ORANGE — An addiction, a criminal record, an inability to work — sometimes these are contributing causes to homelessness, and sometimes they are misguided stereotypes.
People in the North Quabbin region understand that homelessness is a complex issue. Wednesday, a group met at the Central Congregational Church to discuss peeling back the many “layers” of homelessness, as well as brainstorm ideas to increase low-income housing in the region.
“There are a myriad of problems, and I think we need to be sensitive to the plight,” said Stephen Raymond, a member of the Athol Selectboard.
The first meeting of the North Quabbin Community Coalition (NQCC) Housing Task Force drew a diverse group of community organizers, nonprofit workers, Salvation Army volunteers, local elected officials and municipal employees, business owners and residents.
The group intends to meet monthly.
There was a general agreement Wednesday that one of the biggest hurdles in confronting homelessness is overcoming the stigma surrounding it.
Raymond, who also works at the Salvation Army in Athol preparing meals, said he has encountered a “reluctance” among homeless people to identify as such.
Others remarked that homelessness comes in many forms, and people who are “couch surfing” or have very sporadic housing may not identify as homeless because they don’t fit the stereotype of sleeping in a tent or on a park bench. This could make it difficult to accurately count all the homeless people in the upcoming U.S. census, which could negatively impact the amount of funding the region gets for housing.
In addition, sometimes people fear being labeled homeless for legitimate reasons, said North Quabbin Community Coalition Executive Director Heather Bialecki-Canning. For example, if someone is staying in a small area with their children, they may misreport to prevent the state’s Department of Children and Families from getting involved.
“There are all these things that are a real threat to folks and prevent a real count of everyone who is homeless,” Bialecki-Canning said.
Even for people with housing — but who might be close to eviction or facing homeless — there is sometimes a fear to reach out and ask for the services available.
Deborah Vondal, Athol health agent, said people may be concerned to have the health department inspect their housing and suggest healthy changes out of fear that the landlords will “retaliate” if something is reported, affecting their housing security.
“Folks are reluctant to say they need assistance, or to tell their kids they need assistance,” Bialecki-Canning said.
Much to the frustration of local officials, there are plenty of abandoned or otherwise vacant buildings that could be used for housing, but bureaucracy gets in the way.
Athol Director of Planning and Community Development Eric R. Smith noted other states have land bank laws that allow nonprofits to quickly turn unused space into low-income housing, but not Massachusetts. In Athol, he said it’s been “very frustrating” and slow to turn around about 50 vacant buildings that could conceivably be used for low-income housing, and that the limited successes he’s seen have mostly been due to private purchases.
Smith suggested a local community development corporation may be worth exploring for the North Quabbin region, because there are tax credits available for community development corporations doing housing development.
Deb Habib, co-founder of Seeds of Solidarity in Orange, suggested that renovating local housing to be more energy efficient could make housing more affordable long term.
“A lot of times people will say, ‘Do I turn up the heat? Do I pay rent or mortgage?’” she said.
Sex offenders and people who have been incarcerated have a particularly hard time finding housing. One man at the meeting Wednesday explained he spent 33 years in prison after being convicted of second degree murder. He said he is a changed man, but a criminal background check will still turn away many landlords.
“Finding housing is very rough,” he said. “I changed over the years. I did everything I could to make a better life for myself.”
The man said he was able to meet in person with a landlord and was successful in convincing them to have him as a tenant. However, this situation isn’t typical, Bialecki-Canning said, and many times people who come out of prison need the assistance of nonprofit mediators to find somewhere to stay.
It was also suggested that people close to being evicted should visit https://www.fcrhra.org/emergency-assistance/raft to learn about Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT), which provides money to prevent eviction.
Bialecki-Canning said the meeting was constructive, with “fruitful” conversation that will guide the group’s efforts going forward.
“Even though this is a bummer first meeting to talk about all we are up against, the hope is from here we will take the right steps,” she said.
The non-profit North Quabbin Community Coalition operates a variety of focused “task forces” to further its goal of improving quality of life in the region. Existing task forces include the Opioid Task Force, the Jail to Community Task Force and a Children’s Health and Wellness Task Force, among others.
Task forces are created based on the community’s current needs, and, according to Bialecki-Canning, the topic of housing has been recently “cropping up across all task forces.” Homelessness is a multifaceted issue, and has naturally come up in discussions about sober homes, lead in old homes, criminal background checks and senior citizens issues.
The next Housing Task Force meeting will be Wednesday, Feb. 26, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. A schedule for subsequent monthly meetings will be discussed then.
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.