An encouraging sign: COVID PODs decommissioned
Since March, the PODs at the Dutchess County Justice and Transition Center in Poughkeepsie have been available for use to house homeless individuals during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. They were recently decommissioned as they were no longer being used. Photo submitted

An encouraging sign: COVID PODs decommissioned

POUGHKEEPSIE — With a capacity of up to 100 individuals, the previously vacant temporary housing units (also known as PODs) at the Dutchess County Justice and Transition Center in Poughkeepsie were repurposed by Dutchess County as emergency shelters for those in need when the coronavirus struck in March. 

Partnering with Hudson River Housing and Mental Health America, the county started operating one of the two-module, dormitory-style building as an emergency shelter, with plans to open a second POD as an alternate care facility if needed. Additionally, the county, in cooperation with Nuvance Health and MidHudson Regional Hospital, worked with Dutchess Community College in Fairview to create a recovery facility for COVID-19 patients, thereby allowing for more space at the region’s hospitals for residents in need of hospitalization. 

However, the regional hospital capacity remained steady during the COVID-19 crisis, and the dorms at Dutchess Community College therefore weren’t needed. The county recently decommissioned the recovery facility set up at the college, deeming it no longer necessary.

— Kaitlin Lyle

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