Harsh Winter Means Homeless Emergency

Harsh Winter Means Homeless Emergency

There is a human rights emergency in the City of Worcester.  The so-called homeless are suffering in the more than 600 hours of continuous temperatures below freezing. The City Council’s Committee on Public Health, chaired by Councillor Sarai Rivera, held hearings on the matter on February 23, 2015.

The Triage Center, located on Queen St., has exceeded its capacity daily because of the extreme cold and snow. It is licensed for 25 beds but some nights over one hundred people spend the night. This number is not representative of the number of people who need shelter as many people do not meet the criteria of the Triage Center or choose to remain outdoors.  One person who attended the meeting, Paul, said that the staff of the Triage Center was sometimes confused about the requirements.

The number of people sheltering in the Triage Center has brought complaints from the Shepherd/ King St. Neighborhood Association which was represented by former City Councillor Barbara Haller. Ms. Haller and I have locked horns before on numerous issues, but in this case I think she is right despite her motives.  She said that the Triage Center was never intended to shelter over one hundred people on a daily basis. Forty people were acceptable, albeit a number exceeding the Center’s license for 25 beds.  The old PIP Shelter had 37 residents when it closed its doors and was replaced by the Triage Center.

South Middlesex Opportunity Council (SMOC) runs the Triage Center on the campus of Community Healthlink, a part of UMass Hospital. The SMOC representative, Charles Gagnon, detailed the efforts it was making to reduce the “overflow” of people to the Triage Center. He said that the goal was to develop a single point of entry for the people needing shelter; this is the vision developed by the Federal agency, Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Through HUD SMOC has 50 units of housing, 100 vouchers for housing and 15 housing slots. SMOC said it was looking at a long term solution of moving homeless people into housing.

Mr. Gagnon also said that the harsh winter, the closure of the Long Island Center in Boston, and the periodic mercy patrols by the Worcester Police have a part to play in the overcrowding. Although he admitted he should have included the City and the neighbors sooner in the discussion of the overcrowding he felt at the time the extreme weather and demand on the Triage Center would subside.

 Councillor Rivera said that the system is broken. Mary Keefe, the District’s State Representative said that she was just learning of the issue.  Hopefully Representative Keefe will come up with a strategy that the City can take to the State.

Councillor Rivera is right in that the system is broken. There does not seem to be the political will to resolve the underlying causes that make people “homeless”:  an economic system in which we live from check to check, a devastated safety net, the health issues of the homelessness, and the prejudice against even the sight of homeless and “panhandlers”.  

Although not a surprise it is a disappointment that more people, politicians, and candidates did come to the hearing. I suppose a human rights crisis does not matter when the people cannot vote or contribute to a campaign.