The city has moved to foreclose on the land set aside for the only sanctioned homeless encampment in Rochester.
But both sides are intent on avoiding having the Peace Village property go to auction.
The plot at 97 Industrial St. is owned by City Roots Community Land Trust, a grassroots nonprofit focused on purchasing land to preserve affordable housing. Late last month, the city of Rochester filed a list in state Supreme Court totaling nearly 1,700 properties subject to tax foreclosure.
City Roots is listed as having a tax lien of $1,438. If that amount were not to be paid, the land could go to auction in November, alongside other foreclosed properties.
Patrick Beath is the city’s top attorney. He said the city has no intention of putting the land to auction.
“The city has been working to improve Peace Village, and that has been a somewhat prolonged labor, but it's a labor that we are still undergoing,” Beath said. “So, we have no interest in seeing that parcel go to auction. That's certainly something that we're going to be dealing with, to have a conversation with City Roots and some of the other stakeholders involved in that project and make sure that we're hanging on to land for that use.”
Peace Village was established in 2018 after the demolition of another homeless encampment of the same name on South Avenue. It was the first and only homeless encampment sanctioned by the city, meaning the homeless were welcome to set up a tent or stay at the site with no screening, paperwork, or supervision.
For years, it had been a shanty village of sheds meant to give the city’s homeless a place to go. The site was squalid, with rats infesting the perimeter berm and some structures partially burnt.
City Council President Miguel Meléndez set out to improve Peace Village in 2023, following the clearing of another large encampment on Loomis Street. Council purchased a series of small, heated and cooled units from Washington-based Pallet to be placed on the site for $750,000. New electrical and water hookups were also installed on the site.
But a series of issues with the nonprofits overseeing the site caused the shelters to not be installed. Three years later, they continue to sit in storage in a backlot at the city’s neighborhood service center on Dewey Avenue.
The city sought a contractor to provide onsite services to Peace Village through a request for proposals process, including outreach and security, last year. Person-Centered Housing Options (PCHO) was the only applicant. Their proposal was estimated to cost about $1 million per year. How that project would be sustainably funded is still unclear: the city had previously dedicated just $290,000 to operational costs at Peace Village.
Meléndez said the city is working with PCHO to develop a feasible plan for the site, and that City Roots has been regularly meeting with the city to discuss the future of the project.
“My hope is that in the next couple months we're able to resolve all of that, and it will come to Council for approval,” Meléndez said. “I've been hopeful before, and have been delayed before ... But the internal push has been significant.”
Both Meléndez and City Roots President Victor Sanchez learned about the foreclosure proceedings from WXXI News.
Sanchez said he was surprised, as City Roots has been in active conversations with the city, and tax issues have not come up.
He chalked it up to miscommunication.
In 2025, an annual point-in-time count of the homeless found 1,194 people without permanent shelter in Monroe County, nearly double the number from the previous year. Last year also saw the closure of the last low-barrier shelter in the city — a shelter which will take anyone, regardless of sanctions or drug use.
