To the Editor:

I have a pit in my stomach this morning after reading about the decision against making Berkshire Towers a homeless shelter.

I am utterly disappointed by Mayor Macksey, The North Adams City Council, Representative Barrett, and President Birge in your handling of this situation.

You have all aided in the further traumatization of families seeking shelter.

There will never be enough resources to support people who are unhoused until you all make it a priority to support those resources. When someone redevelops an apartment building — no one questions whether we have enough resources available to support tenants moving in. But suddenly when we are talking about unhoused people our hackles rise. You have let assumptions and fears about being homeless take the focal point of your attention. You have allowed "not in my back yard" rhetoric take precedence over suffering families. This approach has directly contributed to keeping those families living on the streets. Are you proud of this?

Rather than push against a solution that came to the table, you all should have helped the community understand why giving people shelter is necessary right now. You know that we are facing a crisis. And that crisis is deepening as a recession nears. You are all prioritizing your comfort over the survival of our neighbors. And for that, you should be ashamed.

Not one person who works professionally in housing services stood against this project. You have completely ignored the insight and guidance of our professional helping community. You all continue to ignore the pleas from Louison House in strategizing housing for unhoused people. They are bursting at the seams and people are being turned away daily.

For the past couple of weeks, I have had a couple come into Savvy Hive. They have been homeless for 9 months because their landlord kicked them out to do renovations. They have not been able to find another apartment. In the middle of the winter when they desperately sought refuge from the snow on an abandoned porch, they were charged with breaking and entering. Is this what our leadership stands for? Our leadership supports the criminalization of homelessness caused by development. Development that you all advocate for?

What strategy is currently in place to develop affordable housing in our community? What strategy is in place to address the ever-growing unhoused population?

To the Healey administration and any leaders who were in support of this project, I deeply commend you. Thank you for taking action on solutions to help our most vulnerable residents access the housing they deserve.

I am not proud to be a North Adams resident today.

Jessica Sweeney
North Adams, Mass.

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