Despite recent legislation adding $5.3 million for housing and homelessness prevention in Massachusetts, the Commonwealth struggles with a family housing system that overlooks the root of the homelessness problem, officials said.
Massachusetts officials announced in August that the Commonwealth would begin funding to invest in homelessness prevention, emergency housing and rapid re-housing, according to an Aug. 23 Department of Housing and Community Development press release.
But a number of individuals and families still are not receiving help, said Joe Finn, president and executive director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance.
“The problems are especially with young adult homelessness within the population of the 18–24 bracket,” he said. “We are seeing significant emergence of particularly persons with mental health issues who are falling through the cracks and are winding up at the doors of emergency shelter.”
Robyn Frost, executive director for the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, said there has been an increase in people applying for emergency shelter.
“The number of calls that we are receiving from people who have gone to apply for shelter and are being denied have escalated to anywhere from five to six people per day,” she said.
Finn said dealing with homeless families can be more difficult than dealing with homeless individuals.
“The problem with the family system is that there needs to be some reform at the front door, ways of working to deal with families’ issues as they come into the system rather than relegating them all to shelters or to motels,” he said.
Finn said the Commonwealth is attempting to address problems with family homelessness.
“Massachusetts is one of the few places in the United States where it is a shelter-on-demand program,” he said. “The state has been trying to reform that system and take a look at it and say, ‘Well, wait a second, there has got to be a better way of dealing with family homelessness than simply allowing them to go into a shelter.’”
Tom Lorello, executive director of Heading Home Shelters, also said homeless family shelter is facing problems.
“The whole family shelter system is in crisis right now because there are so many families presenting for shelter that there are not enough shelter beds for them,” he said.
Lorello said the rise in the need for shelter is a result of the recession.
“About 1,700 more families are applying for shelter than there are shelter beds available,” he said. “One thousand and nine hundred shelter beds across the state were sufficient back in 2007.”
Frost said the state has always had four distinct categories for emergency shelter admittance — people affected by natural disasters, victims of domestic abuse, non-fault evictions and living conditions that are not meant for human habitation.
The Commonwealth also requires extensive paperwork to prove eligibility for any of the four categories, which can lengthen the application process, Frost said.
“It can take a little while,” Frost said. “Not weeks, but days.”
Aaron Gornstein, undersecretary for the DHCD, said Massachusetts shelters about 3,750 families on any given night. He said August’s funding is part of an attempt to address economic issues with homeless shelters.
“We spend approximately $170 million a year on emergency shelters,” he said. “The goal is to try and focus more attention on preventing homelessness in the first place as well as providing more permanent housing so we are substantially increasing the funding for permanent housing.”
Gornstein said state officials are aware of seasonal conditions that affect the homeless.
“Winter is something — we take it into account for sure,” he said. “We are not looking to keep people out of housing. We want to provide them with the best housing option.”
Finn said while homelessness is still a problem, the Commonwealth has made progress in addressing it.
“There have been some gains and there have been a few setbacks here and there, but generally the numbers are going down and they have been going down for five or six years,” he said.
The legislation passed in August established $5.3 million in funding for housing and homelessness prevention.
The 2013 budget adds funds to the affordable housing program emphasizing permanent housing, Gornstein said.
Gornstein said Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick recently announced a $10 million increase for the production of new affordable housing.
“That is on top of a $10 million increase that he also provided out of the capital budget from the spring of this year,” he said. “So already there is a $20 million boost to affordable housing.”
Standing in front of the 7/11 in Kenmore Square, Richard Young, 56, said he has been in and out of shelters since 1999.
Young said the paperwork to get into shelters is not hard, but the population demand is too high.
“It’s not that much trouble, but it fills up so fast that you can’t get in,” he said.
Young has had mixed experiences in the shelter system.
“Some treat you very well, and some treat you like you are nobody,” he said.
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