AMHERST — A founder of Amherst’s first overnight homeless shelter, who also oversaw it for three years, is returning to guide the operation this fall.
Kevin J. Noonan, who departed as director of Craig’s Doors: A Home Association, Inc., is coming back to the position he left five years ago when he became director of the field office for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Gerry Weiss, president of the Craig’s Doors board, announced Noonan’s hire on Thursday, along with two unnamed people who will serve as managers of the seasonal shelter and be outreach workers.
Housed at the First Baptist Church, 434 North Pleasant St., Craig’s Place, the name for the shelter, offers 28 beds and is behavior-based, meaning people under the influence of drugs or alcohol are welcome, so long as they don’t cause disruptions for other guests.
Getting the new team in place, after the three previous full-time employees, including Executive Director Jade Lovett who resigned Aug. 1, is a step toward having the shelter ready to open in November.
“We continue to plan for a Nov. 1 opening of the shelter,” Weiss said.
Noonan, 63, said Friday that he is optimistic the shelter will be up and running that evening, observing that overnight and line staff are also being hired.
“I’m honored to be asked back and am totally focused on opening on Nov. 1,” Noonan said.
He praised those who led the shelter since his departure, both Lovett and Rebekah Wilder, noting that it is in a great position to accomplish harm reduction as a primary goal.
Noonan previously served as director of the Open Pantry soup kitchen in Springfield for 20 years, then joined Amherst’s Committee on Homelessness and became involved in identifying the First Baptist Church as a potential site for a shelter in 2009. That December, the town opened what it called a “warming place” under the direction of the Center for Human Development.
In June 2011, Noonan helped found Craig’s Doors to assist homeless and extremely low-income people, becoming its executive director in summer 2012. Before he left in 2015, Noonan organized a continuing year-round, Wednesday breakfast program at the Unitarian Universalist Society in downtown Amherst.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
