Worcester Needs more services, Umass Researchers Seek Solutions
On tonight's city council
Disclaimer - This is one of my first pieces like this, and I’ve given myself a deadline of 4pm so I can nap before city council. I am not extremely familiar with the world of recovery, or what services there are in Worcester. I’m going into this with a bias against the city, and already knew SMOC was problematic.
Trigger warning, discussion of rape and abuse
This morning and yesterday I was at St Johns passing out fliers, letting people know of an opportunity to speak up for an increase in services in front of city council.
The conversations turned into interviews and I got consent to quote a few people, which turned into this post.
But please join the meeting tonight?
Public comment is 6:30, third floor of city hall.You can read this during the boring parts of the meeting. or call in?!?
You can also watch/participate remotely using the Zoom Link here
or calling (929) 205 6099 and using access code 917 2757 4825
The unhoused population in Worcester is increasing. That isn’t a question, and I am not seeking statistics to support it - I walk through this city every day.
I see unhoused people as an output of poor management. A well run city, a good society takes care of it’s most vulnerable. It has places for people to be and provides support and structure to get them where they’re needed. Worcester has been systematically pricing people out of homes and this is the easily predictable result from increasing the cost of living without increasing services. It’s an affordability crisis, and our current systems aren’t accessible to people with mental health issues.
I participated in a protest last year Written about by WGBH regarding the lack of trans beds (only male or female, pick one), safe shelters and that there were signifcantly more than 60 people who needed beds in the city.
And the city manager admitted that 60 was not enough on Manny Jae Media’s livestream.
So I was glad to see a petition regarding it on the city council agenda, asking them to do something about it.
This petition was filed by a few people whom I quickly googled and seem to be researcher sat Umass.
While walking through the city to the Memorial the other day, I ran into Nicole, the woman I interviewed after she was spoken to by so-called Quality of Life last week.
She told me that someone had told her the shelter wasn’t open yet because an inspector didn’t show up, and I remembered that there was an agenda item about creating resources, and that I should be passing out pamphlets behind city hall.
Today, I talked with Charles McNeill AKA Books, a formerly incarcerated writer. He was kicked out of the Queen street shelter yesterday for taking photos, documenting homelessness (I’ll get to that later). He had been there for a few months, hadn't met his caseworker yet. We talked about the lack of oversight, how the people who work at the shelter look after anything other than themselves. “I'm the one breaking up fights”, he said.
His partner Maryagnes Kender got kicked out for being tagged in the video, apparently staff pulled up their social media in the meeting. They said “Look at your Facebook” and scrolled showing on their phone. Books said how he put the Tyson fight on TV the other night. He had said it felt like they were trying to push his buttons so he could get kicked out forever
Books seemed to know what he was talking about, and said “All of us have mental health issues”, and he wasn’t wrong. He described some of the horrors people have to go through at shelter, like being made to sit next to their rapists.
He had a 12 o'clock meeting today, I hope it went well, but he’s going in with a list of legitimate concerns I can’t imagine they’re about to address. I hope he shows up to for public comment tonight.
The notice I handed out yesterday. Todays was smaller/shorter and said “Just show up and speak”. It was pointed out to me that the shelter has a 6pm Curfew, so many of these guys can’t make it to city council
Everyone I talked to was friendly, a few I talked to were more educated than me. One person glanced at my notice and said he’d remember it and I believe him. People would walk over and hand each other a cigarette, I saw one person turn wifi sharing on for a few other. Everyone just wanted a purpose. They were eager to discuss what the city actually needs.
It does look like they’re finally removing the boards today, and yesterday they removed the leafs and trash behind the back door.
