It didn’t take long for him to see the issues homeless people are creating in parts of Jamestown up close. Second-shift officers were called to evict a group of homeless from woods on private property.

“It was a mess,” Bonfiglio said during Monday’s City Council voting session. “Then I found out the police had told them a week before they had to get out and they didn’t. There were propane tanks, which are dangerous. There was food, there was garbage all over. It was bad. There isn’t one person in this building right now that doesn’t feel bad for the homeless.”

Bonfiglio’s comments came after a small group of concerned citizens spoke to the council during the public comment session of Monday’s meeting. City resident Edward Vos asked if the city had a line item in the city budget to help the homeless or if money would be included in the budget in 2025 to help the homeless.

He also asked if the city had given residents of homeless encampments time to find another place to go before Thursday’s announcement of a state of emergency by Mayor Kim Ecklund.

Gina Ward of Southern Tier Environments for Living and a member of the Chautauqua County Homeless Coalition, speaks to City Council members on Monday.

“Forgive me on this particular assumption, but it seems to me that we as a city don’t want to spend a dime on the homeless because we have no funds, but we’re asking for the county, state and federal governments to help because we didn’t plan for it. … As to the issues of public safety, the tent city really wasn’t a problem. But the bathroom issues and the needles were. So my question is has any thought been given to putting porta johns there or needle disposal boxes?” Vos asked. “What other cities have you talked to for solutions and ideas for the homeless. What experts were consulted before implementing this emergency. Based on all the questions I’m asking it seems like this decision was rushed and I’m curious why it wasn’t thought through well.”

Cynthia Schoberg said, after she learned of the state of emergency declaration, she went to the Riverwalk area and spoke to a homeless woman named Angela who had spent about two weeks sleeping in the park. Schoberg said she asked the woman if she had been to the county Social Services Department to apply for benefits, but was told in response that she couldn’t get from Brooklyn Square back to the Social Services offices, so she had missed appointments with county officials both to apply for benefits and to get a caseworker.

“They’re humans,” Schoberg said. “They’re people. Granted they probably have a lot of issues. 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.”

Council members also heard from Gina Ward, Southern Tier Environments for Living associate director and a member of the Chautauqua County Homeless Coalition. She said the coalition has helped move record numbers of people into permanent housing over the past year while preventing hundreds of other county residents from ending up homeless by helping them stay in their homes. Two organizations that are members of the coalition expect to have shelters opening this year, one to help homeless women and one that will operate as a code blue shelter.

But Ward was quick to admit there is more work to be done. In the wake of the state of emergency, Homeless Coalition member agencies have coordinated volunteers to conduct street outreach to help deal with issues like those described by Schoberg while organizations will conduct an updated count of homeless to better understand the scope of the problem countywide.

“We can recognize these signs of progress while acknowledging there is much more still that needs to be done,” Ward said. “Our community is in need. People are hurting. Our hope is this community will come together to address this issue with compassion, dignity and kindness. No one agency or city can do this alone.”