PITTSFIELD, Mass. — As winter approaches, there are still homeless individuals camping at Springside Park, risking their safety because of reportedly poor conditions at the homeless shelter provided through the city.

 

Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Maffuccio brought two petitions to City Council on Tuesday calling for an investigation into conditions at the temporary shelter at former St. Joseph's School and challenging the city's policy of evicting the encampment at Springside Park.

 

With some modifications to these petitions, the council passed them unanimously.

 

Maffuccio said he had been told of abuse and human rights violations within the homeless shelter on Maplewood Avenue operated by ServiceNet. His information was obtained from speaking to those who have been in the shelter, set up as part of the pandemic response.

 

"Nobody wants to believe these individuals because they are addicts," the councilor said. "They are human beings, they are not a pack of wild animals."

 

While the council agreed that something has to be done to further aid homeless community members, there was a general sense of confusion over the right path to take in helping these individuals.

 

Maffuccio's first petition was referred at his request to the Police Department, Health Department, District Attorney's Office, and state Department of Housing and Community Development, asking them to look into practices at the homeless shelter concerning abuse and human rights violations.  

 

"Where do I begin?" Maffuccio said when presenting his petition. "Let's say that the facilities that are being run in this city for the homeless are being abusive and human rights are taken away."

 

The councilor said a 20-year-old woman he's known since she was a toddler had horrifying experiences at the shelter. She had been homeless for about six months and he assisted her mother to get her into St. Joe's. This woman was in a domestic abusive relationship and was in dire need of the shelter's help, Maffuccio said.

 

But when the shelter officials heard her name, they said she was on the "violators list" and would not be allowed in the shelter. Only after Maffuccio told the shelter staff that he was a city councilor was she able to get in.

 

This violators list apparently came from the initial COVID-19 shelter at St. Jose's that was closed over the summer.  

 

According to shelter residents, the men's room is the only shower room with hot water, the women's room having cold water and no shower curtains. Because of this, women are forced to take showers with the men standing outside of the door.

 

Maffuccio also was told there is a staff member who reportedly comes to work every night with alcohol on his breath and propositioned a woman to have sex for money.

 

"I want that investigated," he said. "I want the district attorney to investigate him, I want to know how the Health Department allowed them to open up there without having hot water in the female's shower room, or having shower curtains up."

 

Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi said he received quite a few emails and calls in July from residents about what was going on at the shelter.

 

"I've got to agree with Councilor Maffuccio about the conditions that are in there," he said. "Why are we giving them the OK to open when there's cold water in the women's shower room and there are no curtains up? That falls on the city as far as I'm concerned, for letting them do that."

 

Maffuccio's second petition is a recommendation to change the policy of evicting homeless individuals from Springside Park that the Parks Commission and Mayor Linda Tyer have put in place.

 

In mid-November, the Parks Commission said it had been "compassionately tolerant" of homeless residents camping in the park, but wanted them evacuated by Dec. 1 primarily out of concern for their safety. 

 

With this ruling, the commission hoped that those camping at Springside would opt to move to St. Joe.

 

Maffuccio said there are about nine individuals currently camping in the park, who he says are not causing a disturbance. These people are choosing to live outside because of the conditions at shelter, he said, citing one woman who felt her safety was compromised when a man climbed into her bed at the shelter.

 

"This violates the 8th Amendment of cruel punishment," he said.

 

Tyer said she is concerned about homeless individuals during the cold months and no matter how hard the city tries to protect them from the cold weather, it is their choice to take or reject the options provided to them.

 

"I don't know how to solve that problem. This is a very complicated issue and there are a lot of people who work very hard in this space and we're trying to do everything we can as a city to partner with the professionals and the experts who understand how to shelter people who don't have housing," she said. "There's a lot of reasons why people choose not to enter the shelter or choose not to accept housing. 

 

"I guess what we then have to accept is that people will stay outside in the cold and that they are taking a risk with their own safety by doing that."

 

Additionally, Tyer announced that the final elements of a daytime warming center at the Christian Center are being put into place and the city should expect its opening in the near future.