WORCESTER—Worcester is now home to the first permanent supportive housing building in the state that has individual units for the chronically homeless.
On Tuesday, representatives from the Worcester Housing Authority and city, state, and federal officials gathered for the ribbon cutting of “A Place to Live” at 38 Lewis St.
The speakers’ moods were celebratory as many recounted the hurdles Worcester Housing Authority faced when working to get the project off the ground, namely due to the pandemic and the perseverance exhibited to get the job done. During the project, the WHA lost their initial contractor, expenses increased due to inflation, and materials they needed were not available or delayed due to supply chain issues, according to WHA CEO Alex Corrales.
The project was initially conceived in 2018 by the Task Force for Sustaining Housing First Solutions, which at the time determined creating a little more than100 units of permanent supportive housing services in the city would help tackle the issue of chronic homelessness in Worcester, Corrales said.
In the five years since then the homeless crisis in Worcester has only grown (with the homeless population jumping by 30% last year), according to Corrales, who estimated the city could need as many as 800 units to tackle the problem now.
“Although ‘A Place to Live’ doesn’t solve the chronically homeless problem in Worcester it allows us to inch a little bit closer toward a solution,” Corrales said.
City Manager Eric Batista said it is Worcester’s responsibility as a city to contribute to and help create more projects like “A Place to Live,” “to make sure that our residents in our community have the support they need, having the housing they need, and have all the resources they need to be successful and thrive.”
The city does face competing interests, a limited budget, and limited resources, in addition to external factors like the COVID-19 pandemic, but he said at the end of the day it’s the city’s responsibility to create partnerships and work with neighbors to continue to make things happen.
Stakeholders can get caught up on what interests to prioritize, Batista said, “but at the end of the day…us ourselves, we’re not the enemy… the issue is the enemy… and what it requires, it requires all of us to work together collaboratively working to (move) our egos aside to tackle…the actual enemy which is the issue.”
Mayor Joseph Petty emphasized that while a lot of neighboring towns are stepping up to address the homeless crisis, not all are, and it can’t just be the city of Worcester working to address it.
In 2022 at the project’s groundbreaking, Corrales said the project would cost around $7.8 million. On Tuesday, he said it ultimately cost a little more than $8 million with funding from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Community Economic Development Assistance Cooperation, Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance and Fidelity Bank.
The facility includes 24 units- including two handicapped accessible units and one for the hard of hearing, a laundry room on each floor, a multipurpose room, a meeting room, a gazebo, and WiFi, according to a press statement from Worcester Housing Authority.
The units will be rented to the residents fully furnished and include a small kitchen equipped with a fridge, stove, oven, and sink. Residents will even be provided with plates, cups, pots, pans, and utensils, according to WHA Assistant Vice President of Modernization Mark Verdini.
The residents will be provided with wraparound services offered through a full-time case manager and a live-in resident manager, according to Corrales.
“This building is much more than just simply a roof, walls, and windows, it’s not just a place for 24 chronically homeless individuals to stay, but it’s a place for them to live,” Corrales said. “We know that simply giving our residents a bed without services does not solve the underlying issues they may be facing. We need to provide the programs and resources that will prepare them to thrive on their own. “
Those programs will include anything from basic life skills, such as how to cook or do their laundry, to help with learning how to write a resume, in addition to other services they may need, according to Verdini.
Residents will start moving into the building at the end of November or beginning of December, according to Corrales. Residents will have project-based vouchers for rent, Corrales said, and typical vouchers require residents to pay 30% of their income.
WHA is working with Central Massachusetts Housing Alliances and other continuum of care programs and homeless services providers to identify the chronically homeless individuals who are in the most need of housing to help them with resident selection, Corrales said.
The project could act as a template for other housing authorities in the state, according to Corrales who told reporters after the event that other housing authorities have reached out to him saying they have the land but they don’t have the technical knowledge to pull the project off.
“Now we’ve learned, unfortunately through errors and trials and tribulations, but now we’re able to provide some level of assistance on the steps they have to take,” Corrales said.
Former City Manager and current Massachusetts Secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities Edward Augustus Jr. was in attendance and thanked the WHA and everyone involved for hanging in there, sticking with it and continuing the effort.
He also plugged the Affordable Homes Act introduced by the Healey-Driscoll administration last week. The act, if passed, would provide a $4.1 billion investment in housing creation in Massachusetts, tripling the amount of money for public housing in the state.
“Just like this project was the result of people working together,” said Augustus, “we work together on this bill we can have a lot more groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings and a lot more people call it a place home.”
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
