Human Services

A request for $100,000 in funding for the purchase of a motel for transitional housing by John Bennett of UConnect Care, was fairly quickly moved onto Wednesday’s Ways & Means meeting after Genesee County Legislator Marianne Clattenburg voiced concerns about what she deemed questionable use of taxpayer funds Monday.

Bennett, chief executive officer of the longtime-named agency Genesee/Orleans Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse and recently renamed UConnect Care, laid out his case for using grant funds that are earmarked for opioid-related purposes to purchase The Attican, a 29-unit motel in Genesee County. 

Perched at the top of a hill at 11180 Alexander Road, the motel would serve the needs of the agency by housing singles and single parents with small children in need of safe housing while they are transitioning from rehab for anywhere from a few days for up to three months, Bennett said during Monday’s Human Services meeting.

Bennett said that he’s got funding of $600,000 from grants, $100,000 from GCASA, or UConnect, and is requesting $100,000 from Genesee County to top it off for the total $800,000. His proposal will move to the Ways and Means meeting at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, which is chaired by Clattenburg.

The facility would probably operate with a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) and paid for with a five-year grant from UConnect, other resources and Genesee County, he said. 

“We plan to have a maintenance person living there. We’ve done our due diligence,” he said. “We maintain our properties. It’s a new adventure for me; it’s a little bit of a stretch, but it’s the right thing to do.”

His agency had a grant with some beds prior to COVID and the pandemic, and now no longer operates those, which were for crisis housing situations for folks to stay up to seven days, he said. 

There are people using The Attican for temporary housing now, which can get expensive, but it accommodates their current lifestyle, he said.

Legislator Gary Maha asked if Bennett would be returning at some point down the road to ask for more money. Bennett didn’t think that was the case, as most of the funding is in place for the purchase offer, and “we have the means for programming,” he said. 

He painted scenarios of a single mom with kids who may be struggling with other issues as well as drugs; individuals couch surfing without a stable home of their own; or other issues that make for an unsteady way of life.

Maha agreed that “you don’t see people sleeping under a bridge or under a park bench here; it’s different,” versus in larger cities where homelessness is literally on the streets. It’s more about unstable housing, Bennett said. 

“These guys will catch me in the parking lot and thank me. Having some crisis housing for people, it’s huge,” he said. “We have a lot of people that have been using our system for a long time … they put some sobriety together, struggle, and relapse. We’re that safe place for them to be.”

County Mental Health Director Lynda Battaglia offered her support for the idea, emphasizing that housing is an issue for lots of people, not just for those with addictions, but with mental health issues, coming out of the hospital, were homeless and now need a place to stay.

“They can go there. And we struggle with housing. We have a couple of respite beds that it's usually like a 30-day minimum stay. And those are full all the time, and we have a waitlist. So that individual is going out of the hospital, we have to work with DSS, we have to try to find something,” she said. “The thing about somebody that needs housing, and they're trying to recover, and they have mental health issues and all of these other issues just working against them somehow. It just sets the foundation for them to then take some additional steps forward to live a productive life, a healthy life.”

She asked Clattenburg how she thinks she would be able to begin all over again without anything. What would you do? Battaglia said.

Clattenburg pivoted to the housing ratio in the city of Batavia: 51 percent is rental versus 49 percent owner-occupied homes. 

“So if the grand plan is to change more housing, into supportive housing, and take a property off the tax rolls, and change the whole nature of this community, then you're not going to have my support. There has to be some give and take here,” Clattenburg said. "And now we're not going to have any women in Batavia, and it’s going to be all men. So I don't know what that does to the dynamic of the public safety atmosphere. Do you have a pilot in the city of Batavia for any of the other properties that you have, but you’re going to have a pilot for this one? That’s a whole other question.

“I mean, I understand that years ago, you know, you’d get this kind of crisis we’ve all had in a family, but this used to be part of the family’s thing. But now the government has replaced the family. So, I don't know how we ever get ahead of all of this. I just don't know,” Clattenburg said. “And I just don't know if throwing programs and programs and programs, that we're ever going to get there at some point. Myself, as a representative of this community, has to say no, we need to be thinking of our people too.”

