DSS Efficiency Study

The first in a series of "in-depth coverage articles" reporting the results of an efficiency study of the Columbia County Department of Social Services is in today's Register-Star: "Study: DSS can do better."

Among the recommendations and observations made in the study, as cited in the article, are: 

• DSS should replace its current use of motel rooms to house homeless people with congregate housing "where the county is the landlord either via a lease arrangement or because it owns the dwelling."
• DSS should expand its employment program to help people become less reliant on DSS by developing "community work experience sites" where people can get supervised work experience and interact with community members. 
• DSS should work with the Columbia County Family Court to develop "an operative model" to slow the admission rate of children into foster care. The study reports that "anecdotal information" suggests "the Columbia County Family Court often exhibits a level of judicial activism that exceeds that of other upstate family courts in New York."