AMHERST — Before the Craig’s Place homeless shelter closes for the season at the end of April, Police Chief Scott Livingstone wants the agency that runs it to announce that people under the influence of drugs and alcohol will no longer be welcome there next fall.
Livingstone cited preliminary conversations with town officials and business leaders, a continuing uptick in police responses to the shelter at the First Baptist Church, and an increase in homeless people hanging out in downtown Amherst. He said there is a growing belief that the problems are the result of having a so-called wet shelter in a community where a number of free meals are available throughout the week.
“The preliminary discussion is on revisiting the potential of a dry shelter,” Livingstone said. “I would like a decision on Craig’s Doors before the end of the current season.”
But Rebekah Wilder, executive director of Craig’s Doors, said the request is unlikely to gain traction with the board that oversees the shelter, noting that the shelter is not controlled or funded by the town, and that residents have repeatedly shown strong support for combating homelessness.
“Being a behavior-based shelter, that’s what our mission is,” Wilder said. “No one on the (Craig’s Doors) board thinks we should be a dry shelter, and all our conversations are how we can be a better behavior based-shelter.”
Wilder said the Pioneer Valley region does not need another dry shelter, and adjusting the entry rules might cost the shelter some of the $200,000 received from the state last year.
Livingstone said police have noticed an increase in disturbances among homeless people and more people on the street consuming alcohol.
“We can fix some of these issues with an arrest, but it’s a temporary fix,” Livingstone said. “Courts don’t have the resources to get these people into the proper facilities.”
Wilder argues that there is no evidence to show people staying at Craig’s Place are any better or worse behaved than those who use the Interfaith Winter Shelter in Northampton.
“People believe (a dry shelter) would make a difference, but there’s no facts to support that,” Wilder said. “Forcing them to be sober historically has not worked.”
And it also puts people at risk “of dying in their tents overnight,” she said.
Wilder said that Craig’s Doors is interested in the safety and well-being of everyone.
“We have discussed at length what we can do to develop a better relationship with the town,” Wilder said.
She predicts that the 2016-17 season will go more smoothly, observing that a site director was not hired until late in the season, and a trailer where meals and services were provided at an earlier hour had to close when she could not find people to staff it in recent weeks.
The primary mission of Craig’s Doors remains getting people from the shelter to housing, and to that end the agency is seeking a $200,000 federal Housing and Urban Development grant that would help about 20 chronically homeless find homes. Wilder said this would pay for three case managers, rental assistance and other support services.
Wilder said Craig’s Doors recently received a $24,000 rapid rehousing Emergency Solutions Grant from HUD that will allow the agency to continue helping people who are newly homeless.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
