GREENFIELD — Mayor William Martin has doubled-down on who to blame, in part, for the continued and growing encampment of the homeless on the Common, pointing directly at the service agency ServiceNet.
While reached for comment Monday night on the arrests of two Greenfield residents on charges of drinking alcohol from an open container — an offense that would typically be policed by a citation — Martin took to speaking about his believed cause of the ongoing hot-button issue.
Martin sternly noted that drinking in public is against the law. He said what’s happening on the common is a “protest against what people see as inequities that people see in our society,” and that people won’t “change their behaviors because they’re in the middle of a protest.”
“For those addicted and afflicted,” he continued, “I lean back on the nonprofits and agencies dedicated and funded to take care of these individual problems. I also see this as a failure to some of those agencies.”
He focused on one agency in particular, ServiceNet, the western Mass. organization for people with mental illness, developmental disabilities and homelessness. ServiceNet has a shelter on Wells Street with 20 beds and runs programs for its target population through state and federal funding.
“I have to ask myself where are the outcomes of these programs?” Martin said. “Where is the success that so many people from Franklin and Hampshire county are on the Town Common?”
In response to the mayor’s comments, a ServiceNet spokesman explained that last year, it sheltered 374 people in its individual and family shelters in Greenfield; it provided intensive outreach services to 41 chronically homeless veterans and saw 1,155 different individuals in its resource center.
About 45 percent of the people ServiceNet helped with its programs secured permanent housing, Jay Sacchetti, ServiceNet’s vice president of shelter & housing, vocational and addiction services, said in an emailed statement.
“Others will take longer to get there, and others face continuing challenges that make this an elusive goal,” Sacchetti said in his statement. “But we don’t give up.”
Additionally, he said at least 25 percent of the people in ServiceNet shelters are employed, but do not make enough to get a place of their own and maintain it.
Currently, 40 people are on its waitlist, he said.
“People who are homeless are as individual in their choices as anyone else,” Sacchetti said. “There are some who would never choose to live in a shelter, even for a short time. And some who hesitate to seek out services of any kind.”
The mayor said he has heard a rumor that ServiceNet bought the tents on the Common. He said he didn’t think it was a “helpful” thing for the agency to do.
ServiceNet flatly denied this rumor, saying the agency did not buy the tents.
It’s not the first time over the past year the agency has gotten caught up in the homeless issue in Greenfield. This winter, the Wells Streets facility saw its greatest demand in bed space in the 16 years its program director Steve Karpovich has run it, he said in January, in the middle of the historic cold stretch. At that time, the Salvation Army in Greenfield used $1,600 to house people in the Days Inn during those brutal temperatures.
At a February Greenfield Human Rights Commission meeting, discussions revolved around chastising the city for allowing the extent of homelessness to get to this point. “The city has been spoiled over the years because there’s so many good charity organizations in the area,” member Gregory Corcoran said at that meeting. “But at some point, ownership has to be taken. Greenfield is not going to be a place where anybody is going to be homeless. Not one person. It’s not that hard to accomplish, but there has to be leadership that believes that.”
Six months later, no definitive actions had been taken by the city, until the situation on the Common cropped up. And now, the mayor is saying it’s not the role of the city, but rather the role of the service agencies in Greenfield to try to find a solution. Martin has always been proud of these agencies that call the city home, but that has also meant more people with needs for socials services calling Greenfield home, too.
The mayor then referenced the decline of state hospitals for the mentally ill in the late ’70s and early ’80s following the 1978 Massachusetts case that said the Northampton State Hospital had to deinstitutionalize over time. This brought the hospital’s numbers down from 400 to 50 patients. As this was rolled out, social service agencies built up in the area.
“Have we created mini-institutions in the communities? Particularly in Greenfield?” Martin said. “Are we doing the same thing, but in a small area, on a smaller spectrum with group homes?”
“We need to review and look at this again,” he continued. “Maybe it’s not all job training and sheltered housing.”
He instead suggested housing with support services and placing people in a structured environment where they can thrive, while supplying them with the basics of food, shelter and water. Martin said there’s federal money for programs like these.
“The idea is to do it for the population that they have in their office and we have on our Town Common,” Martin said.
While people still are living on the Common, Greenfield Police Chief Robert Haigh has said his officers have incresed their presence around the area, but are not changing the way they police.
Since tents started going up on the common, four citations for drinking or smoking in public have been given to people downtown, not including the two arrests Monday. Over the past year, it has been rare, if at all, when the police have issued a citation solely for drinking or smoking in public.
The chief did not have access before press time to the police report explaining what set of circumstances led to one of his officers arresting the two Greenfield men on the common, but said said drinking in public is “just not proper.”
When people who are living on the common begin to break the law or ordinances, “That’s really taking things to a different level here,” Haigh said. “We can’t have this type of behavior in town. Period.”
On Monday night, around 8 p.m. police reported two people were drinking “Natty Daddy” beers on the benches in front of City Hall, across from the Common.
Haigh said residents in homes and those on the Common have asked for the police to be more present, helping to ensure safety.
“That, to me, is just disrespecting us and the rest of the community, as well,” Haigh said. “People are asking for respect on both sides.”
The police log stated that authorities expected charges to be pressed later. At 9:14 p.m., Ryan D. Bellows, 28, of Pond Street was arrested and charged with drinking alcohol in public. At 10:43 p.m., Xavier A. Deleon, 24, of Wells Street was arrested and charged with drinking alcohol in public. Both were arrested on the Greenfield Common.
According to court documents, Officer Justin Purinton was stationed around the Common and observed both, at the respective times, drinking “Natty Daddy” beers.
Both Bellows and Deleon were arraigned in Greenfield District Court Tuesday morning. They declined their right to an attorney. They were found to be what the state of Massachusetts describes as responsible for the crime, but not guilty — an in-between status that allows for the crime to potentially not show up on a person’s record down the road — and were issued $50 fines, each.
“Hopefully, the offenders will realize, this is not socially acceptable behavior, under any circumstances, to use drugs and alcohol that are in violation of law and our ordinances,” Martin said.
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Joshua Solomon at:
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