Yesterday
Today
“They’re not even nice”
During my conversation with them a few people walked up and shared tidbits
One person said “It’s More than fights - the staff talk seem to try and get in the way of relationships. One man said they were “Telling bad things about him” to his wife, alleged that they “Broke hippa laws” and then kicked him out for thirty day, separating him from his pregnant wife. Others reported having staff ask “Why are you with him”
“They steal from us, Walk out with donations, take the good stuff before we get it”
“Come in there with their hair down not willing to break up fights”
“I have diabetes, they throw my candy away”
“Respect goes a long way, but not in that shelter”
People reported staff sending naked videos to them
One person said “it’s not even SMOC - it's the staff at queen street.” Apparently staff were known to threaten them if they didn’t comply with anything “They tell you I'll kick you out in the cold, so they know that’s what they’re holding over you”.
A man who had initially been uninterested when I walked up with a paper came over and softly said to me among the group “They’re not even nice”
I talked to one man who after many months of paying the rent after his mother died, the landlord evicted everyone in the building.
I heard a rumor about an opensky person going in undercover and am seriously wondering what came of that.
One person explained how the last shelter asked for his ID when he checked in and didn’t return it when he left, and now he can’t get into other ones.
One man said that shelters don’t watch anything, only their own stuff - they had lost all his clothes, two cell phones and simply repeat “not responsible for it” when asked.
In full disclosure, not everyone there thinks Worcester needs more services.
Apparently it’s easy to find a hot meal in Worcester, and we’re significantly better than New Hampshire and Kansas, and pretty much anywhere else in Massachusetts. (if you’re reading this Manager Batista, Give yourself a pat on the back, you set the very low bar, now time to raise it.
In conversation, I heard a lot of health concerns - people mentioned Heart meds, diabetes, gastric bypass, asthma, and so much mental health. A lot of people were describing executive dysfunction when saying why they struggled with the services in place. One person had the exact same conversation with me twice, a few seconds apart.
“What’s after a shelter? A rooming house, with addiction”
Someone else, who wishes to remain anonymous described herself as “Over 60, Maybe didn't make the best financial decisions, on Social security, On and off mental disability but suffering from Depression” explained in detail to me a pattern that happens with combining people with shared housing with people in recovery from addiction.
She had been section 12’d, and unable to get medications, a few years ago. She currently lives in a rooming house, under SMOC and described a recent situation in where an abusive exploitative boyfriend who had been invited had attacked the house manager, and kept bringing his friends over. He had been beating the girlfriend, and assaulting and giving drugs to other women there, as well as bringing his friends over. Thankfully, he’s now in jail, but this apparently is a recurring issue.
She said that “management only comes in 9-5 unless it's an emergency” and even then it’s not guaranteed. They’ve been trying to handle it, which means they keep reporting issues as they happens, but they’ve been doing that for a few months now.
“Sober living houses need management”, because otherwise it will “Turn that house into a using house, because the drug makes all the choices, including who their friends are” She told me that there used to be a position they called the “House mother”, a responsible person now called the house manager. Their job is to knock and ask what was going on
She said how helpful CHL was, that if it wasn’t for her worker she didn’t know where she would be. Apparently CHL got her on masshealth after she was denied. Previously she didn't have any mental health medications or doctors, and said how many places weren't taking patients.
She said how the caseworker from CHL “Somehow got me to stay in the phone, asking the right questions. This woman out me in touch with people to get the medication” and that she “wanted to buy her a bouquet of flowers but I didn't get to before she left”
She described the discomfort with people who are actively on drugs, said “We're targets for them, but also we don’t want to interfere with what they’re doing”
I left during morning prayer (Oh, right, this is a church after all) and went outside to someone I’d sat next to at court before, he has a beautiful dog, and we talked with a bit both days.
“It's not a lack of resources. We need to address drugs and alcohol”
Richard Snair had a lot to say on this, and he’s largely right.
He used to be the Assistant director of Mckenna house, a shelter in Concord New Hampshire, described himself as chronically homeless, and has been through recovery programs. He told me how he was on the front page of Worcester Mag in vivid detail and I couldn’t help but think about how great all of these peoples memories were.
He had some brilliant suggestions, namely Dual diagnosis centers and Community centers
Places where they can treat both addiction and mental health, and places where poeple can charge their phones and use the bathroom during the day. He pointed out there’s shower vans, methadone vans, nurse vans, but not one place with all of these things.
