WORCESTER—Following a politicized encampment outside of Worcester’s emergency winter shelter last week, Councilor At-Large Khrystian King is requesting the city establish and/or adhere to a gender identity non-discrimination policy regarding homeless shelters.
King placed the order on the Jan. 16 city council agenda, requesting the city manager work with the commissioner of health and human services to draft a city ordinance to ensure a gender identity non-discrimination policy “is consistently realized and applied in the city.”
On Tuesday, a politically charged encampment was established in the parking lot of the former RMV building on Main Street, which is serving as the winter shelter. It was dismantled on Wednesday after the police notified those present that they could relocate to the shelter or vacate the premises.
Ultimately police arrested three people—two men and one woman—and charged them all with trespassing. One of the men was also charged with resisting arrest and another was charged with assault and battery of a police officer for “a headbutt against an officer after the male was in handcuffs,” according to Worcester Police Lt. Sean Murtha. The police stated that none of the three people who were arrested were homeless.
The protest was organized by Project Priceless, which, according to a post on Worcester Youth Cooperatives Instagram page, was formed in October 2023 “as a collective of women and girls in Main South who are in the sex trade. Goals include helping one another survive, supporting one another, and combatting misogynistic violence which includes ending sexual exploitation in all its forms.”
The group was protesting the lack of available space for the unhoused population in the city, especially for women, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported. The group also claims that transgender people have been turned away from the shelter.
In a statement posted to City Manager Eric Batista’s X (formerly Twitter) account, he confirmed that when the city learned of the encampment, he, along with SMOC officials, spoke with state officials and received emergency approval to increase capacity from 60 to 82 beds at the shelter so each person in the encampment could be offered a bed.
The arrests occurred shortly after 5 p.m., and by 7:30 p.m. eight of the additional beds that had been set up were taken, three by people who had been staying in the encampment, according to Batista’s statement.
When asked why the group did not agree to go in the shelter, protestor Amanda Pelley told the Telegram & Gazette they felt unsafe there.
The Worcester Guardian spoke to five women staying in the shelter on Thursday, four of whom said they felt safe in the shelter. One woman moved to the shelter to leave a domestic violence situation and said while she felt safer than she did in her previous situation, she did not feel completely safe at the shelter.
The women and a group of men smoking outside the shelter doors Thursday said they were not familiar with the people who were protesting and had not seen them stay in the shelter before.
The city manager’s office has confirmed a lack of shelter beds in the city, with the 60-bed emergency shelter that opened on Dec. 12 only cutting the shelter bed shortage in the city to 137. The emergency shelter has been at capacity.
When the shelter opened, South Middlesex Opportunity Council, which runs it, said 15 of the beds were reserved for women and 45 were reserved for men, basing the breakdown on Census data.
The shelter has separate sections for male and female beds which is done specifically to ensure safety, according to a statement from SMOC Friday.
SMOC said it makes efforts to accommodate everyone, including requests based on gender identification.
“Living in an emergency shelter can be challenging at times,” SMOC’s statement read. “SMOC staff and management are available to listen to and speak with any shelter guest that is not comfortable, and they will work with the guest (s) to come to a resolution.”
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford and Antigua and Barbuda. She’s been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
