Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

I'd like to call to order this meeting at 701 p.m.

on Monday, September 15th.

This is the special committee on housing in the New Bedford City Council Chambers.

No, this meeting is being live streamed and recorded.

City Council and Committee meetings can be viewed on the City of New Bedford's homepage under quick links, then meetings.

I'm joined in the council chambers this evening by my colleagues in government.

Ward one counselor Leo Choquette, Ward 5 Councillor Joseph Lopes, Councillor at Large Brian Gomes, Councillor at Large Linda Morat, Councillor at Large Naomi Carney, and Ward 3 Councillor Sean Oliver and I am Ian Abreu, Counselor at Large and Chairman of this committee.

Thank you all for joining us tonight.

I believe we have a couple of records to read into the record.

I'll ask the clerk.

I do.

Um this letter is from Councillor Burgo.

I am writing this letter to inform you that I will be delayed in arriving at the special committee on housing uh meeting on Monday, September 15, 2025, at 7 p.m.

due to a prior commitment.

I ask that you read this letter into the record to make my colleagues and the public aware of the reason for my late arrival.

The second letter is from Councillor Giesta.

I am writing to inform you that I will be delayed in arriving at the special committee on housing meeting on Monday, September 15th, 2025 at 7 p.m.

due to a prior business commitment.

I ask that you read this letter into the record to make my colleagues and the public aware of the reason for my late arrival.

In stereo made by Councillor Loops, seconded by Councillor Oliver.

Anyone on the question?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

We have item one before us.

I'll ask the clerk to read.

Item number one was referred here from um citizens input time.

Uh Joseph Quigley, 192 Walnut Street, uh New Bedford Mass speaking on tenant perspectives.

Uh referred to the committee on appointments and briefings on June 23rd, 2025.

Um the purpose was to pick up where uh the applicant, uh the petitioner left off.

All right, so I need a motion to receive and place this item on file.

So moved.

Made by Councillor Oliver.

Seconded by Councillor Carney.

Anyone on the question?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

So colleagues, we have Mr.

Quigley here with us this evening.

Thank you for joining us.

Obviously, you had a lot of of input and a lot to say a few months ago in appointments and briefings.

Um three minutes really didn't give you enough time.

So um I know you have a little bit of a presentation for us and uh we'll allow you to to continue that this evening, and if my colleagues have any questions, uh I'll open the floor up at that time if that's okay.

Go ahead, Mr.

Quigley.

Okay, first of all, I'm a former school teacher, so I have to ask this question.

I sent every council member a file that contained documentation, videos, pictures, you know, whatever that described the whole all the abuses I was facing, but was able to fight against out of curiosity.

How many of you read it?

I don't think anyone's I don't believe I received any email.

Uh uh, yes, you did because I sent it to your city hall addresses and I gotta thank you for contacting us thing back.

So check your emails because that doesn't look good.

No, I apologize.

I can't speak for my colleagues.

I don't I'll ask the clerk, do we have anything, any communications or any?

I'll have to send it.

I mean, I've got stuff.

Our clerk doesn't have any communications from you, but well, we'll we'll figure that out.

But if you want to go ahead and proceed.

Although I understand the need to deal with the already unhoused is a bit like leaving the water running in the tub and having to constantly get the water off the bathroom floor.

And no matter how creative suggested approaches might seem, they are useless because the first thing you should have done is shut off the tap.

It's the proverbial open barn door before the after the cows have gotten out.

The city is constantly stating that New Bedford is going to be a Class A city, but yet has yet to concretely say what that means beyond wanting richer people to move here, even if it makes housing too unaffordable for people to stay here.

Things to save the city in the past included a casino, an aquarium, a newly designed state pier that originally was a back room process, and most recently a nondescript featureless white block of a building at the end of Walnut Street, blocking the view of Merrills Walk and the view of the harbor beyond it.

But there has been no general picture of what the future city is going to look like.

What its aim is just platitudes, feel-good promises, and unhousing.

You are attempting to make improvements that creating homelessness depends on.

As long as property is bought and improved, the city is happy.

But to do that, they have to remove the people who stayed with the city in spite of obstacles.

If you want to end homelessness and not have to continue routinely dealing with it, take control of the city.

You know there are LLCs in town that appear to be and claim to be local, but are the offices at the ends of the octopus's tentacle.

That's how Disney got all of its property in Orlando.

The city should establish the process by which local buyers have first option on any local property outside of LLCs can bid, but it goes to the local person and any real estate company must show they are selling to locals before they can offer the property to a local LLC, which is really just a front.

Which had the court clerk send us back to arbitration as this revealed some more hidden complications.

If they already have, be kind enough to let us know the arrangements that have been made to handle the great displacement.

Tenants must be informed of the intended sale of a building to afford them reasonable time to look for other apartments.

A building sale should not come as a surprise to its tenants.

Rents can only rise by a reasonable percentage based on existing rents and the median income of city residents.

No doubling or tripling, especially as there are no improvements to warrant it.

No application or credit check fees charged to those seeking housing during the city's rebuilding.

Moving expenses for displaced people who did not choose to move should be supplied by the new owners if the existing tenants are priced out or the building's remodel requires it be empty.

Moving funds to unhoused tenants must be in cash, money order, or bank check, so there is no delay in availability.

That 15 to 20% of all rental property by any individual company or conglomerate be set aside for low-income housing in any building with a set minimum number of units.

Low income is to be determined based on the existing local median income and not some national figure that is not relevant to the city.

Low income would be New Bedford low income, not City of Boston low income.

City Hall set up a department dedicated to deal with the long-range housing problems rather than having people rely on the Columbus method of finding assistance, however, they can discover it and landing on it.

The names of corporations buying property in the city should be a matter of public record, so people will know who actually owns the city.

No blind buyers, people should know who their landlords are.

And I lost the page because I just know.

So if you want to end homelessness and not have to continue routinely deal with the take control of the city.

LCs like locusts are designed to find the best property for their theft and move on when it is not to their advantage any longer, leaving the struction behind.

There is profit and there is goe.

Thank you, sir.

I'd like to acknowledge that we have been joined by my colleagues in government, Council President, Councillor Rallard Shane Burgo, what to Council Maria Giesta, and what six Councillor Ryan Perora.

Thank you all for joining us.

Mr.

Quigley, before you take a seat, uh colleagues, any questions for our presenter here.

Going once, going twice.

Alrighty, sir.

Thank you very much.

Send you that thing right now.

Please do.

Thank you.

Okay.

Item two is now before us.

I'll ask the clerk to read.

Oh, yeah, we'll well refer to I need a motion to refer this off and all further action.

Made it by Councillor Oliver, seconded by Councillor Burgo.

Anyone on the question?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Oppose, the ayes have.

Okay.

Now item two is before us.

Item number two is a written motion.

Councillor Gomes requesting that the city devise a plan to address the homeless issue in New Bedford and further that the city call a summit to include the New Bedford Health Department, the administration, the State Health Department, our state legislative representation, along with every drug health agency that is available with local offices and officials to assist with a plan of action to address the issue that is becoming a crisis in the City of New Bedford.

It was referred here on August 13, 2024.

On October 28th, 2024, it was heard and then tabled.

It was heard again on February 10th, 2025 and was tabled for six months.

And it is now before you and it remains on the table.

Motion removed motion removed from the table made by Councillor Gomes, seconded by Councillor Burrogo.

All is in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Mr.

Chairman, I have it.

I was told that Jennifer Clark is here.

She is here.

Oh, okay.

I'm sorry, I didn't see this.

And she would be representing uh Josh Amrall's office.

That is correct.

So that you know okay.

So the chair at this time will recognize Councillor Gomes as the sole maker of the motion.

Who would you like to hear from first, sir?

We do have representatives from the homeless service providers network as well as Ms.

Clark.

We can hear from anyone.

Can take Ms.

Clark first.

Ms.

Clark.

Good evening, Counselors.

Thank you for the privilege of uh good evening, counselors.

Thank you for the privilege of being here and directing me on the microphone appropriately.

Um I'm uh thrilled to have this opportunity to provide you with what I understand was supposed to be a six-month update on the TAC homeless plan and the progress that we've made in implementing the recommendations made uh in that plan.

Uh before doing so, I thought it might be helpful to offer uh some quick context about our office's role uh around homelessness and mine uh as well in overseeing the city's efforts in preventing, addressing, and eliminating homelessness with some information about the COC.

The Continuum of Care.

So, although I'm responsible for the administration of the community development block grant fund and emergency solutions grant funding, my work also includes coordination and oversight of the city's homelessness efforts specific to the continuum of care.

So when we talk about homelessness and the continuum of care, it's the COC.

We're talking about a local uh regional planning body that's recognized by the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development by HUD.

It coordinates housing and services for homeless individuals uh and families within that COC.

It's about creating a comprehensive coordinated uh system space approach to uh addressing homelessness.

So HUD's COC program provides competitive grants to over uh 450 COCs across the country, of which we are one.

They do that to fund housing programs and uh supportive services.

We fund permanent supportive housing, which you may know as PSH in the community, as well as what's called rapid rehousing.

It also encourages a coordinated entry system uh through which people experiencing homelessness are given access and triage into um what housing is available and what services and support they can access.

