Progress is being made in reducing the number of homeless families and individuals living in emergency shelters, motels and on the streets in western Massachusetts, according to a report issued today.
The report from the Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness highlighted a 34 percent drop in overall family homelessness – including a sharp reduction in the number of families living in motels from 284 to 49 – and a 27 percent decline in homeless veterans over the last year.
The data was presented at a meeting Friday in a conference center at Holyoke Community College attended by about 200 people including roughly a dozen state legislators, the Baker administration’s top housing official, and members of the network who include local elected officials, social service providers, and specialists in housing and employment.
There were heartwarming success stories told by a previously homeless veteran who suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and had been living in his car, a single mother of three who was able to get a job thanks to a training program and move out of a shelter, and a drug addict who had been homeless for nearly a decade.
State Senate President Stan Rosenberg of Amherst called the progress “amazing.” " I bet there is no other place in the Commonwealth that is moving as quickly, methodically, and successfully in reducing the number of homeless people by getting them into permanent shelter," he said.
The progress report was accompanied by a summary of requests for additional funding in 11 specific line items in the next state budget for emergency shelter, rental subsidies, specialized support services, job training, and to bus homeless children to their local schools.
"Budgets are always tight, but this an important investment," said Rosenberg. " If we invest in these programs to get people into permanent housing we will save a lot of money on the other end of the budget."
Gov. Charlie Baker has pledged to “reduce to zero” the number of homeless families living in motels at state expense before his current term is up in 2018. Chrystal Kornegay, the top official with Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, said the number of families sheltered in motels has gone from 1,500 when Baker took office last year to less than 700.
" So, the governor is making significant progress on that and has continued to support the programs that are necessary to get to those outcomes," said Kornegay.
Pamela Schwartz, Director of Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness, said it is a combination of programs and a collaboration of public and private sector agencies that are responsible for the decline in homelessness.
" We have this strategy where we target where the needs are and finding the appropriate match of resources to meet those needs to house both families and individuals," explained Schwartz.
Gloria Torres and her three children lived in a homeless shelter for a year, until she received training to be a certified nurse assistant and got a job with a home health care agency through a program called Secure Jobs Connect.
" This program helped me out so much," she said.
Torres was one of 245 parents placed in jobs since the Secure Jobs Connect program started in 2013.
The job training program for the homeless was partially funded over the last three years by a grant from a private foundation. Advocates are asking for $2 million in the state budget to continue the program now that the grant money has run out. Gov. Baker’s budget recommended $750,000 for the program.
