New Bedford and region have new roadmap to address homelessness

In late September, New Bedford Mayor John Mitchell released a report about a city-commissioned study that analyzed New Bedford’s response to homelessness, recognizing the city’s achievements while providing recommendations for improvement and the development of best practices.

Consulting firm Technical Assistance Collaborative, which conducted the study, grouped its recommendations into four areas: Diversify Housing and Services, Use Policy Levers to Maximize Housing Resources, Invest in the Service Provider Network, and Strengthen Continuum of Care Governance.

“Homelessness is a complex and ever-evolving challenge,” the mayor said in a prepared statement, “and we need to constantly strive to update and improve our approach to helping those who experience it.”

Mitchell said the report “validates many of our current practices, but also offers valuable new strategies that will enable us to raise our game, so that our fellow residents can have a better chance to get their lives back on track.”

The report was published a few months after the Greater Bristol County/Attleboro/Taunton Coalition to End Homelessness was consolidated with the New Bedford Continuum of Care to create the Bristol County Continuum of Care. The new agency provides services to all of Bristol County with the exception of Fall River, which has its own Continuum of Care.

Joshua Amaral, New Bedford’s housing and community development director, said city officials identified the need for longer-term solutions following dialogue with local homelessness care providers. By merging into one Continuum of Care, area officials are able to address regional homelessness and develop solutions that have an impact on a much larger population.

New Bedford officials and local care providers needed “to start looking down the road and planning for the future so we don’t have this immediate urgent need, and we don’t have to find the money each year,” Amaral said.

“We wanted to get out of the short-term, Band-Aid type fixes,” he said, adding that the winter months are when the city was “always trying to come up with a plan for overflow shelter.”

“It’s good to have a system that meets our needs, that’s strategic and thoughtful,” he said, “but that requires building capacity and understanding the right levers to pull.”

Amaral said Mayor Mitchell was involved in the process at the outset, and favored bringing in outside expertise for the study and identified the American Rescue Plan Act as a funding source.

“He’s committed to making the interventions that need to happen, happen,” Amaral said. “He believes that we need to be working collaboratively throughout the region and help people have the quality of life that they deserve.”

The report’s Diversify Housing and Services category lists action items such as expanding permanent housing supply and rehousing/transitional care models, leveraging existing partnerships, and shifting shelter and emergency service models to “non-congregate, service-rich programming.”

Amaral said “one obvious takeaway” from the study is that the shelter system and housing systems for those who are homeless “are overwhelmed by demand throughout the region.”

Easing the strain will mean building additional shelter space and permanent housing capacity in Bristol County, while also aiding service providers in developing capacity to meet local needs.

Angela Clarke, program director for Community Counseling of Bristol County, also identified the shelter system as a critical component of the next planning phase.

“We’re just shuffling people around cities without really giving them an opportunity to even go into shelter if they wanted to,” said Clarke, who has extensive experience working in social services in the region.

The report recommends that New Bedford enforce landlord requirements and implement incentives, and leverage the Violence Against Women Act for housing retention among survivors. In addition, the city is encouraged to partner with the region’s housing authorities to set homeless preferences and target affordable housing development at all income levels, with set-asides for people exiting homelessness and a pipeline of targeted permanent supportive housing.

The report recommends strengthening the community within the Continuum of Care through both communication and partnering with local providers and those who have been homeless, a partnership that Amaral and Clarke said would be critical in developing a successful strategy.

New Bedford and Bristol County now have a roadmap for going forward. Continuum leaders will meet in November to begin the planning process.

“It’s helpful for a community to think through what can happen in the event of an emergency for residents,” Amaral said. “A lot of people are two bad days away from housing insecurity or homelessness.”

• View the report, “Homelessness in New Bedford: Assessing the MA-505 Continuum of Care’s Response to Homelessness”