Warm, but sleepless, in Amherst: Volunteers aim to get around no-sleep rule at shelter

By Scott Merzbach
Staff Writer

Published on March 05, 2010

At just before 10 p.m. Tuesday, several homeless men and women began gathering behind the First Baptist Church on North Pleasant Street, patiently awaiting the opening of the building where they will stay warm for the night.

After several minutes of conversation, smoking and even some singing, the doors to the lower level of the church opened and more than a dozen men and women entered the building, including some new to town. They set up tables and chairs, screened off areas for privacy and put blankets and pillows on the linoleum floor.

Many then lined up at the check-in desk, providing names for the log-in book, before heading to the kitchen counter, where homemade soup and pastries from a local bakery were prepared for them.

It was another night at the Warming Place, Amherst's first effort at providing for the local homeless population, with as many as 23 people coming for the nine hours it is open per night.

But with these increasing numbers comes one issue organizers are trying to resolve, so that better service can be provided next year: Namely, making guests more comfortable by ensuring they will be able to sleep.

No sleep

While the warming center's mission is to provide a place for homeless people to spend the night, get a meal and find relief from the elements, state building code regulations prohibit a building without a sprinkler system, as this church is, from allowing guests to sleep.

For Reikka Simula, chairwoman of the town's Committee on Homelessness, there is a need to ensure guests are able to rest and relax, even if that means they fall asleep.

This is why Simula and members of her committee were so troubled by the recent town decision that mats donated to the center by Amherst College should not be available to guests.

"One of the issues that concerns me is the mats that were removed, and the way they were removed," Simula said. "To give them mats and then have them taken away is inhumane, I believe."

Simula said one night she observed several people without mats become restless. "They just couldn't seem to make themselves comfortable," Simula said.

But Rose Evans, program director for the Center for Human Development, said there is language in its contract with Amherst that prohibits mats. "It's a town decision, not a CHD decision," Evans said. The center is a human services agency that runs the Warming Place for Amherst.

When the town established the warming center through a contract with the Springfield-based nonprofit, the understanding was there would be no sleeping by guests. This remains the case, but could change, Evans said.

"We are in conversations about that," Evans said. "There are regulations about fire and safety we have to work with the town of Amherst on."

Town Manager Larry Shaffer said the town is obligated to follow the rules recognizing that the Warming Place is not a cot shelter and is not located in a building with a sprinkler system. If guests are sleeping, that is violation.

At the same time, Shaffer said he understands people who come as guests are out all day and probably aren't able to sleep anywhere else.

"It would be cruel to ask people to stay up all night," Shaffer said. "But we have life and safety issues which are more important than the human obligation."

Allowing guests to sleep

Since the mid-February removal of the mats, the committee has voted unanimously to get these mats back.

The Committee on Homelessness understands the rules about sleeping, but believes the town and CHD can get around this by seeking a temporary certificate of occupancy under state regulations promulgated in December. These regulations allow houses of worship to serve as overnight shelters for up to 35 days during the winter, so long as they are not in use for more than six consecutive days.

"We have asked CHD to follow the directive for temporary occupancy certificate and return the mats so guests can rest comfortably," said Hwei-Ling Greeney, vice chairwoman of the committee. Greeney is pursuing legal action against CHD for wrongful termination from her former post as leader of a local soup kitchen, Not Bread Alone.

If this certificate is obtained, Greeney's interpretation of the rules is that guests could sleep for six days, and on the seventh guests would have to remain awake.

Jennifer Mieth, spokeswoman for the Department of Fire Services, said the regulation was designed to balance health and safety needs. Mieth said the state fire marshal, with concerns being expressed from fire chiefs across the commonwealth, doesn't want people freezing to death, but "we also don't want to protect people from weather exposure only to have them die in a fire."

Between 2004 and 2008, there were nearly 400 fires in houses of worship statewide, Mieth said.

The regulation accomplishes the balance in safety needs by requiring carbon monoxide and smoke detectors, clear aisles, a posted fire escape plan, no smoking, no overcrowding and mandating a responsible person be awake and on the premises during hours of operation.

If the certificate were obtained now, the sleeping issue goes away, Simula said. "We were hoping guests could get 35 days of use of the mats before the season ends," Simula said.

Shaffer said that even though no inspection has yet been done, and one will be conducted before the end of the season, the building inspector and fire officials remain uncomfortable with the notion of people sleeping in building.