All of this activity is then cap uh is captured in a centralized database known as our homeless management information system.

So we are data based as well.

So in our case, New Bedford is part of the newly formed Bristol County Continuum of Care, or the ever horrible BCCC.

I'm just BC cubed for that.

It is the successor of the organization you may more commonly know as the HSPN or Homeless Service Provider Network.

So the BCCC is a product of the 2024 merger between really what is the balance of Bristol County outside of New Bedford, with the exception of Fall River, which remains its own, and the city of Fall River.

So those collective entities got together and merged in May of last year.

So a key advantage of having merged and formed this new COC has been an increased efficiency around addressing homelessness.

The merger can lead to economies of scale, improved grant competitiveness, which is critical, and enhanced coordination across the broader geographic region.

COC funds are competitively awarded, and they actually represent the single largest source of funding that we receive as a COC and as a city for homelessness.

Our COC was actually awarded in this last round $3.8 million for the work that it does within the entire continuum.

So within the whole county except Fall River.

Of that amount of that $3.8 million, New Bedford received about $2.8 million, so about 75% of the overall because we have the majority of the housing programs here.

Well, in past years, the continuum of care funding has always been an annual event.

Last year at the end of the Biden administration, they said we're going to make this two years.

So they changed it in statute and said two years gives you a chance to actually do some work rather than just planning this thousand-page application every year.

So we're going to do that.

With the new administration, that changed, and they said, guess what?

We're going to have another competition this year, for which we expect the NOFA, the notice of funding, to be coming out really any time now.

Prior to this, they also offered what's called Huddhis is HUD also offered what's called the COC builds NOFO, a notice of funding.

That's the application that you can use to apply for permanent housing to actually develop and to have the capital that you need to develop more housing.

In doing that, the federal government, this current administration, added a few caveats to that, and one of which precludes everyone within the state of Massachusetts from applying.

So that means all of our continuums within the entire Commonwealth are not eligible because of something that the state does not do.

We don't, it's related to sex offender registry.

We don't issue digital POM prints and give that information to the federal government.

There's a number of things that the state, we obviously do this kind of registry, but we don't do it the way the current administration is requiring.

So I say all of that only because we're concerned that there is a possibility that the coming NOFI, regular traditional every year NOFO may have some additional conditions put on it.

And that is quite frankly a very difficult prospect to face.

Something that is difficult to begin with is literally being made almost impossible.

So we're very concerned about that.

We're very attuned to that, and we hope for uh that that will not happen.

Needless to say, there are federal lawsuits and all kinds of things and injunctions and restraining orders on this action.

So there's a lot of litigious uh action behind this, but that said, we're hoping for the best for more funding for this coming year.

So with that quick overview, I just want to sort of move into the recommendations that were presented in that original homeless plan, the TAC report, which I believe Josh had presented six months ago and uh has discussed in the in the chambers.

Um the first recommendation diversifying our housing and services.

So just to give you a few examples of the concrete actions that we have been taking.

Members of our COC have been meeting with a developer who recently and very successfully converted a former nursing home in Dyton into permanent housing for elderly folks experiencing homelessness.

Those meetings now are focused on the potential of developing more such housing and looking at what we can do to help seniors experiencing homelessness.

As a little bit of an aside, I wanted to just give you a little taste of why is that important and why should I care about that in New Bedford?

It's happening in Dyton, doesn't affect us.

Absolutely does because remember, as a full continuum, we have the ability now to place people in other areas within our continuum.

So as an example for the Dighton Nursing Home, we had someone living for over a year at Sister Rose in the emergency shelter for whom housing was unattainable.

This person was in a wheelchair and in need of additional supports that were not available, and they just could not find housing to accommodate.

When the Dyton Nursing Home became available, this was a great fit.

Our coordinated entry team made this connection happen.

And long story short, this individual has, after over a year in shelter, is now in his own unit, stable living the life he wants to live with dignity and support.

So that's just a little taste of what this is a New Bedford resident that has now been able to access that housing.

Our office has also begun reviewing a model with the housing authority, and we can do this in any community with the housing authority that actually encourages residents who are in our permanent supportive housing, who have experienced homelessness and are in that housing, who may not need the level of support and services that they once did.

They can be far more independent because after several years, they're steady on their feet and they can move somewhere else and oftentimes want to do that.

If we're able to move them on to that different type of permanent housing, we can start to move some of the people that are unhoused and in shelter into housing.

We are unclogging the pipeline and moving that.

So this is again a best practice, a national model, and we are actively working on that.

We've begun having conversations with the housing authority at looking at how we can facilitate that.

Within our COC, our agencies have begun undertaking efforts to leverage Medicaid as additional funding sources.

You know, HUD funding, though it's the largest that we have being contributed to homelessness, there's other funding as well.

Medicaid being part of that.

So there are programs called like CSPHI and CSPJI, a lot of initials.

And agencies are using that to leverage their funding and use Medicaid as some of those support services that HUD simply doesn't pay for because it doesn't help to just put somebody in housing and not give them the supports that they need to prosper and to sustain themselves.

So we're doing that.

We've been looking at long-term opportunities for medical respite locations.

We've been working with our vacant property manager with the city.

You've met Jordan Latham, and we're looking anytime she can identify something or if there's something that might be a possibility, we're in connection with her and looking at what those possibilities might be.

Our work has included efforts at expanding our existing portfolio of housing for homeless with the introduction of non-HUD funded units.

So I gave you the example at Dyton, that wasn't funded through continuum or federal money.

They use state money for that.

There was a Mahasa grant and state money for that, Healthy Homes Initiative.

So any time there's other funding, our providers, our office, we're all looking at how we can best leverage that.

As I mentioned earlier, uh PACA actually has received some additional funding this year, this rapid rehousing program.

So an additional five units will be opening.

We've just received the federal contract on that, and we'll be working with uh uh Carl and his crew on getting that set up, but um we're excited about that.

That was a new opportunity because of the competitiveness of the application.

It is unusual oftentimes in this day and age to get new housing.

Five units seems like nothing, but I guarantee you for those five people, this is going to mean the world for them.

We've developed a comprehensive list of all the street outreach teams that we have.

It's not just Stepping Stone, which does a brilliant job.

We've got Seven Hills, we've got VTH, we've got you know different street outreach teams, uh, Iliot uh doing this, and so we're trying to better inventory the specializations that they offer and coordinate that so that we can facilitate our coordinated entry efforts with these folks to make uh better connections.

Our office did receive in the last six months.

We received HUD funding to undertake feasibility studies and has partnered with the New Bedford Board of Health at leveraging that funding to access and we're going to access and leverage a state grant that the Board of Health received to make that happen.

Those feasibilities we've ended up contracting with neighborworks, an expert at doing this and has a long history of success in our commonwealth, and we've contracted with them to undertake that feasibility study for the expansion of emergency shelter, whatever that might look like, how that might work, where that might work, as well as the development of additional PSH units.

So we've got professionals with tried and true experience looking at this in the city and actively working on that.

Similarly, we've contracted to do a feasibility study with neighborworks around the potential development of the day facility.

I think that has been discussed previously in the chambers.

That would include opportunities for multiple service providers for coordinated entry for clinical medical teams, everybody one stop shopping.

Where do people go during the day when the shelters closed?

This is where we can do that work and that case management and that triaging.

So we're looking at that and what that might end up being like.

Our office as well has provided through our emergency solutions grant funding.

We assisted 300 people in our shelters alone within New Bedford.

Fourteen households were assisted with a different form of rapid rehousing money.

We had 60 households that received homeless prevention funds as well, and 83 folks that were living on the streets were served.

And Stepping Stone is our street outreach team that receives those ESG funds.

So there was a lot of activity for that period ending June 30th.

And to my math, that's over 450 people that were served with that very small amount of funding, which is around 230,000 that the city receives.

So I would say that we've leveraged that very well.

Recommendation the second recommendation within the plan was about how we use policy levers to maximize our housing resources.

Toward this end, our office partnered with South Coast Fair Housing this past July in conducting a training for our homeless and housing providers.

We've begun developing a continuum of care presentation for housing court staff, South Coastal Counties legal services and similar stakeholders in the legal realm.

We're hoping around this January to focus on what housing and homeless programs actually do and what all of our hardworking providers are doing and the extent to which they go to ensure that we can keep people stably housed, right?

And we're not rushing to court to evict them.

We want to make sure that folks that are in the court circles, that are in housing court are at least apprised of the extent to which agencies go and what actually happens prior to folks' arrival there.

We want to sustain folks in their housing.

It's the last thing that our providers want to do.

Sometimes that's it's important that that happens.

Um we want to keep that and open that communication up with housing folks.

Our office has also begun looking at options to develop what I'm randomly calling a landlord partnership package that would strengthen and add existing and potential landlord relationships for those who serve folks experiencing homelessness.

This includes reviewing potential development of a risk mitigation fund, which is done in a number of places in the country.

So that's a piece of it.

Um, because we want to make sure we get units that people can be in and we can sustain those units.

So that is something that we have been actively uh looking at.

We've also been exploring set aside requirements and all new developments specific to homelessness and uh and we've begun coordinating bi-weekly by name list meetings.

