The only 24/7, low-barrier homeless shelter in Saratoga County is closing its doors for good on Friday, and about five people who have been staying there still do not know where they will sleep afterward. RISE Housing and Support Services has run the Adelphi Street shelter in Saratoga Springs since June 2023, and city funding cuts are forcing it to shut down after three and a half years of operation.
RISE stopped accepting new residents on September 1 to prepare for the closure, according to The Daily Gazette. The outlet reports that approximately five people currently staying at the shelter do not have a plan for where they will go once it closes Saturday. As of the Gazette's reporting, there are no other 24/7, year-round, low-barrier emergency shelters for people experiencing homelessness anywhere in Saratoga Springs.
Sarah Burger described the Adelphi Street shelter as the only 24/7 low-barrier shelter in Saratoga County, according to NEWS10 ABC, which reported that the facility opened after people had been living in city parking garages. Burger called the closure unsettling, and noted the shelter served people from across the county, not just the city of Saratoga Springs itself.
A Funding Fight That Outlasted a Reprieve
The city restored funding to the shelter for 2026, but only for 10 months, according to the Gazette's reporting. Burger told NEWS10 the shelter lost its funding after the City Council voted to stop supporting it, and the Times Union reports the council voted last fall to withdraw funding from what was then a three-year-old program. Reported figures for the city's annual contribution have varied: one Times Union account put it at about $500,000 a year, while a separate Times Union report cited $387,000.
Over its run, the shelter served 537 residents including repeat stays, and 278 unique individuals, the same report notes. At its peak it housed 30 to 35 people a night. RISE reported that 76% of residents used the shelter only once or twice during the three and a half years it operated, a sign that many people passed through on their way to more stable housing rather than relying on it long-term.
What's Left When the Doors Close
With Adelphi Street gone, the only other low-barrier option in the city is the Code Blue shelter run by Shelters of Saratoga, which the Gazette's reporting describes as temporary and weather-dependent. That program typically runs November through April and only activates when temperatures drop below 32 degrees, per Shelters of Saratoga. Burger made clear to NEWS10 that Code Blue shelters do not open when it's above 32 degrees and said she disagrees that Code Blue amounts to a permanent solution for people losing Adelphi Street.
Mayor John Safford told NEWS10 the city has worked for months to find somewhere for Adelphi Street residents to stay and said Saratoga Springs will lean on existing resources to meet the need. Safford noted Shelters of Saratoga has been expanding dramatically over the last couple of years and said the organization is open to anyone who needs shelter, pointing to the Code Blue program as a way to keep people warm once cold weather sets in.
Minister Steven Boxley, who provided Sunday services at the shelter, told NEWS10 he hopes another similar shelter can open in the future. He said he's concerned about where people will go and promised to keep helping and supporting former shelter residents going forward.
A Permanent Shelter Is Years Away
Shelters of Saratoga broke ground on October 1 on a permanent home for its Code Blue program at 116 Ballston Avenue, on 1.4 acres of county-owned land the county agreed to lease, according to the organization's own announcement. The planned facility will be a 25,000-square-foot, 75-bed shelter offering meals, hygiene facilities, case management and housing navigation. The organization has raised $4.3 million of an $8 million capital campaign for the project.
When that building will actually open is unclear: Shelters of Saratoga said the new shelter is expected to open in November 2027, while a separate WAMC report said it won't be operational until October 2027. During the winter spanning 2024 and 2025, the Gazette's sister Times Union report noted, the existing Code Blue program sheltered 271 people over 170 nights — evidence of how much demand already exists for emergency beds even before Adelphi Street's closure.
A County Already Stretched Thin
The timing underscores a broader strain. Saratoga County recorded 348 people in emergency shelters in January, up from 196 in all of 2025, alongside nine people in temporary housing and no unsheltered people counted that month, according to the Gazette's separate report on a community panel discussion. The county's homeless population overall was estimated at about 360 people as of late September, per the Times Union.
The Saratoga-North Country Continuum of Care said the county has a significant unmet need for year-round emergency shelter and that existing resources are insufficient to meet that need, the Times Union reported. From January through August, the Continuum of Care counted 406 people age 55 and older experiencing homelessness, with a panelist identifying older adults as the county's fastest-growing homeless population, alongside 130 youth experiencing homelessness on their own, 190 with adults, and 14 who were heads of household during that same stretch.
RISE's own earlier data, covering June 2023 through August 2024, showed that 94% of shelter users engaged in support services, including 148 people who received housing resources, 64 who got mental health treatment and 56 who received substance use treatment. That track record is part of what advocates point to in arguing the Adelphi Street shelter filled a gap that Code Blue alone cannot cover until a permanent facility finally opens.
