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I did it. The living conditions were mixed I think, my group was in probably the nicest accommodations. We stayed in a turn-of-the-century mansion in Utica that had been preserved and donated to a church. No idea how we ended up with it, but it was incredible. And regardless of where others stayed, it wasn't the woods.
Security is completely fine. Maybe its just because I am from a big city, but Utica is not as awful as it is made out to be. It is poor, and there are probably some streets where it'd be a bad idea to walk alone at 3 in the morning with expensive shiny jewelery, but you really should be fine. We didn't do much beyond hanging out in our mansion and taking a van directly to our site. I did the Refugee Center, btw.
I liked the program in general. I didn't make my best friend group out of it the way I know other people have, but it was also so comforting the first few extremely awkward weeks of college recognizing other people. There is some interaction between the groups and at the end you meet up with AA kids, so you end up meeting a bunch of people. Its not like you won't have friends if you don't do it, but at the same time it was so helpful for me in terms of adjusting to Ham.
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