That's our coordinated entry team that does uh twice monthly, they do a biname list where in a confidential setting, it's like a case conferencing practice where the person's name comes up, the team looks triages, and everyone figures out how can we, you know, what can we offer this person, what can we do, what's what do you know that I don't know, and how do we make that connection happen?

And it's it's actually been very successful.

We begin every meeting of that.

The coordinated energy team announces the successes and references what the group talked about last time, and oh, this person's now housed.

This one got into housing, this one, this is what's happening.

So there are measurable outcomes that we've been enjoying with that process.

And I know some of these numbers are small, but every piece of progress is another life that we're we're supporting and uh and working with.

Part of our efforts this summer in our office have also included, we've been trying to reinforce the approach among all of our homeless providers that we are working to serve a person that is uh all of ours rather than someone who's agency specific.

And what that means is if you have John Doe, it's not this agency's client, and so it's that agency's responsibility to take care of that.

It's all of our.

That John Doe is a resident New Bedford, vulnerable, having issues.

Let what can we do as a community?

So it's just a little bit of a of a shift in thinking, and we're trying to do that.

Um, and uh and I dare say I think that that's helped sometimes, particularly in the by name list meetings, so that uh no one provider thinks that they uh carry the full responsibility.

We work as a team in the community, so we're reinforcing that.

We've been updating our coordinated entry standards.

Of course, we have to have books of operating standards for everything.

We want to ensure a pathway for placement of folks that are the most vulnerable, the most medically fragile, those who are what they call it imminent mortality or vulnerable.

We're supposed to place chronically homeless people first.

That's always our priority.

That's federal policy, that's what we do.

But we can have an exception for someone who stage four cancer, living in their car, no other alternatives, and you have someone who's chronically homeless that may have uh more improved health outcomes and does not need the immediacy that the other person, everybody needs housing, but that stage four, you know, person needs it more.

So we have the ability to make an exception to the rule, and that's a vote we'll be taking later this week when the uh BCCC meets.

Um recently I've also had the privilege of meeting with officers Cunha and Officer Vieira from the downtown patrol.

Uh it's the first time I actually got a chance.

They they both at different times came into the office and had a chance to meet with them.

We talked about coordinated entry, we talked about you know everything from the street sheets to the whole bit, and I think it was very uh a very fruitful meeting, and I know that they are planning on coming back in, they want to meet with some of the folks on our team to go through this, and I think that that's uh uh that's a welcome change from what we've been doing.

Uh the third recommendation in the TAC plan is about strengthening how we offer, uh how we operate and our governance structure.

So, as part of our efforts to strengthen our network, we've adopted new bylaws that have actually created what's called a leadership council, and this is a council entirely made up of people who have experiencing homelessness.

It does not help if we are all sitting as academics in a room and come up with something and say, this is great, this is definitely going to work.

And then it doesn't work, and we wonder why it doesn't work.

We must have and we must honor authentically the voice of people experiencing homelessness that are right there that need our help.

I mean, we've got to know what is it that we're not doing, what do you need?

How do we do this differently?

We may not be able to have all the answers and solutions, but that leadership council is going to be critical for ongoing success, I I believe.

We also publish and we maintain now a homeless database which includes a new dashboard of all of this data that we're collecting within the continuum.

Anyone, any member of the public can now access that directly through the BCCC website, and you can get a comprehensive look at who's being served.

We put data every month, once a month in that system, and you can plug that in there.

It represents the entire continuum, but there is a filter that you can say New Bedford only, and you can see that, and out will come after a certain data's put in in New Bedford, you can get 11 pages, more than you have ever could possibly want of data, a range of data, so you really get a snapshot, a look at what's happening in the city, and that's available all the time.

This past week we began developing a data-driven performance scorecard that will be used for all of our housing programs to ensure high efficiencies and excellence in how they're working and how they're operating.

Um, this is something eventually that we're going to make available to each program.

Um we want them to be able to look on an ongoing basis and say, wow, uh why is this happening?

Well, that's the data you put into the system.

And so that's what it's saying.

Either the data is not correct, or you know, you may want to think about how you're executing something in your program.

It's always about efficiencies and improving how we're doing things.

We know that we can always do that.

Uh our office and continuum members, of course, participate uh collaboratively with members of the community.

We're at CCIT meetings.

Um I attend those, our school departments, McKinney Vento community partner meetings.

We work closely with the Board of Health with youth, senior organizations.

So we are um when I say we, not just our office, but also continuum of care folks are um deeply involved in the fabric of all of those uh offerings.

So a couple other things of note uh as I begin to wrap up is that we have convened our initial uh cold weather overflow shelter meeting uh uh in New Bedford specifically to address the logistics for the upcoming winter months.

Um Pam Keitler, our chair of the continuum from PACE, the executive director of PACE, she's convening the meetings and she is uh expected to convene another one very shortly.

Um I know the Catholic charities is still uh receiving funding from the state for that.

I've yet to to check in with Stepping Stone, but we are all working together in doing that.

The BCCC is hosting its second annual homeless summit.

I will defer to uh Carl if he wants to add to that and explain more.

But on the heels of an inaugural homeless summit that we had at White's last year, um the uh last Friday before Thanksgiving, uh Carl and Revan Al uh uh Alves did the uh did that inaugural meeting and it was very successful.

So on the heels of that, we are going to be doing a second one this year and certainly encourage all of you to join us for that.

We've also committed to convening a heart task force if you're familiar with the heart protocols that we use in the city.

They were drafted in 2017.

I was only 12 when they came out.

Uh and it's time that we um revisit that.

Um so we have uh we're working with the Board of Health and DPI and all of the all of the partners, police and everyone, too, to do that.

So that is something that is about to uh to come together and uh and and meet.

Lastly, our office has also received funding for technical assistance from HUD in order to provide some training for our COC and our ESG providers.

We have to keep the workforce up and understanding and engaged of all the nuances of all these exhaustive regulations.

And so we want to do that, support them, answer their questions, and have you know really strong uh a strong uh opportunity for them to uh to learn and to hear more and to ask the questions that they have uh to make sure we have excellence in all of our programs.

So we've got a couple other longer uh potential ideas uh identifying.

We'd love to identify perhaps a philanthropic source of money.

We need some discretionary funds that can be used to help folks that are facing barriers, and by that I mean uh you can't use funding from HUD or many of the other grants that we received.

You just can't use that to buy a bus ticket uh out of town.

You can't use that to you know pay an application or pay for arrears in certain cases.

So it would be great if we could identify, solicit, and deploy those funds because a little bit of money can actually remove a huge barrier for someone.

It just takes a small amount, and that person's on their way to stability.

And so we're looking at that possibility.

We're uh we're hopeful about expanding street medication and behavioral health inreach and putting more folks clinically on the street uh in partnership with our street outreach teams.

Um we're looking at exploring and implementing new techniques in how we communicate with uh the unhoused, educating providers about microconversations, trauma-informed care, all of the buzzwords that one has in this industry.

Um we just want to make sure that people can communicate and do it in a way that honors and respects everyone's journey and where they are.

And the last thing is that's a reminder is that we have um received about three million dollars in home ARP fund uh funding, which several years ago I did the plan for that, and home ARP funding um arose out of uh COVID.

It was one of the sources of money that we got, and that funding is specifically laid out for certain things, but uh some of that has been used for supportive services through our coordinated entry team.

PACE has been using TBRA, tenant-based rental assistance funding uh from our office, and we oversee and monitor that, and we have um a few dollars to add to a project developing affordable housing.

These are not big amounts, um, but again, there's something, and we are uh we have an active plan and we are um moving forward with those things.

So with that, I will uh seize my time and thank you for your patience and all of that and happy to answer any very easy questions.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms.

Clark.

Um I'm assuming that presentation that you were reading from, you must have that an email or something.

The clerk wanted to know if you wouldn't mind emailing that to the council office.

I'm happy to do that tomorrow.

Yeah, we have that for the minutes.

Thank you.

At this time, uh Councillor Gomes, you still have the floor.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you for your presentation this evening.

Can you tell me I've heard some different figures?

You just gave me a figure of three million dollars that we see received in um um COVID money or something to that effect.

I've heard 2.8 million um earlier.

I hear I'm very happy to hear some of the things that are going on that are being addressed, and uh the one main one was one that I have spoken of so many times is collectively working together to address uh the issues that are happening out there.

And I'm happy that that's happening.

I hope that that can just come together without any costs of the monies that are available because it shouldn't.

It shouldn't.

It just should be that together.

Can you tell me what the success rate is or how what has been the success rate of everything all together as far as taking care of people?

I heard a lot.

Let me let me just say this.

I heard a lot from you this evening, and I'm uh again I'm gonna commend everyone involved for the collaborative effort in bringing it all together.

But it's it's it's a it's I don't mean to be facetious.

It's late.

It's very late.

We've been asking for a while for some of this stuff to go down.

I had the opportunity to spend my some time in an encampment.

I don't know how many people have done that, but I'll tell you right now, I'll bring you to tears to meet a lady named Ma and all these other people, and I went with no police, I went with nobody, just myself and an aide.

And what I found in this city is totally absurd.

And it has to be addressed.

And um, I understand about the statistics and keep in mind and all this.

What how what is in place that we assist these people immediately?

