Dutchess County is getting ready for a big step in plans for a new emergency housing shelter, considering who should run it. But long before officials put up the help wanted sign, the community is weighing in on what's needed.

Residents of Poughkeepsie attended a public forum Tuesday evening to discuss their concerns about the facility located at 26 Oakley Street.

Some residents like Mae Parker-Harris say they want to see more being done to help the homeless population get the resources and support they need.

“[I want] them to get a more permanent solution instead of them to keep moving from place to place,” said Parker-Harris.

Harris says she would also like to see more inclusivity from county officials to get more of the public’s input on big projects like this.

“And that’s what I would rather see them ask. How can we solve this problem together?” said Parker-Harris.

Anne Saylor, Dutchess County Planning and Development’s deputy commissioner for housing, says they are still working out logistics on the housing project, but notes that’s the reason for the public forum.

“So if people have thoughts about what we could include here, or how we can structure things, that would be really helpful for us,” said Saylor.

According to the Coalition for the Homeless, in September of 2022 there were more than 20,000 single adults sleeping each night in New York City shelters. That is 99% higher than it was 10 years ago.

That is why county officials like Saylor say they are taking the next steps to combat homelessness in Dutchess County.

“To be honest, we're probably always going to have homeless people – there’s no way to sort of stand back – but … we want to do this as quickly as possible, move people from our shelter in, because that's really what's best for people and that is our goal,” said Saylor.

Saylor says officials are still in the preliminary stages of the project and no final decision has been made yet, but the next steps will be finding the stakeholders which will be created by the legislature.

Those who did not attend the forum but would like to share their input can email their feedback to cdhousing@dutchessny.gov.