Mayor Domenic Sarno, in a hallway verbal exchange with the demonstrators, said Springfield "has done more than its fair share" in providing subsidized and low income housing.
Updates a story posted Monday at 11:34 a.m.
SPRINGFIELD — A small group of activists ended a five-hour sit-in at City Hall on Monday outside the office of Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, after urging him to do more to assist the homeless and poor.
The demonstration began at 10 a.m., initially numbering about 20 people including some armed with lawn chairs, a table, and food. It ended at 3 p.m., when the final 10 protesters packed their belongings and left.
Mary-Elizabeth Bewsee, the economic justice organizer of Arise for Social Justice, who helped organize the protest, said the group was lobbying for Sarno to create a “housing task force,” and to do more for the homeless and those at great risk of homelessness.
“We lost so much affordable housing in the tornado,” Bewsee said.
She and other activists said the post-tornado “Rebuild Springfield” effort does not call for the loss of affordable housing from the tornado to be replaced with new affordable housing.
Police were stationed both inside and outside City Hall when the demonstration began, but most left after the first 30 minutes. While there was chanting, and the participants were asked by a mayoral staffer to lower their voices, police reported no problems.
Sarno repeatedly declined to meet with the group, but spoke briefly with them in the hall as he headed to a morning meeting outside City Hall.
Sarno, in the quick exchange of comments with group members, said Springfield “has done more than its fair share” in providing subsidized and low-income housing. In addition, he said his administration has been “very compassionate” in dealing with the homeless..
“Springfield has been at the forefront of the Housing First program,” Sarno said.
Several protesters sharply disagreed, and said the city needs to do more.
One demonstrator, Morgan Benway, describing himself as being homeless for about a month, said the mayor rather than convert abandoned, vacant housing into low income housing, would “rather board them up and knock them down.”
Sarno, in declining to meet with the protesters, said he responded to their concerns in a recent three-page letter from the city’s director of Housing, Geraldine McCafferty. The letter, sent to representatives of Arise for Social Justice, an anti-poverty activist group, listed neighborhood revitalization efforts, tornado rebuilding efforts, “rapid rehousing” and ‘permanent supportive housing” efforts, and a receivership initiative, among other programs.
The protesters sat on a bench outside the mayor’s office and in lawn chairs placed in the hallway.
Michaelann Bewsee, executive director of Arise and Mary-Elizabeth’s sister, said that 40 percent of people in Springfield earn less than $25,000 a year.
“We don’t have enough housing to meet those people’s needs,” Michaelann Bewsee said.
The task force sought by the activists should be staffed with city employees and at least half the people on the task force should be low and moderate income people, she said.
“If we can’t find a special way to have our voices be heard, we will be ignored just like we always are ignored in crisis,” Bewsee said. “We have a crisis. We have to do something about it.
The Rebuild Springfield master plan discusses the creation of housing that will attract young, upwardly mobile professionals.
“I’m not even sure those people even exist anymore, seeing most graduates from college can’t even get jobs in their field,” Bewsee said. “we’ve got to pay attention to the people who already live here and make sure that our needs are met.”
If the mayor does not create a housing task force, Arise and others will continue with other initiatives including creation of the group Springfield Union of Neighbors and Neighborhoods, a citywide tenant association, Bewsee said.