City Looks To Establish Permanent Shelter

An effort is underway in Cambridge to set up a year-round shelter for the local homeless population to pick up the slack after three seasonal shelters close at the end of this month, officials announced at last night's City Council meeting.

Three city-operated emergency shelters will be closed at the end of April for the summer months, leaving Cambridge's growing homeless population "in a continuing vulnerable condition," according to a city report issued last month.

Although closing down the city's emergency shelters is an annual rite of spring, city officials are saying that the consequences may be more serious this year for the estimated 130 homeless people in Cambridge.

"The homeless problem has been heightened and exacerbated because this year, Cambridge has three shelters, whereas before there was only one," said Jill Herold, assistant city manager for human services, who will act as chairman of the newly-formed taskforce.

Herold explained that the opening of two additional city-operated shelters last winter increased the number of homeless people who depended upon the facilities for food and bedding--and that means more people will be forced onto the streets at the end of April.

"We've increased the problem during the summer, though relieved the problem during the winter. There are two more shelters now, so there has been an increase in those regularly receiving shelter care during the winter nights," Herold said. She also said that the homeless forced from the shelter will be "forced to Boston, maybe."

Two shelters in west Cambridge and the one in Harvard Square are used by churches or by the state during the summer, an d thus are unavailable to shelter the homeless 12-months a year.

The number of college students present during the academic year also plays a significant role in the city's ability to accommodate the homless, officials added. There is "a heavy reliance on student to work in the shelters and there are fewer students here in the summer," Herold said.

Finding a Suitable Site

Meanwhile, members of the newly formed committee said yesterday that it will not be easy to find a permanent shelter for the homeless, mainly because an "acceptable site" must be found.

"The problem is to find a site," said committee member Hilma Unterberger, a local social worker. "It's tough to find a site in Cambridge because nobody wants shelters next to them and there is no space," said Unterberger, who is the assistant director of the Cambridge-Somerville Mental Health and Retardation Center.

"Everything is ready to go, except that there is not a building," Herold said. "I've been looking for several years and haven't found one, so I'm reluctant to put a date" on when the city will establish a permanent shelter, Herold said.

But Herold added that the diversity of the people on the newly-formed, nine-members committee--which includes two parish priests, as well as various city officials--should help to speed up the process of finding an appropriate site because many people will be on the outlook for a suitable building.

Officials said yesterday that the homeless problem in Cambridge is fairly typical of the problem nationwide.

"Cambridge is fairly typical, but the economic pressure of gentrification is more in Cambridge than in other cities," said Cambridge Housing Authority Daniel J. Wuenschel.

"Cambridge isn't unique, but it particularly attracts people. It has a larger-than-normal homeless population. Given an urban phenomenon, it's about the same as other cities nation-wide," Unterberger said.