Community Foundation
Funds Warming Station

Homeless Numbers on the Rise

By TED MEBUST
COOPERSTOWN
The Community Foundation of Otsego County announced its largest, most recent and final donation of the organization’s 2022 award cycle, giving $25,000.00 to help Catholic Charities of Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie Counties support the Oneonta Warming Station. This is the second award the Oneonta Warming Station has received from CFOC, the first to the tune of $10,000.00 at the end of the 2021 award cycle.

“Homelessness, as a rising problem, is all around us…clearly there’s an ongoing need and we wanted to help them [Catholic Charities] out again,” said Jeff Katz, CFOC president.

The warming station has provided shelter, food and social services to unsheltered individuals for the last three years. It operates from November 1 to March 31, opening its doors each night at 5:30 p.m. at 296 Main Street in Oneonta. The CFOC donation will help meet the growing needs of the station, which saw an increase in the number of bed nights it provides from 49 in its first year of operation to 1,031 last winter. The warming station is operated by professionals and community volunteers.

“I’d like to express my gratitude for the grant from the Community Foundation of Otsego County. The support from this grant allows Catholic Charities to continue to assist those in need who come to the warming station this winter,” said Christy Houck, executive director of Catholic Charities of Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie Counties, an organization that recently received aid in combating homelessness from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The charitable donation was organized in part by the Robert and Esther Black Family Foundation.

“Our goal is to strengthen our nonprofits and strengthen our community,” Katz explained.

The CFOC invites area nonprofits to continue their applications for aid starting in March 2023, after approving their award criteria for the next cycle. Visit the Community Foundation of Otsego County website, cfotsego.org, or e-mail contact@cfotsego.org.