Hampden County is dealing with a recent 10% increase in homelessness. But what does that look like? Investigations editor Greta Jochem at the Springfield Republican recently did a deep dive to find out.
Let's start with where that 10% number comes from. On one cold night in January, all across the state, a count of those sleeping on the street, in a tent or in the woods, was tallied. Those who are in shelters and temporary housing are also part of that count. But couch surfers are not counted, and Hampden County alone saw a more than 10% increase.
Greta Jochem, The Springfield Republican: Exactly. Yeah, it was for Hampden County, and for individuals who are homeless. So not anyone who has kids. The family system is pretty separate, in terms of it being run by the state.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: So, your investigative reporting is not necessarily in response to that huge number, but rather a growing number of unhoused people [that have been] increasing over a period of time?
Yeah. So, the count reflects that growing problem, and I think that is being met by the county in a variety of different ways. The city of Springfield has a new program called Project Hope 2.0, where they have a social worker that they hired to work in the police department who coordinates trying to get resources to people who are experiencing homelessness. And that person coordinates with police officers who go out and do detail shifts, essentially to try to reach people who are homeless on the streets and then communicate with that social worker.
And there's also outreach workers that already were doing work in Hampden County, who work for Mercy Medical Center. But the [Project] Hope 2.0 program tries to better communicate with those people, to try to coordinate resources and help as many people as possible. So that's one big way.
And the city of Springfield is also putting several million dollars it got from the federal government towards housing programs to help build more housing for people who are chronically homeless, with wraparound services as well.
I feel like I met police and social workers, outreach workers and unhoused people in your reporting. And I'm curious about the police who seem to be working with that 2.0 consortium. They're working with service organizations in that joint effort to keep people off the street and out of jail. But, I mean, there's sort of like a ‘cat and mouse’ element to this interaction. Can you talk about that?
Yeah, absolutely. So, I went out with several officers to do kind of like a ride along and shadow their work. And they were trying to find this man who the day folks from Mercy Medical Center who do outreach couldn't find. And they were trying to find him (his name is Eddie) to try to tell him that there's actually great news for him --that he was at the top of the list for housing. But he's hard to get in touch with.
So, you know, they're checking his usual spot on Main Street. He wasn't there. It was a pretty cold night, so they thought “Maybe we'll go to Union Station” which is kind of an unofficial warming place. It's open late and centrally located for people to go. He wasn't there.
But they finally checked the overflow shelter at a church, and they did find him there. So, it is a bit of a challenge sometimes. They were eventually able to give him the good news, which was pretty cool to be there and see that.
You cross paths with so many agencies and people in the course of this reporting. What was the big takeaway, a central message that they all sort of gave you?
I think pretty much everyone I talked to including people experiencing homelessness, people who are social workers, people who are working for the government, everyone pretty much agreed there just needs to be more resources.
I think there are a lot of really helpful programs out there. I met a lot of incredibly hard-working people who are really trying to meet the need, and a lot of them had experience with homelessness themselves in the past. And they were trying to help people who are going through that now. They could all really agree that there just needs to be more resources. So, you know, more housing built, more vouchers for people.
I think that was the kind of message that I walked away with, which is a little overwhelming because, how you get there is a little less clear. But I definitely walked away feeling like there's a lot of people really trying pretty hard to help in a variety of ways.
