CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. — Hunger and homelessness are becoming increasingly common sights in Canandaigua and Ontario County. With limited resources, many in poverty are left with nowhere else to turn, leaving organizations like the Salvation Army with only a few weeks’ worth of food.

According to Family Promise of Ontario County, there’s been about a 300% increase in people seeking help in recent years in the Canandaigua area.

“Lack of affordable housing is a big part of that. The cost of rent for many is unaffordable. That has really increased since COVID,” said Todd Bernhardt, Family Promise CEO.

Family Promise is turning a nearly 200-year-old house on North Main Street in Canandaigua into a multi-family shelter, aiming to open sometime next year.

“Once it’s complete, it’ll be able to help seven families at a time, up to 30 individuals at a time,” Bernhardt said.

Family Promise hopes to open the shelter sometime in 2025.

“People just don’t realize how much homelessness there is in Ontario County because they don’t see it. And, you know, we have regular meetings with Ontario County Department of Social Services. And they, on any given night through July, on any given night, they have 24 families that they have to find housing for, which equates to over 80 individuals. That’s a 300% increase since 2022,” Bernharft said.

At the Salvation Army of Canandaigua, Major Dave Rhodes says they’ve seen a similar amount of people seeking help.

“Starting with COVID, the numbers are just continue to rise. And we’re up over 50, I mean, twice as much as we used to do. So we’re seeing about 70, 80 families a month,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes says despite a recent influx of donations, they don’t have much time before they run out.

Major Dave Rhodes, Salvation Army: “Probably a week, maybe two.”

Tom Kowalski, News10NBC: “And what can people do to help those helping others?”

Major Dave Rhodes: They can bring in food donations. Non-perishables are great. Or if they want to drop off cash, we can go out and buy things that we need. We let our clients come in and shop for what they want. They don’t just get a box of food. So just different varieties of things so that we can treat people with respect and dignity and they could get their needs met. This takes a community approach. This is not one organization that can solve family homelessness. … People can really help by helping raise awareness of the state of homelessness in Ontario County.

The Salvation Army also noted that it was impacted by the recent United Way funding cuts.

According to Data USA, 9% of people living in Ontario County in 2022 were living below the poverty line. The largest group living in poverty were women between the ages of 55 and 64. In 2023 the child poverty rate was 11.6%. That same year, 11.4% of people in Ontario County were dealing with quote severe housing problems.

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