The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Massachusetts has the opportunity to convert an unused dormitory into emergency shelter for unhoused families. Governor Maura Healey has prioritized the issue, directing millions of dollars to find housing for the thousands without homes in Massachusetts. MCLA would receive around $2.6 million from the state over 12 months from the state to pursue the plan. It estimates that community members in need of housing would cycle through in three or four months over a 12- to 18-month lease. The college anticipates making a final decision this summer. Some in the North Adams community – including members of the city council and former mayor and current Democratic State Representative John Barrett III – have expressed opposition to the plan. MCLA Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Gina Puc spoke with WAMC about how the college is preparing for the move.
PUC: As you may know, Massachusetts is facing a critical shortage of affordable housing. It's been a major tenant of the new governor's agenda. That shortage is contributing to housing instability amongst our neighbors here in Berkshire County. To address this, MCLA was approached by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development much earlier, in the fall, and, like some other state universities in the system, with the potential for using a residence hall that we have offline, to convert it into a temporary shelter for Western Massachusetts families. So that that was really the origin. We've been in some conversations. There's still a lease being negotiated with legal teams looking over details. So that's where we're at. We're in, still in earlier stages of that conversation.
WAMC: Tell us more about the housing itself, how many folks would be using the space, and who would be running it for the college.
Berkshire Towers is a suite-style residence hall kind of offset of the MCLA main campus across the street. Right now, the estimate is somewhere in the vicinity of 50 to 70 or so families, certainly not there all at the same time. And this is an initiative through the Emergency Assistance Program. There's legislative funding for this, and it works with low-income families with children under the age of 21 or pregnant women who qualified for this. So that's where we're at. It would be run by a third-party provider. In this case, we've been having conversations with ServiceNet. They're an organization that operates some facilities both in the Pioneer Valley and here in Berkshire County in Pittsfield, so they would take care of staffing it and take care of things like case management, making sure that all meals are provided, that the shelter stays clean, and that all sorts of regular daily needs are taken care of for its residents.
Do you feel like those facilities would be able to fulfill the needs of the folks who would be possibly taking advantage of them as temporary housing?
Yeah, I mean, Berkshire Towers is a residence hall that's undergone some more recent renovations. Certainly, we put our students there. It's in it's in fine condition. And, you know, both ServiceNet and Department of Housing and Community Development are well adept at running these shelter situations. And we think they will be great partners in this initiative, if it goes forward.
There's been skepticism from North Adams residents and members of the city council about this plan, and some complaints that maybe the college is not communicating with the city as much as it could be about this project. What do you say to those criticisms?
Thank you for that question. You know, once negotiations got underway and conversations were advancing with Housing and Community Development, MCLA, through President [James] Birge, had been in conversation with both the mayor of North Adams, superintendent of North Adams public schools, as well as other community leaders in the human services, and communicated that and we've been drawing on key partners, as these conversations have advanced. Again, Department of Housing and Community Development has held a couple of legislative briefings around this to involve partners both in North Adams and some of the team at MCLA. I understand that there may be some frustrations in the community for additional details, and certainly when we have those, we will share. It's an ongoing and developing situation. Our plan is to, once the lease agreements are in place, to host a public briefing to provide some additional final details to the community.
What do you say- You know, this came up in the city council meeting this week, this concept that, well, if this housing is used for the unhoused, then how could MCLA expand its enrollment? What do you say to that concern? Is that something that you are concerned about at the college?
Yeah, I mean, certainly looking at the landscape of higher education as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, enrollment and enrollment concerns are at our forefront. It's no secret, we did lose some students during the pandemic like many other campuses, particularly rural campuses across the country. So, we're not alone in that. But I think MCLA has done a great job of coming out of the gate with really looking to fortify its enrollment through new programs. We have a nursing program that was just launched, we resurrected men's hockey, we've launched women's hockey, and we're already seeing the fruits of the labor with the teams that have worked on those programs. They've already contributed to over 100 new applications for the fall of 2023, and we're continuing an upward trend. Our new student enrollment was up 13%, year over year for fall of ‘22. Again, kind of emerging out of the pandemic, and those trends continue for fall of ‘23. We’re in the fortunate position of, we do have a bit of a housing surplus now as we rebuild enrollment, and as a state institution who has an obligation to serving its community, this opportunity to partner with a major initiative of the new governor and work with the Department of Housing and Community Development, it's just, it's a nice confluence of time to be able to provide a vital service to our community as we ramp up enrollment. And that's one of the reasons that it is a shorter-term lease, we're looking at 12 to 18 months with negotiations around renewal. And the intention of that is to make sure we're able to ramp up housing again for when the MCLA community and our students need it.
State Representative and former North Adams Mayor John Barrett III, who's a trustee of MCLA, used some pretty harsh language about this plan, calling it catastrophic for the community and the school. Can you speak to that? What are your thoughts on this sort of, that tenor of that conversation?
Yeah, I think there have been a lot of loud voices coming out on this, not necessarily just Representative Barrett's. And I think it's important to look at all sides of the issue. We know homelessness is a critical issue for the state of Massachusetts, housing affordability is a critical issue, and again, we're able to offer this opportunity and this service at a time when MCLA is able to. We are in a sound financial position. We're projecting a million-dollar surplus going into the next fiscal year. Again, we're seeing enrollment ramp up. And so, I think it's important to consider all sides of the issue. We've seen, yes, while there have been some negative comments, particularly in the press, we've seen a lot of positive responses around this in terms of the community rallying behind this critical need, and certainly we'll continue to take feedback from all sides into consideration as we go forward and sort of hash out final details and really await our final decision on this.