Bennett and colleague Luke Granger said their purchase offer would be $800,000 for the motel. Clattenburg asked about its assessed value, which Granger said he thought was $297,000. 

The online assessment records actually state that it’s assessed at $292,000. Built-in 1984, the two-story property was last sold in 2006 for a net sale price of $300,000, and its taxable value is $292,000. 

Regardless of that discrepancy, Clattenburg seemed incredulous that they wanted to spend $900,000 (she was later corrected that the purchase offer was going to be $800,000) for property assessed at $297,000.

“I don’t think that’s a good use of taxpayer money,” she said. “I’m not anti-this organization, because I do think you do some good things. But I do think that there's some problems that I just can’t look the other way. I just want us to be aware of that. And to know that it's an issue in the city of Batavia.  And it's just so frustrating to have this be an issue in your organization for so long, and to go from one building to two to three, that, you know, all these services, and just, I’m sure it's heartbreaking to you too, that we just don't seem to be getting ahead of this, it just seems to be getting worse. And that’s the frustration.”

Bennett said that he has been doing this for “a very long time” and that it would be easier for him not to take on such a project at this point than to get involved. But he believes in the agency and its mission.

“People have feelings about us, and they either love us or hate us. We're pretty polarized. And the truth of it is we provide a very good service. And our organization has done very good work. We take good care of our properties in this community, we employ a ton of people, we have close to 200 employees that do the work, right, and now we're going to be in a motel unit,” he said. “But think about if you had the motel here and you had case management, so we're gonna teach management and people there to help people and to guide them and to also make sure that people aren't causing trouble. So I mean, it is more than just housing, too. It is other support services that these folks don't have right now. And so we’re it for them sometimes. And I know that, believe me, I know that there's a huge need out there for lots of people right now. So we're just trying to help our little piece of the world.”

After the meeting, Clattenburg said that she purposely attended this meeting to get more information about the plan for this purchase. “I just had a lot more questions,“ she said.

“And it wasn’t really answered the way I thought. So I’m just, I’m kind of stunned with the difference in the assessment and the price,” she said. You know, these are taxpayer funds, and we did go through a lawsuit to get funding to help with this crisis. I realized that these are the professionals who are giving us recommendations, but I think it’s our job to question things. And I’d like to know where we’re headed with this.”

The property is listed as for sale on LoopNet. That listing does not include an asking price. Realtor.com gives the estimated market value of the property as $970,343.

During the meeting, she raised the issue of the city of Batavia’s disparity of owner-occupied homes versus renters, at 49 percent to 51 percent, respectively, and fewer properties on the tax rolls. Taking The Attican off of Genesee County’s tax roll by converting it to a nonprofit housing entity is not something she wants to see.  The Batavian asked if she’s concerned about where we are with housing in the city.

“Absolutely,” she said. "I come from the perspective of being on council and being the council president, and seeing those issues come up. You know, it just seems like we are, with the Savarino property devolving into what it was, people want to live and work here and raise their families, and it feels like they're just getting pushed out of that. So I have to be here to advocate for everybody.”

Bennett said that the plan would not move forward without the county’s support. He would work with county Manager Matt Landers and wait to hear the outcome of the Ways & Means Committee meeting. 

If the committee agrees to the request, it will vote on a resolution that will go to the county Legislature for final approval. That will be to award the Genesee Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, Inc. (GCASA) $100,000 “to respond to the homeless housing crisis in the County with a focus on people with opioid use disorder and other substance use disorders,” according to the resolution, for the purchase of the motel known as The Attican.

Bennett said Monday that he had not yet spoken to the motel owner about an offer and purchase, as he had wanted to obtain approval for the county funding before doing so. The owner is listed as Aum Shree LLC. 

Some county legislators agreed, albeit reservedly, to walk the walk Monday when it comes to participating in a Healthy Places By Design Walkability Academy.

Genesee County Public Health Director Paul Pettit presented the academy program during the county's Human Services Committee meeting. Operated by the Walkability Action Institute  (WAI) and Walkability Virtual Academy (WVA), the national-based program is a yearly multi-day course for interdisciplinary teams comprising public health, transportation, planning, and elected officials, Pettit said.