As I said, I met a lady named Ma, who's like I guess the mayor of the campment.

They have a I have pictures, I'm not sure it's shared yet.

They have uh almost like a little city.

Everybody's got tents.

But I gotta tell you, these it gave me a different perspective on this whole thing, and not that I I never was concerned about the people that were homeless, but the perspective of who these people are and how sad and sad it is to see the situation that they're living in.

And not asking really for anything, finding some woods off 195 or behind the railroad tracks, and it goes on and on and on.

Um how they are living, they don't ask for much, but they are looking for some help.

And and it's just it's hard to explain.

Everything from the shoes lined up outside the tents to the clothes hung over chairs.

I seen a wheelchair with an umbrella to keep the handicapped person covered or whatever.

I want to know what is being done to address that issue.

And then we'll talk about some locations and stuff because it doesn't really it does fall with you.

It falls with all of us to address this issue.

And I'm just as I called it a crisis, it is a crisis.

I'll take you out of here right now and I'll take you there.

I'll take it to two sites.

One located right behind your Marvel's market.

Did anyone know that?

Thank you for the question.

Um it is frustrating to see the increase in New Bedford in the region in the country.

And we've had tremendous increase.

We're talking about in Ruby right now, so I'm not trying to excuse any of our numbers or anything by saying it happens everywhere.

You know, that's but that's a to me that's a poor excuse.

I'm sick and tired of hearing on every issue.

It's ha it's a national issue.

It's a it's our issue, it's our issue to deal with, and I think we have the expertise through all these agencies and people to bring something forth that can be a model.

Yeah, one of the one of the great challenges that we have with that is that um it largely resides in funding and the need to develop more housing.

So I can tell you that when Stepping Stone works very closely with the HART team to go out to all of these encampments.

And I know that if Danielle Brown were standing here, she could cite chapter inverse every single encampment in the city and doing that.

So we're aware of that.

But then it becomes, well, uh, we don't have enough shelter space.

We don't have enough beds.

We don't have enough places for folks.

Okay, well, let's let's build more.

Where do we get the funding for that?

All of a sudden, the Federal Government just shut off an opportunity for Federal funding from us.

The State only has so much of that funding.

They're not offering capital for homeless projects.

You know, so that's a that's a big part of the challenge is where we get that.

Unless someone is going to write a check locally for us to do that, that's an issue.

Part of it is for folks who choose not to go into shelter for whatever reason.

Um sometimes there's a reticence to do so.

Uh you know, someone has a pet or a partner and they don't want to leave that or change that.

They're living in trauma.

Uh every single person that's experiences homelessness is there's a variant of trauma involved with that.

Um so there's there's the difficulty of of doing that as well.

And uh I'm not the social worker side of the equation, but I can tell you just having those facilities and everything, it's it's very, very difficult.

And it's um it does feel overwhelming to the folks that are on the streets serving and doing that, because we don't want to just chase somebody from point A to point B, and then next week we go from point B to point C, and then there's a Winnebago with somebody living in it, and then there's a you know somebody behind the dugout at Dio Sfield.

So we know we can identify where those folks are.

I totally understand that.

Um there is uh while there are challenges with that, all we can do is is uh I don't want to say peck away at some of these things, but that's why we are trying in a comprehensive way to approach this on many different fronts in many different ways.

So you heard me talking about leveraging funds and uh connecting people uh with that.

So that's what we're working hard to do because when we go to those by name lists, when we talk about people that are unhoused on the street, when Daniel sits at the by name list and all we're talking about that person.

How can we do what does that person really need?

They need to get back to their sister in North Carolina.

How can we make that happen?

Let's let's do that.

That's where we need flexible funding.

So any number of things.

We're becoming a stronger team and doing that and looking at that as the problem is, and by problem I'm not talking about people, I'm talking about the circumstances with which they find themselves.

As that grows, our need and our urgency is growing with that.

So that's what we're working on from all aspects.

I'm going to give my time so that I know maybe my other colleagues have questions again.

Do we have any uh plans for uh an emergency building or shelter that a place that we could take over that we could put some beds in, give some showers, and provide those services that we were talking about a few minutes ago that is being a collaborative effort.

Yeah, that's the feasibility study that we're working on.

Um it's a feasibility study.

What could we have to assess a location, what location works best, what serves you know the folks in need of that, how do we pay for that, both in capital and development, but also how you're gonna operate it?

What agency is gonna step up, it's great to see.

I got three million dollars for you in opiate money.

The same opiate money that this administration has right now that they're holding on to, three million dollars that could possibly help you, just a million of that.

The same money that when I said to sue the uh pharmaceutical companies, I was called a grandstand in this room only to sue them later on, receive the three million dollars.

I just like to recap things sometimes so I can refresh people's memory, not necessarily yours, Mrs.

Clark.

There's three million dollars there.

One million dollars could help you with a facility like that.

Any every dollar helps towards something like that, but you know, I can't tell you off the top of my head how much a capital expense would be in converting a building to bring it up to code to make sure people are safe in that.

But there's an option.

Anything is safer than where those play people are outs out there.

If I had if we can build shelters in uh a minute and take away um youth um clubs across this commonwealth and bring in beds and stuff, I don't know why we got to do all this assessment or whatever.

It's a matter of just getting it done to get these people off the street for the moment.

And then you can put all them other things that you have talked about this evening in place to help these people.

I'm gonna yield my time if you could just answer that question.

Thank you.

Of how we could do that?

Yep.

Well, that again, that's why we have that side.

I know nobody wants to hear the word study, but we cannot just buy a building randomly and develop it and say, everybody go in there.

Who's going to operate that and how does that sustain itself?

And you don't just create a shelter that is.

Did you uh Mr.

Clark, did uh I don't mean to be rude.

Did you just hear what I said?

In the Carmon Wealth of Massachusetts, we have taken over whys and boys' clubs and stuff like that to set up shelters.

You're telling me that we can't it takes all of this to put that all together.

But you have to plan that out.

Does the boys and girls club, are they welcoming that idea?

No, I'm not seeing the boys and girls club.

I'm saying that that's been used across the Commonwealth.

I am seeing that a simple building.

We have buildings that we could go into, and it wouldn't take much to turn them over to put some beards in there to get these people in there and then get the services that they need.

This is what I've been trying to say, or at least get people to understand that if we can get them in there, you now have them, and now you can lead them into the right directions of all the services that they need.

We couldn't do that in two weeks.

Okay.

I don't have the aspect of the other.

Maybe there's someone here from the administration that can answer that question before the night is over.

I appreciate you.

I appreciate the hard work that your office does and what has it been attempted to do.

But what has it what's being attempted to do right now is something that should have been done long time ago and was cries from this city council to do exactly what is happening right now.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you, Councillor.

The Chair recognizes Council Pereira on us first.

Thank you.

So I I happen to agree that I think the the uh personally uh uh emergency shelters in a day facility are some things that that we we should be acting on, and that's part of that feasibility study that you were speaking to.

What's the expected timeline for the feasibility study right now?

We're looking at uh an initial product in December by the end of the by the end of this year to see where they are with the with the uh uh design with not design, locational analysis, cost analysis.

So we're looking that's we have uh an agreement with them, and that's what we have got for the date.

And will the feasibility study also uh indicate individuals or uh uh organizations that could possibly run the facility?

Yeah, and I believe part of that study involves um uh neighborworks is looking at that.

I believe they are actually having conversations with some of the providers as well.

Okay.

And the feasibility study is for both an emergency shelter and a day facility, is it two separate feasibility studies or one larger one?

Technically it's like it's two, we've we've wrapped it all into one, but we've identified a scope that includes both the emergency, which could be an expansion or or additional facility, as well as permanent supportive housing.

Taking a look at that, we put a lot on their plate.

But yes, the day facility as well.

As well.

So that's all sort of sits in one contract, if you will.

And once this once the feasibility study and and is uh uh finalized, reviewed internally, um, or uh my my first question would be who commissioned the feasibility study, the continuum of the BCC, they have the right number of C's, or the city?

The city received the funding, and so we are the ones that actually drafted the subrecipient agreement, and we're working with that.

We work with the Board of Health and we have some of their funds.

We receive money from HUD.

And so we're doing that.

We are doing it in concert with and to the knowledge of our COC and our leadership.

That came as an outgrowth of the plan.

All right.

So December comes, we have the plan.

It's analyzed in-house, I imagine would go through a couple of different uh hands reviewed.

Um what's the next steps from there?

Presentation to the COC, a presentation to the public.

What would that look like?

What would the next steps be?

Yeah, I think that um any uh any residual issues or questions that came up that were unanswered in the course of that, we would raise that in-house.

We would be looking at that in January as soon as we receive something.

And um we would work probably uh you know with the uh uh with neighborworks to to remedy that.

Um if we see that there has not been enough communication with uh say Catholic charities for Sister Rose, and like you need to be talking with them.

We've talked about this, and we want to make sure that all of that has been done.

So we will be reviewing that internally.

The leadership of the Continuum of Care would then get you know a uh uh an initial feasibility study from them, they would look at that, and then they would um you know make a recommendation to to the body.

That's typically how we move something through.

