A recent article in the Reminder, by G. Michael Dobbs, announces the date for a multi-city symposium to examine the root causes of homelessness. Set for January 22 at HCC’s Kittredge Center, the event is sponsored by the cities of Springfield, Holyoke and Northampton. State-level officials have been invited. From the article:
[Holyoke Mayor Michael Sullivan] is concerned about concentrating more people at or below the poverty line in the city. He said currently Holyoke, a city of about 40,000 residents, has over 2,200 families living below the poverty line.
Available property in the city provides the opportunity for a greater concentration of poor, but the city doesn’t have the capacity to provide the services they need. Sullivan said the closing of homeless shelters in the eastern part of the state is driving more poor to cities such as Holyoke.
Stressing that he wants to do the "socially responsible thing," Sullivan said that other communities, even the suburban ones, where poverty is seen far less need to share in providing services. "I have to stand up and say we need a balance," he said. He added that over the past three years there has been a 200 percent increase in families with no permanent address in the city.
The article also references Springfield Mayor Charles Ryan‘s recent visit to Crossroads Rhode Island in Providence (pictured above, from left, Crossroads Chair Howard Sutton, Crossroads President Anne Nolan, Providence Mayor David Cicilline, and Springfield Mayor Ryan). Crossroads is part of the city’s Housing First program, which turns the traditional approach to addressing homelessness on its head. Certain people in need are first placed in housing, and secondarily, mental health and addiction problems are rigorously addressed.
It’s worth mentioning that the Providence area’s success has had significant state support. According to an article about the visit in the Republican, Ryan and other Springfield representatives were impressed with the strategy.
Dobbs’s article mentions that a long-term plan to address homelessness—now officially regarded as a regional problem—was drafted and placed on the Springfield mayor’s desk in September.
