GREENFIELD — City Council will be holding another emergency meeting Thursday to try finding a solution to the ever-growing “tent town” on the Town Common.
City officials, including council members and others, have been working on finding both short- and long-term solutions to the homeless encampment on the common. Thursday’s meeting could set a deadline on how long the residents can be allowed on the common.
The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. at the John Zon Community Center on Pleasant Street.
Council President Karen “Rudy” Renaud said she will be proposing that the city change regulations by Oct. 1 to prohibit camping on the common.
Similar suggestions have been made by both Mayor William Martin and At-Large Councilor Isaac Mass but their efforts haven’t resulted into a passed ordinance or modified regulation yet.
Renaud said that with her proposal, she is “hoping the deadline creates an impetus” to get something done, particularly from social service agencies and institutions of faith. During an emergency council meeting last week, Renaud made a motion to reduce the amount of local regulations on religious institutions in the city to set up temporary shelters.
Renaud’s ordinance last week, which was passed by council, included removing a need for insurance and imposing only regulations that are “necessary to protect public health and safety and that do not substantially burden the decisions or actions of a religious organization regarding the location of housing or shelter for homeless persons on property owned by the religious organization.”
But while the intentions are to make it easier for churches to create shelters for the homeless, state regulations and overall interest could be a quagmire for the plan.
About a decade ago, the Second Congregational Church on Bank Row — and a church that could see the brunt of the fallout if the homeless individuals are forced off the common by Oct. 1, due to proximity — established a warming shelter during the winter that sheltered homeless residents overnight for about eight weeks.
While the intention was kind, the result of the center was mixed, said Amy Clarke, a member of the church who helped organize the warming center.
“It’s a very costly model and not fully accessed,” Clarke said.
Clarke said the project ran into issues of cost because professional staffing, which she said was from ServiceNet and had experience in homeless shelters, had to be provided through the overnight hours. Over the roughly eight weeks it was open, Clarke said salary alone cost $8,000.
And over that same time, Clarke said the warming center never reached its full capacity of six people. Most nights it was filled to half-capacity, she said.
Before the warming center opened, though, there were state fire safety regulations that had to be met, which Clarke said was “one of the biggest hindrances” to the center’s feasibility.
She said the location in the basement needed extra smoke alarms and exit signs, and an architect had to determine if the space was appropriate.
“A lot of steps to go through to make it happen,” she said.
During the emergency council meeting last week, Fire Chief Robert Strahan remarked on state building regulations related to emergency shelters.
Strahan said building codes mandate some form of fire detection and, depending on the detection system, it is determined how many consecutive days the shelter can be open and how long the shelter can be allowed for overall. The more elaborate the system, the longer a shelter could be open.
And more elaborate could also mean more expensive.
There could be other building code regulations that could impact a plan as well. But Strahan, when asked Monday about how other regulations could impact temporary shelters, referred the question to the Greenfield building inspector. The inspector was unavailable for comment Monday.
Beyond regulations and money, however, there is the additional step of getting any such plan approved by church leadership.
Kate Stevens, president of the Franklin County Interfaith Council, a group of representatives from different faith institutions in the county, said churches “aren’t really hierarchical,” with a single person making the decision, which means multiple members would have to decide if the option is feasible.
“It’s not easy and I don’t think it will happen as quickly as people think,” she said.
“It’s going to be hard; churches aren’t just going to jump. They aren’t used to running shelters. They need the training,” Stephens added.