In less than a month, the doors should open at two Hampshire County sites that provide shelter on an emergency basis to almost 50 homeless individuals.
But before either the 20-bed Interfaith Winter Shelter at 43 Center St. in Northampton, a project of the Friends of Hampshire County Homeless Individuals and ServiceNet, and the 28-cot Craig’s Place seasonal homeless shelter at 434 North Pleasant St. in Amherst are ready to welcome guests, significant preparation is taking place.
For the 2019-2020 season, the two shelters are facing different challenges. Craig’s Doors: A Home Association, Inc. is still in the process of hiring three full-time employees who will oversee the site, and there is some uncertainty whether its usual Nov. 1 opening date will happen. Meanwhile, in Northampton, efforts are focused on making sure there is enough volunteer help on hand to have a successful season.
Much of the lead-up to the opening of the Northampton shelter, located in the lower level of a building near the police station, involves finding enough volunteers so that the operation, which opens its doors at 6 p.m. each day beginning Nov. 1, goes smoothly.
Rick Hart, president of the Friends of Hampshire County Homeless Individuals, said volunteers are critical to supplement the one or two paid ServiceNet staff who are on-site during the busiest times.
These volunteers do a range of tasks, such as providing and serving dinners to the guests, spending the night, helping with cleaning the building, taking laundry to be cleaned and shopping for supplies.
“Most years, somewhere between 275 and 350 individuals volunteer in some way — anywhere from once or twice a season, to once or twice a month,” Hart said.
Among the group are what he terms the 15 to 20 “super-volunteers” who form the Friends board and the management committee that organizes the other volunteers who step up.
Colleen Currie, who coordinates the overnight volunteers, explains that having one person who can do one overnight per month is ideal. At the moment, though, there are only 16 of these volunteers, along with four to nine others who can do an occasional overnight, meaning about half the days in a month are uncovered.
“We need another 12, or more, volunteers to have dependable coverage and avoid burnout of those we already have,” Currie said.
These volunteers arrive at 9 p.m., empty the dishwasher after dinnertime; set out dishes, glasses and silverware, along with the cereal and bread for breakfast; and make orange juice from frozen concentrate and clean the coffee pot. They then remain on-site, sleeping on a futon in an office, getting the breakfast ready for 6 a.m. and, after serving it, putting everything away and loading and starting the dishwasher by the closing time at 7 a.m.
For the meal teams, about 35 people are in place, said coordinator Pauline Bassett. These teams are typically made up of people who know each other from their houses of worship, places of work or are groups of friends and family members. These teams can prepare meals once a month — amounting to six times during the season or less frequently, such as every other month or on an as-needed basis.
“Each team provides a complete meal, including appetizer, main dish, vegetables, bread or potatoes, beverages and dessert,” Bassett said. “They prepare the meal ahead of time and then serve it and clean up after.”
Hart said in addition to volunteers, the community helps out through raising money during Shelter Sunday.
“The ServiceNet/Friends partnership is important,” Hart said. “We couldn’t do the shelter by ourselves, and ServiceNet also needs the many volunteers and funding support the Friends provides.”
Even though Craig’s Place is supported in the state budget and provides the only behavior-based shelter in the county — meaning people are welcome even if under the influence of drugs and alcohol — there has been uncertainty about whether the shelter will be available to homeless individuals beginning Nov. 1. That’s due to the August resignations of its executive director and the two full-time staff who manage the shelter and an adjacent resource center.
The board for Craig’s Doors: A Home Association, Inc. is in the process of finding new staff who will be able to oversee and coordinate the shelter.
“We are about to hire one part-time manager, and we are still interviewing candidates for the other managers and director,” said Gerry Weiss, president of the trustees board.
Weiss said three candidates were having second interviews this week, while three more candidates were having their initial interviews.
Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman said the town is operating under the assumption that the shelter will be ready around Nov. 1, though a delay is possible. Building and fire department inspections ensure that a variance to use the church space for the operation remains in place, he said.
The Craig’s Doors board, meanwhile, has seen the addition of Jay Levy, who has extensive experience in serving the homeless from his position at Eliot Community Human Services.
Bockelman told the Town Council that Levy, due to his experience in the field, will be offering training and support to the new staff.
At the Northampton shelter, volunteers are recruited to prepare meals off-site that are then brought to the site to be reheated. At the Amherst shelter, all meals are made in the church kitchen or provided by donations from commercial kitchens.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
