Given the deep resolve of its Amherst allies, an essential shelter for the homeless is likely to survive this winter, whether or not the state releases expected funding. But keepers of the state’s purse strings should hang their heads if they turn away from supporting Craig’s Doors.
They should be doubly ashamed if their move to freeze $200,000 in backing is rooted in the premise that caring for the vulnerable should be a private, not public, endeavor.
It’s been both — and should remain so.
The administration of Gov. Charlie Baker should release the modest funding that the operators of Craig’s Doors had every reason to expect would enable them to provide shelter through April. The shelter opened Nov. 1 as usual. But after the funding freeze hit, the shelter is warning that it could run out of money by mid-December, even with emergency cost-cutting, and risk closing.
Belts are being tightened, as people respond to this crisis by absorbing the hit themselves, rather than see it result in the shelter closing. Staff pay is being cut. The institution that provides shelter space, the First Baptist Church, at 434 North Pleasant St., has offered to forgo rent payments. Coffee is being cut from the small morning meal provided to shelter guests – all in an effort to extend the program through the year’s coldest months.
The program’s executive director, Rebekah Wilder, told the Gazette that the shelter is running on donations now and is trying to extend its life by cutting expenses anywhere it can.
But at some point, belt-tightening can become financial strangulation.
Amherst’s legislative leaders, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg and state Rep. Ellen Story, have been pressing for the funding to be freed.
That needs to happen now. If the state waits until Dec. 15 to release the money, as one timetable suggests, it will have allowed fears to build among those who rely on the 22-bed shelter. And it will have subjected the shelter’s staff and supporters to unnecessary stress and strife.
The amount of money at stake represents less than half of 1 percent of the $45.5 million in homeless assistance being provided this fiscal year by the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.
For her part, Story questions whether the state’s austerity steps are needed. That’s debatable, but any cuts in the Massachusetts budget must take care not to put vulnerable people in jeopardy.
To do so would be more than “pound foolish,” it would be reckless and indefensible.
One measure being taken to preserve the shelter past mid-December involves a shift to the use of greater numbers of volunteers. The shelter’s ability to do that speak volumes to local public acceptance of the vital service it provides.
But running a homeless shelter safely takes experience. The communities that both provide and use this service need to be able to trust that its financial crisis will not weaken its fundamental mission.
Craig’s Doors has relied on this small amount of state funding for three years. It is unconscionable that it would be cut off midstream.