WPCNR THE HOMELESS NEWS. By John F. Bailey. March 21, 2006: WPCNR has learned from a resident of Samaritan House, and an official of that facility that Samaritan House has informed the residents of that shelter last Saturday morning they will have to move out of that shelter about the end of April for renovations of the facility, expected, according to our source to take 1 to 3 months.

Samaritan House on Church Street, White Plains. The facility Planst to Move its Homeless Women: Interim Housing Sought.  The Samaritan House Homeless Shelter for Women is located in the rear of Grace Church. Can you help? Photo by WPCNR News.

Presently, the Executive Director of Grace Church Community Center the organization that manages Samaritan House, Paul Anderson-Winchell,  is reported  by a homeless advocate as negotiating with a local church and a college as possible venues to house the approximately 14 homeless residents. Mr. Anderson-Winchell has not returned a WPCNR NewsCall for comment to clarify the situation.

Should an interim location not be found, residents are fearful they will be dispatched to the coeducational Grasslands homeless facility, which one resident WPCNR spoke with feels is an unsafe atmosphere for women.

 A resident there reported to WPCNR that Samaritan House, knowing renovations by Cappelli Enterprises were coming,  had thirteen months to find an alternative place to house the residents, other than the Grasslands shelter, but no interim residence has been found.

Cappelli Enterprises is expected to execute the renovations when Grace Community Services signs off on the work needed, which our resident living there, speculates may involve removal of asbestos, since the resident has seen asbestos testing done. "It's been crawling with engineers," they report.

Anonymous Donor Saved Day, December, 2004

Samaritan House was the focus of a major flap with the Department of Social Services over funding fourteen months ago when the organization threatened to close the homeless shelter for women, turning them out to the street, if they did not get an increase in rent from the county which questioned their justication for the request. 

The County Department of Social Services was very skeptical of the Samaritan House numbers and demanded accounting for the increase. After meetings with Larry Schwartz, the Deputy County Executive and Bill Ryan, the County Legislator and the DSS, Samaritan House agreed to keep the facility open, but accept $200,000 to $300,000 less in money from the DSS.

However, the $200-$300,000 shortfall was made up by an "anonymous donor," widely assumed to be the Grace Church neighbor, Super Developer Louis Cappelli. 

Mr. Cappelli also agreed to contribute in "in-kind" services worth $1,000,000 to renovate the Samaritan House facility. Samaritan House and Cappelli Enterprises have been discussing the extent and requirements of those renovations for about fourteen months.

To read the original WPCNR report go to http://www.whiteplainscnr.com/article3163.html

An official of Samaritan House speaking on a WPCNR NewsCall confirmed the planned move out but they did not know what arrangements or timetable was being followed, they said "everything is up in the air right now."