Coming to City Council: Homelessness, free museum trips and private street maintenance

WORCESTER — City Council is slated to consider another order Tuesday addressing homelessness, a request to offer free monthly museum admission to students and families, and petition forms for short-term repairs to private streets.

Tuesday's agenda includes several requests from city councilors along with miscellaneous items requiring simple up-or-down votes.

Creating a plan for homelessness

City Council requests in the past month have touched on the growing homeless population in the city and in shelters.

Councilor-at-Large Donna Colorio requested a report "concerning the situation at the Worcester Public Library regarding the homeless population."

Jan. 10, an encampment outside of the winter shelter at the previous downtown RMV building was cleared and three were arrested. The encampment was created in part as a protest where homeless participants and advocates said there was a lack of safe space for women and transgender people at city shelters.

Councilor-at-Large Khrystian King later requested the city ensure each shelter in the city establishes or adheres to a gender-identity nondiscrimination policy.

For Tuesday, Councilor-at-Large Thu Nguyen is requesting City Manager Eric D. Batista provide the council with a two-to-five-year plan that addresses homelessness in the city.

According to Nguyen's request, the plan should include funding and resource allocations to create and expand both temporary and yearlong shelters and should include a list of community partners and the types of services they provide.

Nguyen also requested the report include annual funding and resources partners received annually from the city in the last five years in order to determine how to increase their capacity.

Last year, Batista sent the City Council a housing production plan and launched its down payment assistance program and affordable housing preservation program to respond to the housing crisis the city faces.

The state faces a housing crisis as a whole, with Gov. Maura T. Healey proposing a $4 billion housing construction bill.

Making museums free

Mayor Joseph M. Petty is requesting Batista explore the feasibility of the city offering free admission to major museums in the city to Worcester Public Schools students and parents on a monthly or bimonthly basis.

In his request, Petty lists the Worcester Art Museum, the EcoTarium and the Worcester Historical Museum as museums that would be part of the potential program. Websites for two of the museums currently list free admission to children.

According to their websites, the Worcester Art Museum has free admission for those 17 and younger and $18 admission for adults who are not members; the EcoTarium has $14 admission for children and $19 admission for adults who are not members; and the Worcester Historical Museum offers free admission to children and $5 admission for adults who are not members.

Private roads

At the Jan. 23 City Council meeting, the council discussed a communication from the city related to private street maintenance.

Private streets have long vexed the city. Most private roads are unpaved dirt roads that are in poor condition and the city administration has long held they are limited in their ability to do work on streets that are not public.

The report includes an analysis from City Solicitor Michael Traynor who wrote that the city received a special act in 1996 that allows two-thirds of abutters to a private road to petition the city for temporary repairs that can include grading and filling of holes and depressions.

The cost of such repairs should not exceed $6 per linear foot, as determined by the commissioner of the Department of Public Works.

City councilors said they were not previously aware of the special act and wanted the limited option more widely publicized to residents.

City Clerk Nikolin Vangjeli submitted two draft petition forms for residents to eventually use to collect signatures from two-thirds of the abutters of private streets.

Underscoring the desire city councilors have to address the issue, District 3 City Councilor George Russell is requesting separately a draft petition form for residents to use.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Homeless, free museum trips, private streets on tap for City Council