The results of the Nov. 4 municipal election will be a strong statement of what is important to the city’s voters and who they deem is best suited to honor the wishes of those voters.
Many topics have received a great deal of coverage in the local press — with “Picture Main Street” and issues surrounding affordable housing being probably the two heaviest hitters. There is, however, one issue, that is very much on my mind, that I don’t hear many candidates talking about it: housing for people with little or nothing, such as those with substance abuse and mental health struggles.
For the last five years, I have worked as an inpatient mental health counselor. I started doing this work at the Brattleboro Retreat in Vermont just one month before the start of the Covid crisis. I later moved to Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield. Currently, I work in the Behavioral Health Unit at Cooley Dickinson Hospital. I am proud of the work that I, our team of doctors, PAs, social workers, counselors, and above all, the nurses do. Working at CDH, it is particularly personal and rewarding work supporting my friends and neighbors when they require mental health care. (Note: To be transparent, I am writing this not as a representative of CDH but as a concerned citizen who works with the unhoused.)
In the five years I have been doing this work, I have seen the number of housing insecure patients increase dramatically. There are many reasons for this that I will not tackle here, but one trip to downtown Northampton or walking along select recreation paths, or in conservation areas around the area, and you will see numerous unhoused individuals. This problem is certainly not unique to Northampton, but how the city chooses to deal with it speaks volumes.
A reader might ask “why more isn’t done to find housing for patients when they are in the hospital?” The social workers at every facility I have worked at have tried their best to line up appropriate programs or housing for discharging patients, but options and space are very limited and the support systems are overloaded. Many patients chose to camp in isolated wooded areas or live in precarious arrangements made with family or friends, such as “couch surfing” or living in sheds and garages. Some unhoused patients go from hospital to hospital to get their housing and food needs met, moving on to the next facility when they get discharged. Others choose to live in their vehicles.
The city frequently talks about “affordable housing” but that is for people who might possibly be able to pay the rent on an “affordable” apartment. For many housing insecure individuals, physical or mental health issues, or substance abuse issues, frequently keep them from reliably working. This should come as no surprise anyone reading this. Significant cuts at the state and federal levels, and an overloaded mental health system, have impacted support for the kinds of individuals I described above.
“Have them go to a shelter,” some people might say. If I was in their place, that is the last place I’d go. I’d probably either be assaulted and/or have what little valuables I had stolen by those in the shelter. That brings us to the “camping in the woods” option, with tents the individuals’ personal sanctuaries.
These unhoused people may live in Northampton, and may even contribute to the local economy to some extent, but many may not be on the books as citizens — most have no address, hence, they can’t vote and have little voice regarding their plight.
A little over a year ago, the police from Northampton and Easthampton, assisted by the Hampshire County Sherriff’s Department dismantled a homeless encampment near Fitzgerald Lake in Northampton, confiscating the campers’ property. While it is true the campers should not have been camping there, by all news media accounts, the campers created a functioning, supportive community and, to the best of this writer’s knowledge, were not harming anyone. Perhaps the city needs to offer some public land where the housing insecure people can safely camp, ensuring clean water, sanitary conditions, and some support for a minimal but worthwhile public investment. I don’t hear many candidates talking about this option or about this crisis, instead focusing on residents who can afford to pay something still fairly significant, based on community “affordable standards” toward the cost of their housing. I have a significant difference of opinion with some in this city as to what is affordable.
Admittedly, I do not have answers to these problems, but I want local voters to think about these issues when they are at the polls on Nov. 4. Ask yourselves, what candidates are more likely to address this important issue, and address it in a positive, civil, manner. We
need to do better.
Mariel E. Addis is a native of Florence. She left the area for 16 years but returned in 2013.