Leading role in aid to homeless
$1.1M in funding supports model approach in region
Friday, February 20, 20091
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NORTHAMPTON - Local leaders Thursday eagerly accepted $1.1 million, the area's slice of an $8 million pilot program meant to rethink and reinvent the way homeless people are served.
Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray, in the city for a daylong meeting with a regional homelessness task force, was on hand to announce the grant at the Northampton Senior Center on Conz Street. Statewide, the eight regional pilot networks share a goal of prioritizing what is called "rapid rehousing" and stabilization of homeless people, which essentially means there is a push to get them into homes more quickly so they don't languish in shelters.
Murray had spent much of the day meeting with members of a committee called the Regional Network Leadership Committee of western Massachusetts, a panel that began preliminary discussions on how the grant should be spent. The committee itself is a collaborative effort, chaired by Evan Dobelle of Westfield State College and includes local mayors, and wide array of community members.
Later at the press conference before a crowd of about 40 people, Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins praised the new program as she prepared to introduce Murray.
"We need a new approach," said Higgins. "If we'd been doing it right all along, we wouldn't be having these problems today."
Murray called the western Massachusetts region a model for the rest of the state, which perhaps is why it was his first stop in a tour that will see him making stops at the pilot programs around the state in an effort to raise awareness of the initiative.
Murray noted that 2,600 families across the state are currently living in hotels, motels and shelters - a sign that the system isn't working. He and others at the press conference stressed the need for a collaborative approach. Murray said the initiative's ambitious goal is to ending homelessness in the commonwealth by 2013.
Murray said western Massachusetts already is a model when it comes to battling homelessness through collaboration and cooperation. Although the statewide initiative to end homelessness began only two years ago with the creation of the Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness, the mayors of western Massachusetts have been holding annual summits on how to end homelessness since 2005, he noted.
Other officials represented at the press conference included Bob Pulster, executive director of the interagency council, and officials from state agencies including the departments of public health, mental health, transitional assistance and corrections.
Statewide, about 250 state employees have been pulled together to be prepared for their new roles in the interagency collaboration that consists of 10 working groups. Pulster said the project offers the state government a rare opportunity to coordinate and build relationships across departments.
It "provides the incredible opportunity for change in a big system," said Pulster.
Another component of the initiative is a proposal to move shelter services in the state from the Department of Transitional Assistance to the Department of Housing and Community Development, which would mean more resources available to get people into homes more quickly.
Alana Murphy, director of policy and development at the state's housing and community development department, said each of the eight regions will have to work hard in its own area to ultimately solve the problem statewide.
It's a lofty goal, she acknowledged, but not impossible.
"We will prove that we can end homelessness, and Massachusetts will become a national paradigm using western Mass. as the first model," said Murphy. "This is all very exciting."
