Summiting homelessness: Officials, advocates gather to address homelessness in a city of 'extreme need'

Sep. 25—LAWRENCE — Strategies to wrestle with homelessness in a time marked by housing shortages, sky-high rents and evictions — as well as mental health and addiction problems — were in the spotlight this week at the Lawrence Homelessness Summit.

The featured speaker at the forum, hosted by the Lawrence Public Library, was Richard Cho, senior advisor on homelessness to the nation's secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Marcia Fudge.

Cho said that a committed and coordinated team approach to the problem can go a long way toward solving it.

He said the city of Houston, Texas, which took an encampment-by-encampment approach to finding housing for the unsheltered, is a model of success.

"What you have here," said Cho, looking at the 85 people in the audience and his fellow panelists, "is many of the ingredients you need to be able to solve what is a very complex part of the housing crisis."

Also presenting at the summit were federal and state housing and health administrators, Lawrence's mayor and local administrators and others who help homeless adults and children get medical care, shelter, food and schooling.

Members of the local human services contingent say they are seeing more families and elderly people without permanent housing, in addition to the more than 100 unsheltered people living in encampments spread throughout the city.

Mayor Brian DePena told the room that homeless people come to the city every day from other communities, and, in some cases, are brought to Lawrence to receive services they know the city will provide them.

"I remember 20 years ago, Lawrence, our homeless population was a small community," he said. "Now, every day it increases."

The mayor's chief of staff, Jhovanny Martes, said in an interview that city outreach workers, Kelly Frazier and Awilda Pimentel, are going into local encampments, with police protection, to determine the number of people living there, their situations and what they need.

He said most of them are people beset by difficult personal troubles and trying to find a way forward.

To address the city's homeless issue the mayor is assembling an action plan to work with counterparts in cities and towns in the Merrimack Valley as well as state and federal housing specialists, Martes said.

Arlin Santiago, educational stability specialist for Lawrence Public Schools, said at the summit that the school system's number of homeless students is growing. Already, in September, there are 130 homeless students, from 87 families, a greater number than the district had at this time in the past three years.

"We know based on both experience and research that homeless students face much greater academic and social-emotional challenges than other students," she said.

Homeless students are without a permanent residence, living in shelters, motels or doubling up at other people's residences. Lawrence has 69 students doubling up, 58 in shelters and 3 in hotels/motels, according to school spokesman Chris Markuns.

Lawrence's human services director, Martha Velez, has worked at the city's Senior Center for 30 years, and now has more elderly Lawrencians coming through her door saying, "I don't have a place to live."

Velez said there is a 5-year wait to get into senior housing in Lawrence and a 10-year wait for public housing.

"The senior populations is a forgotten population of couch surfing, homelessness," she said.

Even seniors who worked in local mills and bought houses years ago are struggling to stay in their homes, unable to afford assessment taxes and the rising cost of living on monthly Social Security checks.

It's not just Lawrence where seniors in the Merrimack Valley are struggling.

Kelly Townsend, of the city of Methuen, said she is working with 22 elders in some stage of eviction. She has 80-year-old people with no place to go.

"What are we going to do with these people?" she asked.

Dr. Ryan Dono of the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center directs its homeless healthcare program serving 9 shelters and 6 drop-in centers or soup kitchens.

He told the audience he sees a growing number of families and working people among the homeless population.

A woeful lack of affordable housing and shelter space and few places for people to escape harsh weather makes life hard for them and a risk to others when the homeless are sick and circulating in businesses and public spaces.

Lawrence's library director, Janelle Abreu, said a burden has been placed on the library with its limited staffing and training to deal with people who come to the library during the day for shelter.

Abreu said she wants to be part of any group that assembles to tackle the problem.

Federal officials acknowledged that dealing with homelessness is especially difficult in Lawrence, given the Immigrant City's densely settled population — 89,000 people within 7 square miles — older housing stock and myriad of other challenges it must address.

"The problem with a city like Lawrence is that you have extreme need and everybody, basically, could use that money, but there is not enough," said Bob Shumeyko, HUD New England director for community planning and development.

Federal and state housing administrators say funding is essential — and has been increased — but the solution also calls for a local commitment to teamwork, diligent planning and action.

Cities such as Lawrence do receive Community Development Block Grants, discretionary funding that can be used for reducing homelessness, Shumeyko said.

In 2022, Lawrence received $1,579,000 in CDBG funding. In addition HUD has its Home program, an affordable housing program, which this year granted Lawrence just under $1 million, he said.

The state also offers emergency shelter and rapid rehousing programs, as well as permanent supportive housing programs to help cities house their homeless population.

Juana Matias, HUD New England regional administrator, said ending homelessness across the nation is a top priority for the Biden administration and HUD as demonstrated by funding provided through the American Rescue Plan, the HUD Continuum of Care program, vouchers and proposed funding in 2023 federal budget.

Matias said a homelessness solution needs more than funding.

She said the summit pointed to how organizations and agencies can work together on housing production, landlord recruitment and addressing public health factors that lead to homelessness like mental health, physical health and food insecurity, she said.

"I'm excited to see where this conversation today takes us," she said. "In how Lawrence can use every possible resource to tackle this issue."

Melanie Francois of the North Andover Housing Authority said she'd like to be part of a housing group from surrounding towns including landlords that meets regularly with Lawrence and shares ideas and resources.

"I am always eager to house," said Francois, adding she may be able to reach out with unused housing vouchers. "I would love to do that."

Matias made a refrain of Francois' call to join the fight.

"That's a call to action — for everybody in the room," she said.