With all this being said, and I don't know what milestone it would be but in my head from where we are where we're at currently, we have a timeline of approximately December for the report back.

We have some follow-up homework that will be done after that report is given.

Identifying funding sources, identifying uh operational who will be run operating the facilities.

Is there a goal?

Is there a rough timeline or no?

I can voted question.

I uh it is a it is a very difficult question to address because there are so many what-ifs in that question.

So I can tell you as a new Bedford resident, if I were listening to this, I'd be like, seriously, you know, say something, you know, and come up with something more tangible.

But the number of what-ifs and variables make it very difficult.

And then when you layer into that, there is a uh uh let's just say a fluid situation with federal funding right now, and so that could further uh complicate a timeline.

So for me to say, gee, within a year we'd like to be able to say so uh i i it would be difficult to do so.

And last question, would we spoke about that it's one feasibility study but multiple components?

Uh after that feasibility study, I would imagine the possibility of breaking those ideas out, right?

Because you would imagine probably an emergency shelter is probably faster to get up and running than say a whole day facility or uh okay.

So that is that would be the goal is to break it out.

Yes, it will be.

Obviously, depends on what one does not fly, you know, consecutive.

Even though it's all in one report.

We're not gonna we let's not move forward with this because we don't have that in place yet.

Right.

If we have three distinct ideas and movement, then we would move in that way.

Okay.

Very good.

Thank you very much, uh Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Councillor.

The Chair recognize Council Lopes on his first.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So, Jen, first, let me thank you and the team for serving over 400 families.

I think I did like 443 when you were doing the math in my head.

I think that's where you were.

Your math is probably better than mine.

But that's that's uh an amazing start.

So thank you for all you're doing.

Thank you.

You had mentioned the flexible funding, flexible funding a couple times and the importance of that.

Has anyone calculated how much flexible funding you think you would need in the fiscal year to address the needs that you're seeing in the office that would warrant those dollars?

I would say, and and this is without any uh uh conversation with Josh beforehand or any uh blessing of anybody, it's totally me.

Um I have done this before.

I've been on the other side of the table when I I lived out of state, and we received that flexible funding, and I gladly accepted a ten thousand dollar check from uh philanthropy, and I was the one that set up parameters about how that was used, and that ten thousand dollars um lasted for six months.

Okay.

Um I was pretty generous with it.

I mean, there are there are ways of not you know of really creating higher barriers for that, but we the whole idea is that we want to give it to the folks that most need that in order to alleviate those barriers.

So um I don't have a figure off the top of my head, it would be conversations with them, and I think it would be done in a way that's incremental.

We would love to start with with this amount and let's see how long we can you know make that work in a way that is honoring the need.

Yep.

Have we looked at any philanthropic national, local philanthropic groups that could possibly fill that void?

We actually, as part of our consolidated planning process, we convened uh you know different focus groups.

This was the first time we actually convened the philanthropic focus group.

Um and so we had the different uh you know the the funders that are are are known to everybody in this room, and um and it was very encouraging.

I think it was great to have that, and then I think that there was a lot of conversation between them saying if I do this, you do this, let's how would we work that together?

So that's the conversation that we would like to uh foster.

Okay.

And then my last one, which I know Reverend Lehman knows is always something that's always on the top of my thumb, a lot of other people.

You mentioned the cold weather overflow shelter discussion has started.

Yes.

Do we have funding and do we have a plan?

We I can tell you that Catholic Charities has confirmed that they have funding.

They received a multi-year grant.

So I think it was like a five-year grant, and I just checked in with them today, knowing I was going to be here, and they did confirm that yes, we have it for this winter as well.

I believe that steppings, and I don't want to speak on their behalf, but I believe Stepping Stones grant was a one-year.

Um, but I know that in working with the state that they're mindful of what we're doing down here, and they are also mindful of an entire continuum now.

Um again, so they're uh they're not just going to fund over here, they're gonna look geographically, so I'm hoping that they're again gonna be willing to do that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Councillor.

The Chair recognizes Councillor Oliver on his first.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh again, thank you for being here and and representing uh the department well.

Um to to as I was going, I was writing down you know my question, so excuse me if I hop around.

But to go along with the flexible funding that uh the colleague who spoke before me was talking about, um you would talk you had spoke about um receiving a check uh uh uh from a philanthropist of ten thousand dollars.

Was that a common occurrence?

Was that a one-off, or do you see more were there more instances of that that you would encounter?

Well, just bear in mind that was at a different time and a different place in the land far away.

Um so when we did that, it was we worked with one philanthropic agency, and they did that um several times over course of a year, and then we uh identified that the need had mitigated a bit, so we did not need that amount.

We then worked with the the banks locally, and we you know were helped with the CRA funds, and we had a little flexibility with that.

So any funding source does not have to even be philanthropic, but any funding source that allows for that flexibility.

And in your um uh in doing so, did you handle those on an individual basis?

Did monies get pooled together into one uh sum or account to be divvied up, or was it we got the $10,000, we divvy that up and then move on to the next thing?

Yes, uh we divvied up, we we did the initial amount, used that funding, reassessed, you know, reapplied, if you will, and then kept doing that.

So um we would not just continue to roll and just have a stack of money and kind of waiting for the need to arrive, you know, we had everything measured out concurrent with need.

Um how many folks would you um how uh are there any folks that get turned away by any like when when they come to you to you and they're looking for uh I can tell you that um for the the way I'd like to address this is in terms of homelessness specifically.

So we have a um we have a process you can go online and you can just do this little one-page application of who are you, where'd you sleep last night, what do you want?

What can we do for you?

And that all goes directly to our coordinated entry team, and they have that initial conversation, so they will talk with folks and see what they can do.

If somebody is unsheltered or if they're in emergency shelter, we look to assist them and you know what can we do, how do we do this?

Um we do have people that do not qualify as homeless that um need other assistance.

So if somebody is you know uh uh has a tenuous relationship with their landlord, you know, I would suggest that they the tenancy preservation program.

We've got South Coast So we we refer for those that uh need some supportive services and uh you know work with that, our team, our coordinated team will do some diversion work and and do that as well.

So if you don't meet that HUD definition of homelessness, it limits you in terms of not being able to go into our permanent sport of housing.

And the we have uh 200 people in those units right now and a hundred uh apartments, and you would not be able to go there unless you have a disability and you meet HUD's definition of homelessness.

So one of the things I often point out is that when we have conversations around the school, and when they talk about homelessness and they say we have 1,400 homeless children, and then I walk in and say, Yeah, we had 300 in the point of time count.

They're like Jen, you don't know what you're doing because they have 1,400.

Two definitions of homelessness.

So the McKinney Vento Act federally that articulates that they have one definition for the Department of Education, one definition for HUD.

HUD is the more stringent one because children need higher performance, you know, their outcomes so there they can be couch surfing.

You cannot be couch surfing and be considered homeless uh according to HUD.

You know, you and I, we all think they're homeless.

But um, uncomfortable as it is, HUD thinks, oh, you've got a roof over your head.

So you don't qualify for that.

If you're sleeping in your car, oh you most definitely qualify for that.

So that's part of what we have to sort of factor into it.

Okay, thank you for elaborating on that, because that was my next question.

Um we encounter that just don't want assistance as well.

Um I I I would uh I would I would not pretend to know a percentage that uh Stepping Stone say runs into or our street outreach teams run into.

Um but I definitely think there's I I'm as a wild guess, and you all can correct me, I'm I'm gonna say about 30 to 40 percent.

Um they are resistant to doing something that is needed to be done in order to enter shelter or you know, a lot of people have great reasons.

I mean, if I were in that situation, I might think the same thing.

You know, there's a lot of things people don't like rules.

We had one gentleman several years ago had not been in a building in 30 years.

Um, you know, so there's a lot there's a lot of trauma, and there's a lot of pieces that you know had to be mindful.

So there's a there's a good proportion of people suffering with either severe mental illness or you know, substance use disorder.

Those are the two highest uh uh indicators within our continuum, as it is in many locations, but um there's a there's a goodly number of that.

And that's another issue entirely.

What do you do with folks that are resistant, and how do you do it in a compassionate way that is mindful of everyone else in the community?

So we recognize that balance when they become housed or we find a location for them, uh then what?

You spoke about uh supportive do we provide what's that support look like?

If somebody is placed into permanent supportive housing, um by its nature, the provider, and uh uh they will provide not only the housing and they get a a subsidy that will help them pay for the rent, and it's the majority of the rent in many cases.

They also get the supportive service, so that agency provides support to that individual.

So they do case management, they do regular individual service plans.

They say, How are you achieving your goal?

What did you do this week to actually even move toward that goal?

Did you do anything?

Right.

What can I do to help you make that make that happen?

You've identified you want to get here.

You're still back here.

How do we get you over here?

So, you know, they're really they're quite skilled uh at at doing that and working with folks, and it's an ongoing basis, but all of those providers do that as part of their housing.

Okay.

Um you had spoken about the um funding from the federal government that the new administration, the current administration um has kind of locked up uh with uh new guidelines.

What what was the current process of those uh the uh sex offender uh the the one that I referenced the COC builds uh NOFA Notice of Funding Availability was something as I recall was offered in the um uh toward the end of the Biden administration, they offered that and there was a competition for that, and people applied.

