Amherst town manager forming homelessness task force
STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING
Published: 3/11/2021 8:23:45 PM
AMHERST Uncertainty about where the Craig’s Place seasonal homeless shelter will operate in future years is prompting the creation of a municipal task force to examine issues surrounding homelessness in town.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman recently informed Town Council he is forming the Homeless Advisory Committee, which would be responsible for identifying suitable sites for a permanent seasonal or year-round shelter and reviewing surplus town buildings or land suitable for providing services to homeless individuals.
The idea of having the new committee, which could also make a recommendation regarding the future operation of a seasonal shelter, comes after Craig’s Place began using space at the Unitarian Meetinghouse, 121 North Pleasant St., last November.
We are eager to have the new Homeless Advisory Committee get started, Mayor Linda Tyer said on Tuesday as 15 appointments were made to the new advisory committee. The City Council confirmed the appointments of Ann Marie Carpenter, Newell Young, Chris Haley, Erin Forbush, Kim Borden, Maureen Tuggey, Matthew Buckley, Ryan Williams, Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Maffuccio, Justine Dodds, Karen Ryan, Michael McMahon, Katelynn Miner, Siliva Soria and Edward Carmel, chairman of the original comittee. Tyer said is hopeful that the committee will identify topics of interest that are relevant to the circumstances in Pittsfield and any initiatives or priorities that the members of the committee would like to pursue.
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In its last meeting of 2020, the Pittsfield, Massachusetts city council unanimously passed a petition challenging a city plan to evict unhoused residents from public parks.
City Clerk Michele Benjamin read out Ward 7 City Councilor Anthony Maffuccio’s petition at Tuesday night’s virtual meeting, “challenging the city’s policy of evicting homeless individuals and the policy the parks commission and the mayor have in place.”
“That’s 40 homeless people who have nowhere to go except for the wilderness, and you’re trying to push them out of Springside Park,” said the councilor.
“And that case says if there’s not alternative housing for these individuals to go to, they are violating their 8th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America,” said Maffuccio.