Part I

No roof, no rights: Housing and Human Rights in Sullivan County

This article is part of the series “No Roof, No Rights: Housing and Human Rights,” which examines the connection between housing and human rights in Sullivan County, with reporting on how both the county government and its residents are navigating these critical issues.”

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — In a county of about 80,000, hundreds are without a home. Sullivan County has a housing crisis. 

County rental rates have risen as much as 45 percent in the past five years, and homeownership is out of reach for most. The median-earning family is unqualified—by a mile—for a mortgage on a median home, according to a Patterns for Progress study.

The county currently provides emergency shelter by renting blocks of rooms in various county motels. This makeshift shelter model currently houses around 300 people, up from around 50 during COVID-19 when evictions were paused, according to Sullivan County Health and Human Services (HHS) commissioner John Liddle.

HHS officials have long told the county that it needs to move away from its makeshift shelter model. Acting health and family services commissioner Joe Todora warned against the model in 2015, when shelter development proposals in Liberty and Forestburgh were faced with stifling criticism. A 2024 grand jury report emphasized that point, calling for a “complete rethinking” of using hotels as emergency housing.  

Still, the latest proposal to erect a homeless shelter has faltered, after the county legislature voted to approve a long-term lease for a proposed property but failed to pass it by a supermajority at the April 24 session. 

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The proposed shelter would be built in the Town of Thompson on county property located near the jail on Pittaluga Road. It would be run by HONOR EHG, a private nonprofit organization that assists Hudson Valley residents in need with shelter and support.

Prior to the failed vote, a public hearing for the proposed shelter was held that yielded strong support and opposition from county residents, and at which Liddle emphasized the shelter’s need. 

“One goal remains significantly unmet, and that’s building a homeless shelter for Sullivan County… this has proven to be our most persistent and complex challenge,” Liddle said. 

The issues with emergency housing

The modest 20-bed shelter for single men and women would offer a much-needed respite from the county’s current motel shelter model. 

For the past decade, the county has contracted with various motels to rent blocks of rooms in Liberty (currently, the Knights Inn, Budget Inn, Lincoln Motel and Liberty Motel) and Monticello (currently, Super 8 and the Inn at Monticello).

This emergency housing model has always been costly to the county and taxpayers, but that cost has reached new highs. From 2019 to 2021, the average annual emergency housing cost for the county came in at nearly $820,000. That has since doubled, for an average cost from 2022 to 2023 of about $1.7 million. 

A recurring nightmare

The Knights Inn in Liberty, one of the motels under contract with the county is rife with drug activity and where an infant died of an overdose last year.

RR file photo by Ruby Rayner-Haselkorn

The county has known for a long time that utilizing motels as housing has a multitude of well-documented issues. Liddle says the county needs a better alternative. 

Outside observers have come to the same conclusion,“There should be a complete rethinking of the use of motels to house vulnerable populations in Sullivan County,” said the damning 2024 100-page grand jury report. It was issued in response to the death of Akasha Luvert, an infant who ingested a lethal mix of fentanyl and xylazine at emergency motel housing at the Knights Inn in May 2023.

The grand jury report was an echo of the 2016 findings shared by the NYS Office of the State Comptroller (OSC), who rated six emergency housing locations in Sullivan County, and cited three of the motel locations as “poor” or “very poor.” 

A 2017 Sullivan County Democrat article quotes OSC report auditor Jeffrey Dormand, who said, “It’s a wonder how this place even passed inspection.” 

The unstaffed motel-modeled emergency shelters have historically seen high levels of criminal activity. In the past 30 days alone, based on only law enforcement press releases, six arrests have been made at or in association with events that took place at the Knights Inn in Liberty, one of the motels the county uses for emergency housing. 

Four men were arrested in connection with “a violent gang assault that occurred at the Knights Inn,” another man was arrested for a “violent incident at the Knights Inn,” and the last man was arrested in the motel’s parking lot in connection with a string of burglaries.

The debate around an alternative

Residents of Pittaluga Rd. near the proposed location for a 20-bed shelter spoke in strong opposition at the April 24, public hearing.

RR photo by Ruby Rayner-Haselkor

However much an alternative to motel housing is necessary, the Thompson shelter’s proposed location was met by strong opposition from several Hasidic residents who live on Pittaluga Road, who said they feared for their children’s safety if the facility was placed there. 

“Would you want to have this in your backyard?” one Pettaluga Road resident yelled before the public hearing even began. 

Town of Thompson Supervisor Bill Reiber also pushed back, saying the county didn’t bring the proposal to the town for discussion before the hearing. “I’m a lot more inclined to have a facility that would take care of single moms with two or three kids, and we really desperately need it,” Reiber said.

Kathy Kreiter from the Sullivan County Federation for the Homeless spoke in support of a shelter back in 2015. She reiterated at the public hearing that the need has only grown.

“I’m so tired of hearing NIMBY, not in my backyard. We have a responsibility,” another county resident said. 

At the public hearing, Liddle compelled the legislature to bring the shelter in Thompson closer to becoming a reality.

“We have reviewed many sites over the years, and while nearly everyone agrees that a shelter is needed, far fewer are willing to welcome one near their homes. This tension has kept progress out of reach for decades. Many have tried, but no one has come as far as we have today,” said Liddle. 

“Now we have a real chance to finish the job. I come to you today with both urgency and optimism. We have an opportunity to transform lives, strengthen our community, and look up to our shared values of compassion and responsibility,” Liddle said.

Although the vote wasn’t passed—District 8 Legislature Amanda Ward changed her vote from yes to no at the last second, breaking the supermajority—the legislature chair, Nadia Rajsz, told the River Reporter that there would be a revote.

In order to apply for the $8 million in state funding needed to build the shelter, a proposed lease must be passed by a supermajority legislative vote. 

Rajsz said, “I want to reiterate that this facility, if approved by my colleagues, will be staffed 24/7 and will help us get people out of motels and into a shelter where they will have access to services and opportunities to transition out of homelessness. We will not be housing criminals but local citizens in desperate need, treating them as the human beings they are and giving them a chance at a better life.”

Read about the chief of Liberty Police Department voice support for the shelter here.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify that the proposed 20-bed shelter is designed to house single men and women as of April 30, 2025, at 12:04 PM.