That money was not awarded.

They said no, we're gonna go and do that again.

And at the outset of this administration, they issued that again, but then rescinded that and said we're gonna change how we do this.

And we're gonna add, you know, like the the federal executive orders and different conditions that are placed on it.

So they looked at that and said, we're gonna rescind this, and they've restructured how that particular NOFA works.

Uh my understanding is that it much of it was uh check boxes rather than the excruciating narrator narratives that we have to write for the other one.

But with that said, we simply do not know what our traditional one is going to look like.

You know, we keep hoping and praying that some legal case is going to preclude it from happening and we'll just be able to renew for another year and stay with the two-year cycle that we were all promised.

But we'll see.

We will be prepared if if not.

You had spoke about um the new guidelines uh being um requiring uh digitized fingerprinting.

Was that?

I'm sorry.

Did you speak about the new guidelines requiring digitized fingerprinting and we're excluded from that because Massachusetts doesn't do that?

No, not to that, not to that extent.

It's like there's uh I I forget what the specifics are, but uh, you know, again, the Federal has, you know, say six different uh pieces that are required.

Massachusetts does, you know, three of these, and they do this differently.

So I'm I'm not an expert on the on the registry and how that's handled, but that was my read of that.

As a matter of fact, the National Alliance to End Homelessness with the women's uh development corporation in Rhode Island have now filed a legal uh suit against HUD saying you you can't do this, you can't change this and take this away from multiple states.

There are only 18 states in the union that can apply now.

So a lot of states have been knocked out and they're challenging that, and there's a temporary restraining order on that.

So it's a big mess.

Okay, that was one of my questions was how many other states have been affected by that.

Uh so thank you for that.

And then my last my last question.

Um instead of because uh we're hearing like the you know money being taken away, but the money is available, you just got to confirm, conform to these, like uh just example six things, and we only do three.

Is there any talk on the state level to confirm conform to those other um qualifiers that the federal government is, or are we just gonna fight it out?

Uh I I don't believe well, I think that the deadline for that particular application has already passed.

Okay.

So now it just becomes I don't want to say an academic, I said it's a litigious exercise now, and perhaps foretelling of what's gonna, you know, come down the road.

But uh I don't believe that I I haven't heard anything.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Um that's all I have right now, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor.

The chair recognizes Councillor Burgo on his first.

Thank you.

Um thank you so much for being here, Assistant Director Clark.

Um I just want to start off by uh emphasizing the good that's uh taking place, obviously, in your office.

Chair thank you thank you counselor the chair recognizes Counselor Burgo on his first thank you um thank you so much for being here Assistant Director Clark um I just want to start off by uh emphasizing the good that's uh taking place obviously in your office um I'm always thankful for your staff uh yourself uh director Josh Amrol, the uh vacant property manager Jordan Latham, uh the the work that she has done to uncover a lot of the properties and uh buildings that we could possibly put online.

Um I see that a lot of the aggressive work behind that.

Um I always want to start off with the good uh because now I'm gonna ask a very self-serving rhetorical question that I do not expect you to answer, uh which is don't worry, I won't.

Okay, great.

Um do you feel that the Mitchell administration cares at all about housing and homelessness in the city of New Bedford?

And so I'm not gonna ask you to answer that question because I want you to keep your job and I want you to continue working in the Office of Housing and Community Development.

But the reason why I asked that rhetorical question, which we all in this room know the answer to, because the question I I'll ask you is this report we know it's September 2025.

We you know this report came out a year ago.

September 2024, correct?

Yes.

Yes, and so but this report began as it was reported as of November of 2023.

And so then now you're coming to us to tell us that yet we need another report and another study, and that won't come out until December potentially.

When this report I also want to mention, we were told was going to come out sooner, and then it didn't come out until September.

And then another report that we get every year is the point in time count.

That also I want to talk about those numbers really quick.

One of the things that we were able to pride ourselves in in this city of New Bedford was our functional zero homelessness for veterans.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Is that something we can be proud of now?

Absolutely.

We have uh it is it is uh not the typical in other communities and other continuums of care.

We had three uh successive years of zero, uh meaning unsheltered on the street, there was no until now, right?

And now it's four.

One we had one during the I believe it was one during the point in time count.

The number I have on the sheet that I just pulled up to verify said four.

Um is that for the whole continuum or just New Bedford?

It could have been the entire continuum.

Well, either way, any number that's not zero is the problem because like I was saying, the point is we were able to pride ourselves in being zero.

And now the fact that that number has risen is the point that I want to make here is that this administration should be getting more aggressive, so these numbers are going down, not up.

And so I think the point, and I I will never speak for my colleague from Clara Street, because he is a great advocate for himself, but this is the point that I think he's trying to make here is what the hell are we doing?

What are what what are the priorities here?

And again, this frustration and anger again is not towards you at all.

It's towards an administration that is not utilizing his people accurately because he does not give a damn about this at all.

And it shows in the data in the fact that uh another thing for uh my colleague from Clara Street, if I could mention him again, one of the other issues he's brought up is about that comes up in this very report is about the fact that we don't have enough uh permanent supportive housing for individuals that have non-substance um uh use disorder disabilities.

And so that's a challenge here in New Bedford for our those that are elderly and disabled that don't have a substance abuse issue.

That's something that my colleague from Clara Street has brought up continuously.

And again, what is the Mitchell administration doing about it?

And so we drag you or uh Director Amro in here, and you have to stand up there for uh two hours or three hours, and I I hope someone's gonna bring you some water, and hopefully you'll get to sit down and take a break in a moment.

And I'm gonna end my remarks shortly because I'm doing something I chastise my colleagues for a lot, but it's frustrating, and it's probably frustrating for you to have to listen to us uh complain, but I just want to emphasize these these figures here.

And the fact that this report came out during the Biden Harris administration.

And so I know we're facing challenges now with uh the Trump Vance administration that are a lot more hostile, but we had uh a lot of funding sources.

We had eighty-two million dollars of ARPA funds, and only 10 or 14 percent of it went towards these kind of things, and it was not utilized uh well.

We know that.

We know the ARPA funds were spent frivolously.

Um in any case, I just want to emphasize that this council will continue to be supportive of your office and pushing this issue, and that we hope that the administration is listening and that they will give a damn about the growing number of homeless individuals that are outside at the library, and that they're not just gonna be arrested or corralled out to another location, and that something will be done.

And I think again, as my colleague from Clara Street pointed out, that with this feasibility study, something will be done with the money that we're utilizing to shelter and help them find employment or housing and what have you.

And I thank you for your time tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor.

Chair recognizes Council Chocotton as first.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um this isn't a question for Ms.

Clark, so just uh uh a question for you as the you know the chairperson and also directed to the maker of the motion, the council from Clara Street.

Yeah, you can go through me to the maker of the motion.

That's fine.

Yeah.

Uh I'm just curious.

Can we add another person into the invitee list into this going forward?

Because I think that given the magnitude of the problem, we need all the help we can get.

And I don't see Mr.

or actually Reverend Bob Hughes' name here from the House of Hope.

Now he's definitely a non-traditional approach, but I think he's earned the right to sit at the table and and contribute also.

Um he's done a lot of work up in my ward and actually pulled people out of the woods.

And you know, I I'd like to hear what he has to say.

In addition, I mean I want to hear all voices on this.

Well, I have no problem with it, but that'd be up to the maker of the motion at that time.

Um and depending on what we do with this tonight, uh, I'll ask the maker when we've had we finished our questions and debate.

I don't know if he wants to table this item or uh whatever, but we can we can address that at that point when it's time to be uh for a motion to be made, okay, Counselor?

Okay, work field.

Yes.

Thank you, sir.

Anything else?

No, I yield.

Thank you.

Anyone else on there first or their second for Jen Clark?

Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

Do you need water or anything?

I have some, thank you.

Oh, you do, okay.

I appreciate it.

I mean, well done, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, colleagues.

We do have some other invited guests.

Does anyone want to speak to any of them?

We have Reverend Lima, Mr.

Alves, we have folks from the HSPN here.

I don't know if anyone has any questions for them.

We covered the whole thing pretty extensively, but Counselor Gomes.

The reason why we brought all these people here tonight is to find out what who is doing what, what is being done, when it will be done.

So I think we should give them all the opportunity to hear from them, Kyle.

You want to have Carla and Reverend Hughes up together?

Yep.

Okay.

Gentlemen, I mean Reverend Lima, Reverend Hughes.

I've got Reverend Hughes on the brain from Councillor Choquett.

Just call me here.

Yeah.

Good to see you, gentlemen.

Uh you know, uh, you don't need a preamble from me or anyone.

You know what's going on, so you want to pick up maybe where we left off, and maybe some gaps that maybe we didn't touch upon.

Yeah, uh, I think uh the homelessness issue is becoming more of a challenge on a on a daily basis.

Uh I think the problem is the lack of space for people to lay their head at night.

Uh and we need to address it.

Uh in answer to your question in terms of what we're doing.

First of all, I want to uh should give a shout out to uh Jen Clark because uh I've worked with her for many, many years.

And um she's been a a true champion for you know advocating and and getting those 11,000 pages uh together or 1100 pages together and uh over many, many years and has been highly successful and uh kind of keeps us all in line.

