GREENFIELD — The Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region has made a lot of progress over the past five years, but housing is still a major barrier for the people it is trying to help.
Heather Bialecki-Canning, executive director of North Quabbin Community Coalition in Athol, said the nonprofit is having a lot of conversations with others working in addiction, but those conversations need to continue and expand.
She said employment, child care, and health and wellness are all issues that need to be looked at, but housing in the biggest issue.
“Everyone has to take ownership of housing and sheltering everyone,” she said.
According to Register of Probate and task force Co-Chair John Merrigan, everything from naming the task force to bringing a detox facility to Federal Street in Greenfield has been accomplished. The Family Drug Court is also available to all who need it.
But, he said judges, probation officers, task force members and social service providers agree that the “No. 1 carrot to help people come out of their rut and help them successfully become sober” is housing, and there’s just not enough of it.
Finding a job is another obstacle for those recovering from addiction. Merrigan said many landlords are reluctant to rent to someone in recovery, because they don’t want to be stuck in Housing Court if it doesn’t work.
“There is some sober housing, but we need a lot more,” he said. “We need to find ways to overcome the obstacles and fear that landlords feel.”
Merrigan said he hopes the tide is turning, because Franklin County Sheriff Christopher Donelan and others are working with landlords to alleviate some of their fears and help them find funding to renovate their properties.
Task force members said child care is another issue, but it all comes down to having a safe and warm place to live, so that people don’t have to worry about that and can concentrate on employment and child care.
Jessica Secore, a participant at Two Rivers Recovery Center for Women, a Greenfield facility for women in the early stages of recovery from alcohol and other drug problems and who are vulnerable to relapse, said finding housing has been extremely tough.
Secore said she has filled out many housing applications and has had no luck, receiving one denial letter after another.
“I finally had a re-entry worker help me with an application to the Winslow in Greenfield, but I was denied,” she said.
She said she has appealed that decision and should hear this week about whether she’ll have housing.
Secore said she has had problems finding a job, as well, because she has a criminal record. As soon as a potential employer or landlord does a CORI check on her, things seem to end there.
“I’d like to work in the field of addiction some day, but it’s a battlefield out there,” she said. “I was one of those people sleeping in the woods not so long ago.”
According to state statistics, 17 people in Franklin County and Athol have lost their lives to opioid overdoses so far this year. In the Franklin County House of Correction, 85 percent of incarcerated individuals suffered from substance use and/or mental health disorders when assessed in 2014.
The task force and its partners came up with priorities at its first summit last year. Those include outreach to Habitat for Humanity and Franklin County Technical School to explore building and rehabilitating sober housing; creating an incentive plan or pool of resources to help people settling into their first home; identifying trained trauma-sensitive and informed housing navigators; exploring state and federal tax breaks for sober housing; and obtaining a list of tax-held properties in Greenfield and other communities to see how they could be rehabilitated for sober housing. The task force also continues to explore more long-term priorities.
Debra McLaughlin, task force coordinator, said the task force will continue to work on those priorities and more in 2020. In June, the task force explored how to work with a group of Franklin County Technical School students to rehabilitate potential sober housing units, set to happen in the fall of 2020. The groups will meet again in January.
The task force recently held its second annual Sober Housing Summit at the John W. Olver Transit Center on Olive Street. Organizers said work on these issues and more will be done throughout the next year and the summit will return again late next fall.
For more information about the task force or summit, or to find information on resources, visit: opioidtaskforce.org.
Reach Anita Fritz at
413-772-0261, ext. 269 or afritz@recorder.com.