He had received information about a learning academy last November, "where they bring in communities to participate and learn about different strategies and ways to make your communities more walkable, likable, safe, those types of things, active living," he said. He didn’t have enough time to apply then, he said, so he let it go. But apparently, he wasn't the only one in a time crunch around the holidays.

“I got an email a couple of weeks ago that said, ‘Hey, we didn't have enough applicants. If you want to apply, you can be in it, you just have to submit the RFP.’ I talked to (County Planning Director Felipe Oltramari) and my folks, and we felt we could put something together and get it in. It's 12 virtual sessions, there's no travel or anything associated with it, it’s all via zoom, and will allow us to participate …and work on developing some comprehensive planning around this area," Pettit said. “And the goal would be to look at our villages and our city and come up with different strategies,. And in my mind, it's really a way that we can kind of lay the foundation and framework for future funding.”

There are 18 participating groups across the country, and they would each receive a grant of about $5,000, which Pettit admitted wasn’t a huge payoff in and of itself.

“It would allow us to work on comprehensive planning for our villages and the city,” he said. “We would look at sidewalks, crosswalks, signs, things that people find challenging.”

Legislator Gregg Torrey was concerned with the time involvement of team members.

“It seems like a big commitment on our side, for a small grant commitment on their side,” he said.

Fellow Legislator Christian Yunker agreed.

“It seems like a lot of staff time … seems like a significant effort (for what the county is getting).”

The project would probably require five to six people for the academy, including at least one elected official, Pettit said. Yunker clarified that it doesn’t have to be a legislator, and it could be someone from the city, which Pettit confirmed.

Legislator Gary Maha asked if participation would put the county in line for additional funding, and Pettit didn't think so.

No one expressed interest in participating during the meeting, but Legislators Torrey, Yunker, Maha, Gordon Dibble, Brooks Hawley and John Deleo approved Pettit’s request to apply for the program.

According to the Healthy Places by Design website, Healthy Places by Design participates as WAI/WVA faculty and co-facilitates the Community of Practice. The CoP is a peer learning and exchange network of WAI/WVA alumni that continue to build their capacity to implement policy, systems, and environmental changes to make communities more walkable, moveable, equitable, and inclusive. In addition, the team co-designed, drafted, and finalized the Active Community Tool that communities can use to assess local built environment, planning, and policy supports for physical activity.

The WAI/WVA training is a critical component of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's efforts to increase walkability, the site states. The training includes walking audits, discussion sessions with peers, capacity building, and virtual workshops with various leaders in the walkability movement. Each local WAI team formalizes what they learn by creating a detailed action plan for their community. In many cases, these action plans help drive positive change in regional transportation systems to support safety, health, equity, and disability inclusion.

 “When communities are built for all of us, and with all of us in mind, nobody gets left out. I’ve learned that this work has to proactively make the effort to address unintended consequences of successful walkability efforts so that we continually try to improve more than solely health by integrating place-based approaches, inclusion of all kinds, and working to improve social justice,," said Public Health Consultant Karma Harris, of the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors and Walkability and Healthy Communities Lead.

This isn’t the first time this community has undertaken a similar-type study. In 2017, City Council, under the leadership of then-City Manager Jason Molino, approved a planning and design consulting firm to assist the city with a comprehensive plan update that involved meeting with businesses, residents and staff members to understand various challenges faced within the city.

There have also been initiatives to actually walk throughout portions of the city to take note of the condition — or lack — of sidewalks, wheelchair access, crosswalks, stop signs versus street lights, and other considerations for people trying to navigate the area as a pedestrian.

Goals for the Walkability Academy are to:

• Spark, strengthen and sustain collaboration between diverse organizations that strive to create healthier communities.
• Inspire effective partnerships by being good partners as a teaching academy and modeling honesty, authenticity and transparency in relationships, and providing a platform for others to share their stories of progress.
• Expand collaborative learning opportunities.

