HHB Meeting Notes, 12-19-07

Event Announcements

  • The Longest Night will be Friday, December 21st starting at 6pm to remember those who have died homeless in 2007.
  • Homes for Families will be starting their series of forums in January discussing new approaches to reducing family homelessness. The first forum will take place January 17, 2008 from 10am-3:15pm at Holy Cross in Worcester. Panelists include Tina Brooks, Undersecretary of DHCD; Julia Kehoe, Commissioner of DTA, Norm Suchar, National Alliance to End Homelessness; and Donna Haig Freidman, Center for Social Policy, UMassMcCormackGraduateSchool. Space is limited so sign up now! You can register online at
  • Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless Lobby Day will be Tuesday, February 26 from 9-3 at the Great Hall in the State House. Larry Cox, Executive Director from Amnesty International will be the Keynote Speaker. For more information visit
  • There will be a summit 3/6/08 on unaccompanied adolescent issues at Holy Cross from 10-2 or 3, more information will be forthcoming.

As of November 29, the Department of Transitional Assistance now offers the foodstamp application online for consumers to access. Previously, in order to apply for foodstamps the consumer would need a provider who had access to the states online system to do the application for them. Now residents of Massachusetts can visit the DTA website to find out more information about foodstamps, see if they are eligible, and apply. The Consumer Face Food Stamp Application is for new applicants only.

On November 19th, the Governor filed a $57.1 million supplemental budget. $2.85 is for DTA to use for flexible funding to address immediate needs for families to keep them in their homes (rent, fuel expenses, etc)

Mass Coalition sent Deval Patrick a letter about the EAEDC program asking that he takes measures with funding to see that is reconstituted. Worcester has a high rate of people accessing the program.

They are asking Deval Patrick to use the money the state receives for those who successfully transition to SSI from EAEDC to further fund the EAEDC program.

16-17 million dollars to the state for those who successfully transition to SSI

There are 1854 people in WorcesterCounty who access the program.

Storage issues

Guest Speakers, Anne Bureau and Jannelle Correa from the Worcester Community Connections Coalition, and Danielle Alachoyan, who was a resident of Friendly House community space and has experienced issues with the storage laws.

Many people are unaware of the newly passed storage laws. This new law passed on November 8, 2004 provides important rights to tenants who have been evicted and must keep their belongings in storage. To read more about Evection Storage Law, visit

There have been instances where storage companies violate the storage law, while the owner of the belongings is not aware that the practices are illegal.

Other problems tenants face is that for those who are in shelter, they have to pay monthly storage costs, on top of other expenses, and in many DTA shelters, a portion of their monthly income is automatically deducted to put in a savings account. Some people pay up to 150 per month in storage costs. Those who have difficulties in paying sometimes fall behind in paying the storage fees. Subsequently, the owner finds the storage company has sold their belongings or places a lien on them without giving them the opportunity to pay the money owed. Providers have had negative experiences with the storage companies in trying to negotiate either reduced monthly fees or payment plans.

When Jannelle Correa and others from the Worcester Community Connections Coalition when to local shelters to see what issues had affected them the most, many discussed the difficulties in dealing with storage companies.

As a group, the general consensus was to see if we could meet with some of the key storage companies in the area and present an offer to work with them in assisting those who are in shelter and having to pay storage fees.

Danielle who was in Friendly House Community space had her belongings in storage in Shrewsbury, MA. She found it difficult to keep with the monthly storage costs, living expenses and other bills for her and her daughter, plus deductions from her income put into a savings account. Soon she found herself unable to keep up with all the monthly costs.

This is something many families face when they enter shelter or are evicted from their housing.

The group agreed some resolution was needed for this problem. Some ideas involved getting the Department of Transitional Assistance involved by having them include their funding usages for storage expenses. One thing we will need to ascertain is whether this is something they can do on the administrative side, or whether it will require a change in the line item language. Either way it will be essential to have DTA involved.

Other suggestions included the idea of creating storage spaces, along with creating partnerships among CMHA, RCAP Solutions and DTA to assist those financially burdened by storage fees.

Also, we need to figure out who creates the storage laws and what are the rules placed on Storage Companies.

Worcester Homeless Action Committee

When people are discharged from prison, hospitals, or substance abuse facilities there is often a lack of planning or services to where the person can go.

There is a clear shortage of transitional beds, creating gaps in services.

It’s not wise or practical to send a person released from the hospital for substance abuse to the PIP shelter.

There are laws in other states prohibiting inappropriate discharges to inappropriate places.

People face barriers to appropriate care because the list of resources available at different places contains incorrect information. We need linkages between agencies or providers where they have a list of resources, including a differentiation between different types of housing and shelters. WHAC wants there to be a manual that explains the process of what events occur when you are released from jail, detox, or psychiatric care. They are also working on the idea of having a one man call center to connect people with resources they need like housing or supportive services.

Would it be possible for CMHA to add Hope for Housing information to the website? Could people purchase food cards from the CMHA website?