Letter: Disappointing Responses to MCLA Homeless Proposal| 02:00PM / Saturday, April 01, 2023 | |
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To the Editor:
It’s been disappointing, but hardly surprising, to see the knee-jerk reactions to the proposed temporary use of a vacant MCLA dorm for transitional family housing. The stereotypes of homelessness have been alive and well among our local leaders and among the public. The conjured images of filthy drug addicts pushing shopping carts and begging for money have been splattered across social media and whispered over back fences. This is not what family homelessness looks like.
Families are some of the most difficult people to provide shelter for when they lose their housing. When you have families with kids, caregivers, multiple generations, etc.. the public’s stereotype of a homeless shelter simply does not work. The MCLA proposal is not this stereotype, yet that is what people are wrongly being led to believe by some who should know better.
Keeping a family group together is usually imperative and leads to much better outcomes. Kids will go to school. Grandma will get her pills. The family member with mental health issues will keep their home support group. Most revealing of all is that this group is statistically likely to leave transitional housing, and land on their feet, faster than almost any other. They want to work. They want to provide. But in that moment that they have lost their housing, they need a safety net, a roof over their head, and a warm meal. Berkshire Towers can provide that.
I am an MCLA parent. Are there concerns to be addressed? Of course. Extra support systems will need to be fortified and funded as part of the deal, but those are definitely doable. This is a temporary experiment that will be evaluated after 18 months. Hopefully, in a few years, MCLA will need the dorm back as enrollment increases.
But right now, our city, region and state are in an acute housing crisis that affects the vulnerable most of all. The Healey Administration is trying to do something effective with the resources we already have. We should let them try.
Greg Roach
North Adams, Mass.
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