Long-term solution

This comfort level rises a small amount, Shaffer said, because CHD has assured the town its attendants and volunteers are awake and exits are marked and not blocked.

David Keenan, who works for CHD four nights each week, said he believes the town has given tacit consent to allowing guests to sleep in the building.

Shaffer said there is really only one way to resolve the issue for the long term. "The answer is we have to have a homeless shelter," Shaffer said.

Members of the Committee on Homelessness continue to see the Warming Place as a stepping stone to a November-to-April facility where people can come and be guaranteed a place to sleep every night.

"Our intentions all along were transitioning into a full-fledged cot shelter," Simula said.

The town's Community Development Committee has proposed using $55,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding for CHD to run the program again next year. But it is not certain this will mean having a cot shelter.

Evans said CHD is waiting for instructions from town officials. "We're taking the lead from the town. That's all we can do," Evans said.

The Committee on Homelessness, Greeney said, is asking for CDBG money to supply $7,500 for an architectural feasibility study, as well as $7,000 to install a shower. In a memo to the Community Development Committee, Simula writes, "To ensure proper hygiene of the guests who use a cot shelter, the provision of a shower facility will be a good improvement for the Warming Place which currently does not have such a capacity."

Sanctuary

Whether or not guests are able to sleep during the night, those spending time there this week said they are grateful for what is being provided.

One guest, who identified himself only as Dan, said he has been coming for a few days after being issued a trespass notice from the drop-in center in Northampton the previous week.

This meant walking around for close to 72 hours in wet boots.

"I'm just glad there's a place like this. Without this, I'd be screwed," Dan said. "Fortunately, there's a place I can come to that's warm."

Mary Bozkurt, who also goes by Town Hall Girl, said she was the first female guest to come to the Warming Place.

She had stayed at the Hampshire Interfaith Cot Shelter in Northampton, but said she likes coming to Amherst because of the service offered by CHD.

"You have more mental space here, more area to make decisions," she said. "It's a very different experience from being at a ServiceNet shelter."

In fact, the Amherst shelter is considered a wet shelter, meaning guests with alcohol on their breath or recent drug use can still stay the night, unlike the shelter in Northampton.

Keenan said guests come because they've lost jobs, have issues with alcohol or other drugs or have perhaps made poor life choices.

"They're so happy to have this place," Keenan said.

While CHD oversees its operation, Keenan notes that the Warming Place has been a full community effort, praising Kevin Noonan, former executive director of Open Pantry in Springfield, for launching it, and pointing out that he and Greeney are both former members of the Select Board, and another staff member, Laura Quinn, is a Town Meeting member.

Greeney uses the first hour to prepare food and then does case management work with guests under her own nonprofit business, Amherst Community Connections, helping them to locate jobs and housing and even providing cell phones for their use.

Police perspective

As the popularity of the warming center has grown, police officers are making at least one visit each night or early morning to check on how the program is functioning.

Capt. Jennifer Gundersen said the large majority of calls generated at the site have been made at the request of the Committee on Homelessness for two purposes: So clients know police can be a resource and so officers can be an extra set of eyes for the staff and volunteers.

"We have since then been going by there most nights," Gundersen said.

Gundersen said it is impossible to say if the warming center has caused any change in dealing with homeless problems. "We're still interacting with people suffering from drug and alcohol abuse," Gundersen said.

Most issues with the local homeless population were happening, and continue to happen, during the daytime, when they are on streets panhandling or engaged in other activity.

"We have been responding there for disturbances, but with our downtown homeless population, we'd be responding downtown for a disturbance anyway," Gundersen said.

The calls have included trespass notices and medical assists, with only a few disturbances.

"We have found alcohol is an issue with some responses there, and it is a concern for us," Gundersen said.

"But we recognize it is a wet shelter and will be coming across people under the influence of alcohol."

On Feb. 20, police responded to a verbal altercation. People who were not being cooperative left the center on Feb. 23.

That night, police helped remove a guest who had been caught stealing and who had become verbally combative toward staff.

One thing police have noticed is that the warming center has become a magnet for homeless individuals who never came to Amherst previously. "It appears people are coming from outside what had been the nucleus of the Amherst community," Gundersen said.

But it has been a resource even for police, who have a place to bring homeless individuals found on the streets.