Photo of Paul Pettit, front left, Gordon Dibble, County Clerk Lisa Casey, Gregg Torrey, Brooks Hawley, Gary Maha and Christian Yunker, in back, and John Deleo, right, by Joanne Beck.

After biding her time with a glaring vacancy, Mental Health and Community Services Director Lynda Battaglia broached the topic during Tuesday’s Human Services meeting.

“So this is one that I've talked about for well over a year now, and it's finally time to bring this one forward. This is a creation of a full-time, Genesee County psychiatrist position for the Department of Mental Health. There's no doubt that this is a bigger ask, considering the salary. But it's a specialized service. And it's definitely something that's needed within the department,” Battaglia said to the group of committee members. “Right now, our wait time for somebody to get in with a psychiatrist is about six weeks. And that's when we have all of our providers. I'd like to create this position so that it benefits the community, and it benefits the clients that need to get access to provider treatments. I have to think about stability within the department as well as future planning and longevity for psychiatry.”

She requested an amendment to the 2022 management salary schedule to create one full-time staff psychiatrist (Community Mental Health) position at a base salary range of $292,500 to $331,500. That would mean an estimated salary of between $73,125 and $82,872 for the remainder of the year’s last quarter, at a fee of $150 to $170 per hour.

Fringe benefits would add up to about $21,000 more, for a quarter total of up to $103,814, according to the resolution. Battaglia doesn’t expect these costs to impact the existing 2022 budget, considering the unstaffed positions within the Mental Health Department.

There are four clinical positions and three in the finance area that have been vacant, she said. It may not be an easy job to recruit a psychiatrist to a rural area, but it would certainly add some consistency to the department, she said.

“For the last three years, we've worked with an agency to provide us with services. And that has been helpful, it has definitely been a Band-Aid and has helped fill the gap. However, in the three years, I've had my third psychiatrist. And you think about a person that comes through mental health for services, you're taking a risk every time you have a doctor that's providing the telehealth services. And if it doesn't work out, then I'm bringing in a new psychiatrist. And if that one doesn't work out, I'm bringing in another one,” she said.

“And the agency that I've gone through has been absolutely tremendous," she added. "They’re very accommodating, with excellent communication. The doctor has to be the right fit. And so to have one client have to work with three different doctors over the course of their treatment, it's very challenging, and it's frustrating the clients.”

An upside is that the position could generate revenue and potentially become self-sustaining and not cost the county additional money, she said. It could also reduce the wait time from six to three weeks, which still isn’t ideal, but “if we can cut it in half,” that’s an improvement.

Battaglia proposed creating the position as a hybrid, including in-person visits and telehealth appointments, as an incentive for the right person. She doesn’t want to offer 100 percent telehealth and feels that a hybrid model offers two options to deliver the service. That might better accommodate an applicant, and “we have clients and community members that like to do either way,” she said.

“I think for 2023, it would definitely save the county some money,” she said. “I feel like it’s a win-win all the way around.”

County Manager Matt Landers reiterated how Battaglia has been talking about this need “for quite some time.” Simply put, it sounds like a breakeven proposition, he said.

“Instead of contracting out, you're paying a county employee, and there’s potential for generating additional revenue — more billable hours — which would generate more revenue. Now we're not doing this to make money. And at the same time, if this ended up being a subsidized effort, but ended up providing better service to the community, again, it will be something that the manager's office would support,” he said. “Even going down this route and approving this, that's step one, and it's really going to be a challenge to find a qualified doctor willing to come to us, you know, rural counties have this difficulty. So, in general, I support the effort going forward, because it's not going to be budgetarily … negative to our county budget. And it's got the full support of mental health, but I think we can provide better service.”

Battaglia also requested a budget amendment to hire a full-time mental health financial program specialist position, which would cost $19,553.50 for the remainder of this year. There are funds available in the 2022 budget to cover this expense due to unstaffed positions within the department. This position for a full year will cost $78,214, according to the resolution.

The committee approved the requests, which will continue on the process for committee approval until they finally reach the Legislature for final adoption.

Photo: Lynda Battaglia, Director of Mental Health and Community Services. Photo from the county website.