He had some thoughts on why people remain unhoused “There are more people qualified for these vouchers, but you gotta show up to appointments, be sober and prove homelessness.
Setting aside how bad me and most of my friends are with showing up for appointments, “proving homelessness” isn’t as simple as it sounds. He explained how hospitals sometimes decline to write down homeless as an address provided because then that can be used as a record, and that shelters often won’t
Apparently CHL had talked him into housing. They kept coming out to where he was, and walked him through the process.
“I don't think Worcester is short on vouchers. But you gotta qualify. Gotta be sober or in sobriety, that's the hard part. As soon as they get an apartment, “it’s party time now, and you're all fucked up having your friends over and then you don't get a voucher for a long time”
People need a place outside the library, with bathrooms and plugs. “A community center”
“Bathrooms are a huge issue, Richard said.
For what it’s worth, the city council did pass a petition to do something about the lack of public restrooms a while ago. I doubt the city manager has acted on it, but who knows.
Nicole, a longtime visitor of St Johns wanted to say good things about the church approached me at city hall after and asked me to audio record, here’s what she had to say
Summary: St Johns has been overall nurturing and loving, and considers herself very blessed and thankful for them
Sidenote: I wasn’t trying to ask anyone about the church. But there was also a miscommunication where some people thought they had to sign the paper, and I guess that makes sense given that it was a printed underline. Learning some lessons here.
“Smocs the only one left in the city, There was four of them”
Someone else I chatted with said there used to be more services in Worcester, but they all left the city in 2015ish, that something happened and only SMOC is left in the city now.
(I am aware of some of what that something may be, but that’s a whole other story for another time, we’re focusing on solutions now. )
When I discussed Queen Street with him, and pointed out that many people seem to be uncomfortable saying why people won’t use it, he pointed out that some may be in legal trouble, but others don't want to go to a shelter where people may be treated like a prisoner. Metal metal metal, he said describing the bathroom fixtures.
He had stayed there for 3 nights 4 days and won't go back.“The staff were fine with me I was polite to them they were polite to me but the facility itself is disgusting” He said it’s mat, not usually a cot, but place to stay better than street. He explained that the facility is apparently not big enough to have both a dorm and cafeteria, so the procedure is to pinsol the floors after meals and put the sleeping mats back down.
He said how the Worcester sheriff's office have a lot of services, but people are afraid to walk in there. He referenced the Good Samaritan law, something I’ve heard of but am unfamiliar with. “They do offer a lot at the sheriff's office, but people not incentived to walk in and ask for help
When it comes to peer groups he said open sky has a lot of services but “Only if you've been incarcerated”. He explains that some benefits are directly tied to their Jail identification number
This man at one point pulled out a wad of business cards and fliers, and said “This is every resource in the city - it’s out here if you need it”
I asked him what he thought people needed, and he said “A better social support system” He elaborate on a “Big brother type system”, someone to check in with and be with during the day. People need “Positive people” to be around.
In regards to addiction he wanted this quote shared, “The chains of habit are generally too weak to be felt until they're too strong to be broken”, it has stuck with him for over 15 years.
I want to disentangle housing and addiction, but it does seem they’re pretty interwoven.
My solution is a sanctioned encampment while the city builds the right facility, since we know it’s gonna take them half a decade anyways, and we’ve got a lot of cold nights and long days between now and then
Also, defund SMOC QOL and give CHL more resources to do what they were doing. Give tax incentives to programs that help people the way we do to developers.
Our library is incredible but it shouldn’t have to hold ANY of the weight here, they do enough awesome things
TLDR
Problems
Shelter Staff
Racism
Theft
Playing Favorites
Shelter size
Shelter safety
Lots of assault
Belongings
Concerns of being with criminals
Criminals with harmful intent
Solutions
A no questions asked shelter
(If felons have a place they’re allowed to go, other people will feel safer at the other shelters)
A community center with bathrooms and outlets.
It should have wifi too.
Separate eating and sleeping rooms at all shelters
Give CHL more money