Work is underway in Springfield to build permanent supportive housing - meant to give dozens experiencing homelessness a solid foundation.
For years, the Friends of the Homeless program in Springfield has provided shelter, food and a number of services for those who come to its campus on Worthington Street.
Said to help at least 1,200 people each year, it offers more than just emergency shelter – about 110 housing units are also in operation, with a waitlist to go with them.
Now, that housing stock is expected to rise.
“Every single one of these 36 units that are going to be built right across the street represents a new beginning - a place where somebody can sleep, cook a meal, have a conversation and start to heal, a place that they can finally have their own key to and a front door,” said Karin Jeffers, CEO and President of Clinical & Support Options or, CSO, which merged with Friends of the Homeless in 2016.
She spoke at what wasn’t quite a groundbreaking Wednesday – most of the area’s covered with pavement – but nonetheless, officials celebrated as construction crews continue work at 775 Worthington Street. It’s a $20 million project Jeffers says will likely wrap in the next 15 months.
Over half the funding – about 60 percent – comes by way of federal sources, like American Rescue Plan Act dollars and Low Income Housing Tax Credits - sources CSO was able to lock in despite actions in Washington.
Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal of the 1st District said it has been a fight to keep those credits and others intact amid federal funding freezes and cuts. Also a tough fight, he says, is merely getting housing like CSO’s built to begin with.
“We have to review what permitting has become, and take a hard look at all of this, because despite the best of intentions, there are also these walls of resistance to doing this that are coming from unusual alliances, which we might not have anticipated in the past,” the congressman said. “But this is a good moment. A groundbreaking is ceremonial and symbolic in nature, but it's also a statement about the idea that we hold and that is that nobody's to be abandoned and nobody is to be left behind.”
Springfield Ward 1 Councilor Maria Perez tells WAMC the 36 studio units being built are more than needed.
“I work at the New North Citizen Council – I’m the chief of housing - I see these people coming in every day … having not a place to stay and sleep at night, and having a development like this one, which is so much needed - we have over 2,500 homeless people right now and we need about over 2,000 developments like this one,” she said. “It’s great. I know some community doesn't welcome developments like that - I'm going to be very transparent - but the need nowadays… it's very needed.”
Echoing the sentiment was Mayor Domenic Sarno. The city contributed at least $500,000 to the project. It’s an effort the mayor says he’s proud to see – given the wrap-around services CSO and Friends of the Homeless offer.
“This is not only housing, but it is also a structured approach for career development, workforce development, medical needs … and everybody coming together, but I really want to single out, not only the staff here, but many of the people, whether volunteer/they step forward to say ‘We need to give back,’ even if it's some socks or it's a coat or some food is donated here,” he said.
It all factors into an evidence-based approach CSO and FoH embraces. Jeffers says if you provide brick and mortar first, the likelihood of treatment, addiction support and more succeeding rises.
Better outcomes, in many cases, just by giving someone a bed and space they can call their own.
“A few years ago, we had a woman was in her 40s, and we moved her into an apartment, and the first thing she did is she went and laid on the bed and started to cry. And we said to her ‘Is this the first your first apartment?’ and she said, ‘It's my first bed’ … that ever belonged to her,” Jeffers recounted. “When you when you see that, when you hear that … imagine having your whole, own apartment. Imagine having your own key to your own door. You don't have to share with anybody, nobody's going to kick you out. You have your own lease. It's really all part of the housing-first treatment approach.”
CSO officials say, at least when it comes to the 110 units already in operation, the apartments are rented by a "combination of project-based Section 8 and project-based Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP) recipients.”
