City committee hesitant on pausing homeless encampment sweeps

WORCESTER — As the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance reports a growing number of homeless people in Worcester County, some city councilors had reservations Tuesday on a request for a temporary moratorium on encampment sweeps, citing the conditions of the encampments.

Homeless advocates have defined encampment sweeps, also referred to as clearings, as forced removal of encampments where homeless people have gathered. Advocates say people who are homeless are often removed from the area and their possessions lost as a result of so-called sweeps.

A clearing of an encampment by Walmart at Tobias Boland Way in October 2021 spurred some outcry. The city said at the time that the clearing was done due to quality-of-life concerns reported by nearby property owners including Walmart.

District 5 City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj entered a petition by Maydee Morales, who has worked in providing emergency services with organizations such as Catholic Charities Worcester County and helped oversee last winter's temporary shelter at Blessed Sacrament Church. The petition seeks a temporary moratorium or to find a site to support people living in encampments, as the city works to expand shelter beds.

The issue came up during a meeting of the Standing Committee on Public Health and Human Services.

Terry Kelly also sent a petition requesting that the city manager stop sweeps and address sanitation concerns around the encampments.

"We know that a lot of people have substance use issues and mental health issues, and with a little bit of support and health we can still house folks and have them be successful," Morales said. "Of course housing first is ideal and that's what we want, but at the same time we can't be leaving people or waiting until the last minute to make this decision of what we're going to do with folks because it's cold outside."

Commissioner of Health and Human Services Dr. Matilde Castiel said it would be a difficult position for the city to tell private property owners or business owners that they cannot do anything for a period of time if people who are homeless have camped on their property.

Castiel said she has been to encampments in the past and has seen fires that can be detrimental to people who live around the encampment. People in encampments have also had guns, knives and machetes for self-defense, Castiel added.

"I don't particularly want to move people from those areas, but it is still a public health issue," Castiel said. "It's public health for the entire community."

Quality of life for neighbors

District 4 City Councilor Sarai Rivera, chair of the Standing Committee on Public Health and Human Services, said one of her concerns with the petitions as written is the potential impact on quality of life for other residents in areas of encampments. In addition, she said she did not want residents to lose out on public spaces such as Green Hill Park if an encampment is present.

A real policy would need to include more details, Rivera said.

"We need to figure out what that really looks like and have some detailed stipulations," Rivera said.

Rivera gave an example of a homeless person camping out on a sidewalk who prevented children from walking to and from the Boys & Girls Club. She added if homeless people are in a space where they are not impacting others, the situation is different.

The committee chair also said her concern with expanding shelter capacity is she wants to see more housing capacity in the city that could be available for homeless people and people with disabilities.

Rivera also said more of the people who are serviced from increased shelter capacity are coming from communities outside Worcester, where the local governments have not built any capacity.

Transitioning from shelters to rooms

Castiel said the city has had conversations since the COVID-19 pandemic that the city should move away from congregate shelters and to getting homeless people their own rooms.

"Charity is great, but justice is not just a cot and meals. Justice is providing a room for people and to have their own key," Castiel said.

While Haxhiaj said she agreed with Castiel that justice equates to permanent supportive housing, she said she was thinking about how there is no concrete plan to have an additional roof over the heads of homeless people in the summer and of supportive housing projects that are not moving forward.

"While we need to work more robustly and put more resources into coming up with those options and have a coordinated response, I am very, very, very worried that in the meantime we really have absolutely nothing even close to taking care of folks in encampments," she said.

Councilor-at-Large Morris Bergman said he would not support a moratorium if the petition were to come to a vote.

Bergman said he walked along to a check-in on a property with a number of encampments and the homeless people in the area unanimously said they did not want shelter services. The property also had numerous needles and paper waste that could pose a fire risk, Bergman said.

"It seems like we're missing the mark and not worrying about the very people we're trying to help," Bergman said. "There's no water; there's no sanitary conditions over there. Nobody would be allowed to own a piece of property and have a tenant ... under those conditions."

The debate about encampment sweeps, which city governments and housing advocates have been holding in cities across the country as housing prices rise, comes as the city faces an increase in its homeless population.

The Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance gave a presentation at the committee meeting Tuesday about the homeless population and shelter capacity in the city and county.

Rents up 67% over last 8 years

As rents have increased 67% in the Worcester Metropolitan statistical area over the last eight years, household income has only increased 38%, Jack Moran of the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance said. Renters also tend to have lower incomes than homeowners, Moran said.

Total current shelter capacity in the city is 141 beds and only 24 of 174 new units of permanent supportive housing will be available before the summer of 2024, Leah Bradley, CEO of the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance, said.

Bradley said there will be an increase in the number of homeless people in the city in the winter of 2024. Per trends, about 387 are expected to be homeless in the city on the coldest nights of winter, creating a gap of 246 beds.

The committee also heard public comment from local and national housing advocates who said they have found sweeps detrimental to their work as they make homeless people more difficult to keep track of and more distrustful of assistance. One advocate said he believes sweeps presents constitutional dilemmas for cities as they violate the rights of the homeless.

Rivera said she would be open to adopting a policy on sweeps with more conditions and stipulations. She ordered to send the matter to the city manager's office, where a group tasked with addressing homelessness can discuss the policy and make recommendations.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester committee hesitant on pausing homeless encampment sweeps