Uh however, I think you know, going forward we need to do more.

Um we have a great network of providers.

And that, you know, Catholic charities, Stepping Stone, PACA.

We have a system that uh we've been using for the last four or five years.

Um we also have you know that that provides emergency um services to to folks um usually 70 to maybe 80 sometimes on nights where the temperature falls below 29 degrees.

27 degrees.

27 now.

Uh 27 degrees.

And uh with the help of uh community services uh in the city of New Bedford.

So you know that is in play, but it's insufficient.

Um Jen talked about 30 or 40 percent of the population that are living in the in the campus that you refer to as well as others uh that are not coming in.

Um and that is a real challenge.

You know, I'm familiar with uh the the sites that you mentioned and the people that are are staying there, um, and we've got to find a better uh a better way to kind of address that.

But we don't have a place there are no real alternatives uh for that.

And that's and that's the rub.

And and I I don't want to put the finger on any individual group or what have you.

We were just talking uh about the you know police involvement.

This is not just a police problem.

This is a shared responsibility that we need to you know come up with solutions.

So I really like the idea of a summit.

the the sites that you mentioned and the people that are are staying there and we've got to find a better uh a better way to kind of address that but we don't have a place there are no real alternatives uh for that and that's the and that's the rub and and I I I don't want to put the finger on any individual group or what have you we're just talking um about the you know police involvement this is not just a police problem this is a shared responsibility that we need to you know come up with solutions so I really like the idea of a summit we started it last year um it's uh with you know providers uh but I I agree that I think we need to have leadership um government leadership to kind of talk specifically about some of these things with the public and let people be aware of what is going on and what we need to do going forward and you know perhaps it's something the night before um the one that that we do at Whites or something to that effect uh you know we've done those kinds of things before uh but it it is it's an impact that impacts us all uh my wife and my mother-in-law own a store downtown and we were just talking with other folks in another program that we're involved in you know the the homelessness and the the challenges that we're facing on the streets undermine the economic development of our our community and and we are seeing an increase in the number of folks that are experiencing mental health issues that are showing up on our doors and then that number continues to grow back to what Jen was also talking about on those nights where we have 70 or 80 folks that are in our overflow shelter it's often 10 to 20 percent of those folks are over the age of 60.

So we have an aging population with increased medical and and other kinds of issues and we need specialized care.

So it's a you know it's it's nice to hear that you know some of the nursing home options we've been trying to do that in partnership with Reverend Lima give a minute to kind of chime in on this we need specialized kinds of places and we need a place where we can cite these things we were here a year ago or whatever we talked about an idea about an encampment and then nobody wanted that I get it.

However that doesn't take away the need for space and so whether it's we need to identify those empty buildings where it's going we don't want to place this in the middle of a residential neighborhood but maybe there are other places that's the kind of leadership that we need.

Tell us what we can do and we'll do something and and we'll scrape the dollars together but unfortunately we're not having serious conversations about the specificity that you're talking about what are we you know what can we do about those folks that are in encampments and we don't have a good solution for it.

And it's not any individual's problem it is our collective problem nobody's more frustrated than us.

And I'll tell you that just because a lot of the nonprofits everybody thinks the nonprofits are going to pick it up pick up the gap we're losing funding too a lot of the different uh things that are out there that we may have been able to draw from uh are drying up and it federal government for instance uh with their push on immigration no matter what your your uh um your views are on uh ice and and their work uh they are putting more money into faith communities getting getting support to be able to do different programs but what they slipped into the agreement is that you will allow ice to come in at any time to view anybody that's in your space that includes if you get security to protect your church or synagogue they're allowed to come in.

You're giving them permission in order to be able to get that funding.

Now quite frankly uh no matter what your view is I just think that's wrong.

Okay?

Used to be a time where religious places were considered holy ground and sanctuaries and again we do have an issue and it does need to be addressed.

And I'm not here to make a referendum on this administration but anybody wants to hear me rant you can talk to me later but I'm gonna tell you that you guys too have some responsibility even the little nitpicking things that can exist the flexible funding that Jen talked about to be able to send somebody back to where they were from where they have more supports.

We end up with a lot of people here that aren't from here.

Okay?

Whether they came because of a job opportunity the waterfront that happens a lot we've seen a lot of people that come here because of uh opportunities for a fishing job or one of the uh uh fisheries or some of the other opportunities that come and then for whatever reason end up in a situation where they are homeless in our area no support now a lot of the folks that are here a lot not all of them are here because they have some connection to New Bedford we've discussed this before we've said this many times family friends this is where they grew up this is what they know this is their comfort zone.

Family, friends, this is where they grew up, this is what they know, this is their comfort zone, even though the woods is not a place of comfort.

Community services had some flex funding to be able to pay for a bus ticket.

That got lost when the cuts happened this year, and and I'm not here to criticize you know the budget process in this city, but sometimes you're not aware of some of the things that get cut that even a simple thing.

I got a phone call Friday, the outreach team for the Method Police Department.

They had someone who is got a place, he's got a bed in a shelter in Lemonster, but he's got no way to get there.

And and so many of us get these calls, and there is no funding for it.

But I told him, pay for it, get them a bus ticket, bring me the receipt, I'll get it covered.

A lot of us that's what happens, it's out of pocket.

Mr.

Quiggly, I gotta give them a lot of credit.

He was one of the victims in this city of some of the things that occurred.

Being able to look at what can be done without jumping through hoops and rent control or whatever, there are things that can be done that can help slow down the homeless issue that is starting to happen.

Because last week, this is just one week that I'm giving you of calls that I've gotten, and I'm just one person of many of the nonprofits.

I get a phone call from one of the council and agents, a couple that's being evicted because somebody bought their place, they've been living there for 30 years, they can't find anything that they can afford.

They did get an apartment, they can pay first, they can't pay last in security, and they don't qualify for raft.

Okay?

They're just over the the limit, yet they don't have the money.

So they're faced with either being homeless or somebody coming up with something.

We did have a small fund that we were able to pull some money and give them and keep them from being homeless.

Okay.

You know, a question was asked by uh uh Council Oliver about what are the support systems and things that can come into place when we find somebody some housing.

The Fresh Start program that comes out of community services, that ICC is partnered to with a fiduciary agent for.

When there's a fire, and how many fires have we had where people have lost everything?

We're able to provide furniture.

When somebody's homeless, and we're able to get them placed somewhere that doesn't have enough furniture, we're able to provide that furniture.

And that has become so successful that we've been able to get medical beds.

South Coast, we made the approach.

We need medical beds for some of these folks, we got a donation of six medical beds.

And yesterday, over the weekend, I get a phone call.

Can you guys, can you do anything with a lift chair for floor?

One floor lift chair over $5,000, hardly used, we'll pick it up.

It's a one by one, as was stated, it's a one by one, and it don't sound like much.

But being able to keep one more person from becoming homeless, or being able to keep one more person in their place, is what's necessary.

And so this is the thing that I want to share is that yes, we need the summit.

Yes, we need to be able to have the solutions.

I think if we're all being realistic and not just angry with the administration, which let's face it, I've been one of the more vocal people about the administration.

We all know between NIMBY, between liability, between being able to get the workforce that is capable of taking over a contract for shelter or something else.

Right now, the people that are providing it, they're at their limit.

They say they're at that limit.

They know we need more beds, but they're not willing to ask for more right now because it's hard enough for them to keep people employed that's going to work the overnights and the liability of being able to work with folks that sometimes either have mental health issues, the substance abuse issues, the different difficulties that they have.

Now, one of the things, if you're not aware of, and hopefully some of you are, one of the great things that has come to this community is child and family is got the funding, and they are putting two mental behavioral health vans on the streets.

One that's totally dedicated to New Bedford, and one that's going to be working out of Fall River in Plymouth.

And let's not kid ourselves.

Working in the other communities helps people here.

I'm getting phone calls from Taunton wanting to meet.

To see how we've solved our problem.

I almost want to laugh.

Because we know we haven't solved our problem.

It is very complex.

It's very deep.

We've got to be able to work together.

And that's the thing I need to emphasize.

We've got to work together to be able to get it done.

And we've got to be able to learn and hear what the different things that do exist that can work, find the things that aren't working that we can maybe adjust or support.

And be able to do the things that are necessary.

Because otherwise, I'm telling you, I'm sick and tired of coming to talk to you guys.

You're probably sick and tired of hearing me.

I mean, I'll come pray for you any time you want.

But to talk about this, this is a continuous thing.

And we don't really finally get anywhere.

But it's going to take all of us.

It's not just blaming the corner office.

It's not just expecting the nonprofit world or the faith world or anything else to step it up and do it, because we're all being challenged right now.

I'll save the offering taking for later.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Colleagues, questions for uh two guests.

Anything specific for either one of them?

Counselor Oliver.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I have uh uh just uh one or two questions for um Reverend Lima Uh Reverend Lima, thank you.

Um you're you're 100 percent right, you know.

Uh it's frustrating to continue to keep coming in and kind of banging the same drum and we're not not getting anywhere.

Um but I appreciate your advocacy, I do.

Um with that said, do you know and I'm not looking for you to name them or anything like that.

