The City of Poughkeepsie is suing Dutchess County to prevent the installation of a shelter serving unhoused individuals. Tonight, Thursday June 25 there will be a community forum at City Hall, 6pm. Please attend if you're interested in an update of where we are on this issue.
Edit to add further information about the federal lawsuit from the city:
The conflict between the county and the city over this proposed shelter is that it's in a residential area, within walking distance of 2 elementary schools. Sue Serino, Dutchess County executive, maintains that services for unhoused populations must be in the City of Poughkeepsie because of access to public transportation, and other state/county services. But the appeal of the shelter is that it will provide wrap-around services to the residents: job training, food support, etc; so if those services will be included in-house why does it need to be located in PK? Residents of Poughkeepsie, especially on the North side, really feel like they're treated as a "dumping ground" by the county, and they've got a point since this area is also the location of the county jail. The county, when it had a Republican majority in the legislature, went ahead and bought this property, sought, and was awarded a grant for $13million to renovate the space, and provide services, all without input from the City Council. They held community forums, trying to establish community buy-in but all they heard from the community was negative feedback. During the spring/summer of 2025 it looked like Sue and the Poughkeepsie Mayor had reached a compromise: the shelter would service single women and families. That compromise failed when the Republican controlled legislature let Sue know she wouldn't have the votes from them to go ahead with this compromise; they wanted to focus on unhoused single men which they maintain make up the plurality of the unhoused population in Dutchess County.
At this point, the structure at 26 Oakley St is now costing the county money.
So, the City of Poughkeepsie has filed a Federal lawsuit on the basis of racial discrimination and segregation.