Present: Susan Worgaftik, Peg Hall, Mary McClintock, Dorothy McIver, Chuck Green, Edie Heinemann, Pamela Goodwin, Dave Chichester, Stephanie Duclos, Rosa Tobin, Judy Draper, Erin Forbush, Amy Clarke, Emily Greene, Louise Amyot, Nikki Garrett
Decisions and areas for further discussion were made are in red.
Updates
Status of 42 Cleveland Street—Alyssa Larose
RDI expects to close on the sale of the property by April 15th. All the funding needed to complete the project is in hand. Asbestos remediation will begin this spring. RDI will be looking for assistance in outreach to the neighborhood as things move forward. Alyssa will be in touch with us about this.
Status of Green River School—Susan Worgaftik
We still don’t know a lot yet. Glenn Johnson-Mussad has told us that the superintendent is working on the key paperwork. We may know more in April.
Hope Street—Nikki Garrett
The reorganized leadership group met at the end of February. They are planning a community meeting soon. The owner of the Webb Building is now involved as is Anna Oltman, and Councilors Bullock and Garrett.
Winter 2024-2025 Shelter Planning—Amy Clarke
The Mayor called a meeting of all the service providers providing support services to the unhoused population. Although everyone was not there, the representation was very good and there was a spirit of cooperation in the air. The assessment of the 2023 winter is that there was some difficulty getting the word out about the overflow warming center at the Wells Street shelter and the involvement of the Sheriff’s Office in the effort was not successful. It was agreed that next winter we should move to a different model. There will be no extra room at the temporary shelter at Arch Street next winter. Fire Chief Strahan explained the legal difficulties with providing overnight shelter in city buildings. It was agreed that we need to find some alternative spaces for very cold nights. It was also agreed that the 10 degree above 0 threshold may be too low, especially if wind chill is not considered. There will be further discussion on this. There are some possibilities for future staffing. At the next meeting we hope that things will be moved further along in the planning.
CDBG Hearing—Susan Worgaftik
There was good representation of people concerned about housing at the CDBG hearing. It was good to know that the city’s plan for these funds that will become available in the fall are for housing rehabilitation assistance, legal aid for homelessness prevention and outreach to unhoused residents of Greenfield. For more information, see attachment.
Housing Bond Bill—Susan Worgaftik
The good news is that housing bond bill is out of the Housing Committee and has been moved to the Bonding Committee. The bad news is that there were no amendments to the bill. Those amendments will probably happen in the Ways and Means Committee hearings. We will let people know when those meetings come up so that we can once again write letters to key representatives and senators. Senator Comerford and Reps. Blais and Whipps are on board. The key will be getting to the leadership of the House and the Senate and the Ways and Means Committee. More to come.
Discussions
Massachusetts Fair Housing Center—Rosa Tobin
In a whirlwind presentation, Rosa presented the jist of what the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center does. Mass Fair Housing Center is the oldest such center in the Commonwealth and serves the 4 Western Massachusetts counties and Worcester County. Its services are focused on housing discrimination providing free legal services, information and advocacy regarding public policy and testing of housing violation. The key pieces of legislation that in helps enforce are the 1968 Fair Housing Act and a state housing anti-discrimination law which outlaws housing discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, familial status, children in the household, marital status, age, sexual expression, and status regarding public assistance. Landlords cannot set special conditions or add additional costs for people they do not want to rent to, eg. Extra cost because children may cause more wear and tear on an apartment. If you know of someone who might benefit from these services, they can reach Rosa at rtobin@massfairhousing.org or can call their office. (See attachments) They also will work with folks to do housing counseling and search support for people with vouchers. They work closely with Community Legal Aid regarding legal assistance for housing on broader issues.
Recognition of Shelter and Outreach Workers—Susan Worgaftik, Erin Forbush
We established that we want to provide personalized thank you notes and include a gift certificate or gift card. There are 32 people who would receive these cards…16 from the Wells Street Shelter, 14 from the two family shelters, and 2 from Wildflower Alliance. Considering our available funds, slightly less than $300, though a couple of people said that they would put some additional money in, we agreed that the key places to ask for gift cards or certificates are the Garden Cinema, Ice Cream Alley or Shelburne Coffee Roasters. We will also check if the Greenfield Business Association is still using Greenfield Dollars. Once we have figured out what cards we can get, we will have a card writing party. Susan and Louise are investigating the options.
Housing Registration—Chuck Green
Chuck presented an analysis of what the options are that are being considered by the committee. Overall, we are trying to find the best way to gather the address information for all rental units with the least involvement of other individuals or systems, but also figure out how to make that information available and updated as needed. The subgroup is meeting on March 12th to consider options.
Reports (The following are the same as February. As there has been no change, they are repeated here for those who missed the February notes.)
Wells Street—Amy Clarke
The shelter is full and the 5 additional beds that the shelter will have until the end of March are also occupied. They are prepared for overflow for when the temperature is 25 degrees or lower. Because the winter has been warm thus far there have been very few nights when the warming center has been in use. CSO also has a partnership with Eliot Homeless Services which also provides hotel rooms, if they are needed.
The Interfaith Council has supported hotel stays primarily in Orange and Athol for a total of 50-60 nights and 6-8 nights at the Red Roof Inn. They have also purchased supplies for the warming center and a stipend for Larry to do outreach for the warming center. They have also spent $6-7,000 preventing evictions or providing start-up funds so that people can get housing.
Family Shelter at the Family Inn and the Days Inn—Erin Forbush
The Days Inn shelter has now been in operation for 8-9 months and the families are starting to see themselves as part of the community. Many are working and 30 of the 45 families now have vehicles. English classes are continuing with the Center for New Americans. Mass Hire has been helpful in providing job fairs and working with employers. There is a regular flow of new migrant families. Within 24 hours of one family finding housing another arrives. There are still more than 700 families on the state’s waiting list.