Or do you know of any um folks in the faith community, churches, synagogues, et cetera, that have um taken some of that money that you had spoken about through ice?

I know there's been a couple of people that have done it in the past.

Uh I don't know of anybody that's doing it now because of those new causes.

Okay.

So that I can't I can't speak to.

Okay.

And in the past, um, were there any instances of ICE going into these facilities that I'm not aware of ICE going into a house of faith here.

I am aware of them going into other places.

Okay.

All right.

That was that was all I had.

Thank you.

Thank you, Reverend Lee.

Thank you, Counselor.

Anyone else?

Council Morrad.

Um thank you.

Carl or David, when's the last time you had a meeting with the Connor office?

I think it was uh the last time that uh we met around the issue of encampment of you know, an organized encampment.

So at least six months ago.

Probably.

Yeah, probably more.

Yeah.

And um I see someone from the administration was invited tonight.

I can't see behind me.

Is there anybody here representing the administration?

Uh no, madam, and there is no communications either, correct, Clerk Lawrence?

No, like like usual, nothing.

Yeah, I mean, I heard Reverend Lever say that he doesn't want to point fingers, and it requires all of us together, but uh all of us together means all of us together, and it seems to me that there seems to be a consistent pattern of a piece of us missing.

So wait, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else for either of these gentlemen before they take a seat?

Thank you both.

All right, Counselor Gomes, what are you looking to do with this?

Well, Mr.

Chairman, let me first say to uh Ms.

Clark Cow and the Reverend, thank you very much for showing up tonight.

Thank you for your import.

It's much appreciated.

It's much appreciated what is going on.

I will stress that.

So uh even though the questioning got uh a little uh not hard, but uh to the point of what we're looking for.

She and Mrs.

Clark answered the questions and um Carl and the Reverend.

The whole thing here is um I want to know.

I'm gonna end up tabling this.

We'll table it for so many months, 90 days or whatever, and then come back and see where we're at.

But I would ask through you to uh Ms.

Clark and those that are here.

I would like some uh revenue um costs to this approach.

We were told about these plans of action that are put in place.

Well, you know what plans of action come down to, Mr.

Chairman.

They come down to who's getting the salary to be the head, who will be the assistant.

We need an office space, so I got to spend money on it, furniture and everything.

So even if I had a million dollars to take care of the homeless, by the time it gets to the homeless, it's down to about 500,000.

And we haven't even gotten to them yet because we're taking care of people.

We're putting people in positions.

No more positions are needed here.

Because this is a common sense approach.

It becomes a boondoggle.

Right.

Yeah.

This is a common sense approach.

So I would like to know how much money is being spent on directors and and heads of uh uh whatever um through this plan of action that's coming down.

I would like that information next time.

And I would also like to know um what exactly where the position of the administration is, as it was asked just pri previously to by my colleague is where the administration I know what answer you would get from the administration.

Same answer you get all the time.

We are doing everything in our power to provide housing.

Look at the housing that's going up downtown.

Look at the housing that's going here.

Look at the housing that's going there.

The housing that is being put up in downtown and being developed across the city, it's not going to address the homeless problem.

Or the those that are less fortunate, they're not going to address the that that problem.

That's just uh uh an umbrella approach, and it sounds real nice for the moment.

We have to have some concrete work done on this.

I'm gonna I'm gonna give, as I said, Mr.

Chairman, it's up to you.

Uh some of us don't even know if we will even be here in 90 days or whatever.

But for those that are here or if they are still here, would like to see this issue picked up and uh uh finally addressed and addressed in a matter of all agencies together.

They're gonna hold their summit out at whites, go right ahead.

But bring everything together.

So when you walk in this building and the government asks you in this building who what is being done, you give me a concrete plan of action.

And that's what I continuously talk.

And I'm glad to hear Reverend Um uh the Reverend say at the end, but working together, working together.

How many times have you heard that in this chambers?

Working together.

I don't care whether you like me or you don't like me, work with me so that we solve the problems.

It's confirmed, by the way, uh Councillor Gomes and everybody.

The clerk just looked through everything.

There's not a note from anyone in the administration.

They just believe they just ghosted us just to be able to do that.

I believe.

As I said, success comes to those who work together.

Let's try it.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you to those that showed up to address this issue tonight.

Now, Counselor, if you would indulge me, the clerk just reminded me, I know you wanted to table it.

If you choose to table it again for another six months, that would give time for the feasibility study to come before us and we can take a look at it at that point.

We want them back here in March.

And even if I'm not here, I'll be here.

We won't have anything until that would be six months.

That would be six months.

That would be March.

That's correct.

Six months.

We did the math on that.

It is March.

Six months still will not address what will be happening tomorrow.

Correct.

What will be happening in the future in November, uh December, as the cold weather comes about, and even more people are out there that are homeless that really don't have the avenues to get somewhere where they have an opportunity.

Well, such as the good news, Counselor is we do have other motions in the can of this committee that we can bring these folks back to talk about the overflow shelter and what we're doing for the winter.

So I plan on doing of having several more meetings before now on the holidays.

As long as it addresses it, sir.

Thank you.

So would you like to make a motion for the table for six months, Councillor Gomes?

Made by Councillor Gomes.

Second by Council Perara.

All those in favor say aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

All right.

Item three is now before us.

Item number three is a written motion.

Counselors Abreu, Choquette, Oliver, and Lopes requesting that a representative from Tunnel to Towers Foundation appear before the Special Committee on Housing to discuss the Veterans Villages initiative.

And how New Bedford could become a Northeast Anchor City for said program, which helps build housing developments for America's unhoused veteran population.

Said program provides America's heroes by offering mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children, and by building specially adapted smart homes for cata catastrophically, injured veterans and first responders, which may also include veteran homelessness.

It was referred here on February 13th, 2025.

And before you know Motion received a place on file.

Made by Councillor Oliver, seconded by Councillor Burgo.

Anyone on the question, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

Colleagues, we've I've tried at length and as has our office to invite the tunnels to towers people here.

It's unfortunate that uh they're not really we're interested in coming in and um uh they said they would meet with us individually or in small groups through Zoom, but seemed to be a tall task for them to come here before us, and uh which was very disheartening to me.

So the next best thing, not that you know, you know, you're second fiddle to nobody, uh Officer Gomes, but uh if Christopher Gomes is here, if you wouldn't mind taking the uh the podium, because veteran homelessness is still an issue regardless of whether or not Tunnels to Towers is here.

Um I know it's a very important issue to all of us.

Um good evening.

Uh Mr.

Gomes, so I know um if my colleagues will indulge, I know we had a report a while ago, about six months ago, saying that we had achieved zero net homelessness for veterans.

Are we still at that point and how do we get there?

And how do we keep that retention rate going to make sure that and ensure that no veterans who have served their country are homeless in the streets of New Bedford?

Uh as of now, according to the state, uh New Bedford still is at function zero for veteran homelessness.

Uh the may the governor was just down here in April that declared it.

Uh to my knowledge, we're still there.

Um we're there because of the supportive services that are here in the city, between the VTH, uh what the city provides, what my office provides, um Veterans Inc.

There are numerous uh organizations involved in making making that happen.

And how long of a process was it to kind of ramp up to this point?

Because obviously you hear about rampant veteran homelessness throughout the country in different pockets.

It always seemed like around here it wasn't as bad as other parts of the country.

We seem to, for all intents and purposes, sort of get it right here and taking care of our veterans in Greater New Bedford, but I'm sure it took quite a while to get to that point.

Well, we've always stayed fairly low just because of the programs available in Massachusetts compared to other states.

Uh Chapter 115, the financial aid program, uh, is big and instrumental in keeping veterans and widows in their homes and helping with their medical bills and things like that.

Um then again when you have support services like the BTH and how they've grown over the years, especially from what I've started.

Uh it New Bedford and the state is doing things right when it comes to veterans.

That's great to hear.

I know we touched upon it with Jen earlier as well.

So any questions for uh Mr.

Gomes.

He sat here a long time, folks, so it's gonna make him earn a little bit.

We would have I mean it it this is a good this is a good thing though.

Obviously, if there's no questions, that means that everyone's happy with your performance and that of the VTH and what everyone is doing.

So I know I'm pleased.

Um again, I wanted Tunnels to Towers to come in here to talk about the Veterans Villages initiative because there's no Northeast hub for that.

Unfortunately, we've have not just been jiving together.

Hopefully, my my hope is that eventually they whether through some type of hybrid model or they they fly someone in.

I'd like to get them here.

I think it'd be a great service for the community if folks saw the great work that they're doing because we see all the commercials on cable TV, but to have them here would be nice, I I thought.

So but nonetheless, I appreciate the great work that you're doing.

We all do, and thank you for coming in tonight.

One last chance for uh Mr.

Gomes, any questions?

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you, and thank you for the continued support from the council.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll entertain a motion at table because I do motion at table with without a date.

Because I do want them here, thank you.

Made by Councilor Oliver, second by Councilor Choquette.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed the ayes have it.

Colleagues seeing there's no business before us.

Motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn made by Councillor Pereira, seconded by Councillor Oliver.

Anyone on the question?

All those in favor say aye.

Opposed, the ayes have it.

We are adjourned at 8 43 p.m.

Have a great evening, everyone.