2 days ago
Syracuse's homeless community feels isolated due to downtown fence
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR) — For years, the Dickerson Street and South Clinton Street intersection has been a hotspot for Syracuse's homeless community. But now there is a clear divider between the Rescue Mission and downtown Syracuse after a chain link fence was put up Wednesday morning.
'I'm not in support of the fence, but I think we've got to do something to mitigate the influence of the Rescue Mission,' Jeffrey Fudesco, a lifelong Syracuse resident, said. 'They call it the 'Rescue Mission Neighborhood.' That means that it's off the books, there's no taxes, and it's just all poverty services.'
Fudesco said over the past three years, the area underneath the bridge has become an open drug market.
'It's really hurt business downtown…especially for City Market,' he said. 'Working-class and professional-class people do not want to come down and have to step over bodies and walk through people selling drugs and using drugs on the street.'
But the decision has made some feel unwanted in their own city.
'Me, at the mission, so now…I'm looking at a dead end,' Steve Buckingham, a Rescue Mission resident, said. 'I already feel like I'm at a dead end. It doesn't help.'
With the Rescue Mission located directly on Dickerson Street, Buckingham said the fence makes the homeless community feel blocked off from the city.
'We're caged in like animals,' Rachel Monahan, a Rescue Mission resident, said. 'The emergency personnel can't really get over here now, as best as they could, due to the fence, and it's not fair to the ones who actually need the medical attention right away.'
NewsChannel 9 reached out to the City of Syracuse and the Syracuse Police Department for comment on the fence and is waiting to hear back.
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