports.

Accommodations and services: On ADA and disability accommodations, Kephart said the congregate Code Blue site this season could not provide full ADA accommodations and that people needing those supports were placed in hotels. Pets are generally not allowed in shelter; Kephart said the county works with the local SPCA and with family contacts to keep animals temporarily but acknowledged the policy can be a barrier.

How the community can help: Kephart urged personal outreach by friends or family as one of the most effective ways to encourage someone to engage with services. She said the county will open space at a new shelter site for community providers to meet with residents and highlighted local programs that supplement THA benefits (rental supplements, Solutions to End Homelessness program, a family housing coordinator funded through OTDA).

Board members and staff followed with questions about visits for people in shelter, disability accommodations for children in shelter, and outreach to encampments. Kephart said school-based or pediatric providers could meet with a child in shelter on a family-by-family basis if transportation and parental consent are in place.

Kephart closed by urging continued community partnership to move people into permanent housing and noting that systemic limits at the state and local level constrain what Social Services can do alone.