Both committees will continue to operate until there's a resolution.
AMHERST - Members of the committee on homelessness said its committee should not be blended in with the fair housing committee and that the Select Board doesn’t understand homelessness.
The Select Board had considered combining the Housing Partnership/Fair Housing Committee and the Committee on Homelessness before but did not act on the proposal. It is revisiting the issue now again as it looks committee charges.
The idea is to have one committee to deal with a continuum of homelessness issues.
Alisa V. Brewer - the Select Board liaison to the housing committees - praised the homelessness committee for its commitment to creating a shelter and that the possible committee merger “is not removing any town support for the emergency shelter.”
But the merger “redirects our efforts with housing that seem to make sense.”
But homelessness committee chairwoman Hwei-Ling Greeney said “homelessness is not a lack of housing.” And if the Select Board does not understand that, “our committee has not done our job to educate the Select Board.”
This population has a range of issues that hamper their ability to find and sustain permanent housing such as poor or lack of credit history, criminal record, substance abuse or mental health issues. She said “it’s a shortage of services.” To combine the two committees “is a misrepresentation, a misunderstanding of the work we do.”
In an e-mail Tuesday, Select Board Chairwoman Stephanie J. O’Keeffe wrote the “issue is not whether the Select Board itself understands the needs of the homeless, but what our judgment is for the most effective way for Town government to address homelessness issues.
She believes is a “committee model that deals with housing and shelter needs across the affordability spectrum.”
Greeney told the board that it using the committee as “a scapegoat” for Milestone Ministries decision not to run the emergency shelter next winter.
Jack Desroches, executive director of the Springfield-based Milestone Ministries, notified the town earlier this month that the agency would not run the shelter again this year. He said that the homelessness committee’s micromanaging was the leading factor in the agency’s decision not to provide services.
Last winter was the first that the town provided an emergency shelter allowing people to sleep, the year before the Center for Human Development operated a warming place without cots.
Reminding the Select Board of the town’s motto that only the “h” in Amherst is silent, Greeney said that people in town are involved and that “we need to find a shelter operator who can work with the town.”
The Select Board will discuss the issue again at its Aug. 8 meeting and in the interim is asking for comments from the public about the proposal to create one committee.
Both committees will continue to operate until there’s a resolution and members will remain even if their terms of service have expired.