LOWELL — In an unprecedented show of self-advocacy and organization, a dozen members of the unhoused community attended the City Council meeting on Dec. 13, to speak to the city’s Winter Weather Emergency Plan.
A previous motion by Councilor Wayne Jenness requested that City Manager Tom Golden “have the proper department provide a report on progress of implementing of the winter protocol plan for individuals and families experiencing homelessness within the city.”
The plan typically goes into effect during periods of extreme cold weather or heavy snowfall with the aim of ensuring a warm, safe bed for unhoused individuals.
Maura Fitzpatrick, the new director of homelessness initiatives, now reports to Director of Health and Human Services Lisa Golden, and responded to Jenness’s motion.
Surprisingly, though, two of the registered speakers addressed a completely different issue — that of wanting to stay outside in the harsh elements, and not lose their established tent-city encampments.
Robert Wayland identified himself as “one of the unhoused,” who “lives behind the dog park on First Street,” in the city’s Centralville neighborhood. He said he had received notice that his tent shelter was going to be removed, and asked the city to rethink evicting him from the area, calling it an “injustice.”
“I’ve been unhoused more of my life than I’ve lived in a house,” Wayland said. “I’m comfortable with living outside. Last week, they gave us five days to leave.”
Describing himself as an eight-year resident of the park, Wayland said he moved to the park at a time when neither the city nor Department of Public Works was maintaining the area.
“When I first got there, it was all torn down and basically filled with rubbish,” Wayland said. “I cleaned it up with the Lowell Litter Krewe. I’ve been maintaining the property for eight years. Now they’re telling me to leave in the middle of Christmas.”
He said the city told him he has to leave by Saturday, saying, “Now, you’re telling me I have to leave my house. Where do I go?”
Another resident, who gave her first name as Ann, described inaccessible or unsanitary shelters. She called the timing of the eviction “grinchy,” and asked the council to reconsider the pending action.
“I’m also in a homeless encampment here in town,” she said. “Some of the shelters are full. Sometimes there’s bedbugs in the shelters. One of the shelters has stairs, and I can’t do stairs because of my bad knees.”
She asked the council to consider a different solution, because, “it’s not the time to kick somebody out.”
One of the advocates for innovative solutions to the unhoused issue was Sophia Mirabal. The Lowell High School senior was presented a “Mayor for the Day” citation, and gaveled the meeting to order with Mayor Sokhary Chau.
The position was auctioned off last year as part of the Salvation Army of Greater Lowell Radiothon hosted by WCAP 980 AM. Morning Drive host Gerry Nutter won the auction, and asked the school administration to select a student for the honor.
She addressed the council from the podium, offering a young person’s perspective on an age-old problem that has bedeviled policymakers throughout the Greater Lowell region and beyond.
“I believe one of the most pressing issues facing our city and community is homelessness,” Mirabal said. “To combat chronic homelessness, Lowell requires a more coordinated approach. This requires collaboration among housing providers, and wider community engagement.”
She said that as part of her outreach, she had spoken with some of the unhoused people who shared with her their ideas on the issue.
“It made me realize that we should turn to members of our own community to ask them about these issues and problems that we may not know so much about,” she said.
In response to councilor questions, Tom Golden noted that the Lowell Transitional Living Center on Middlesex Street has more than 190 beds set aside for the unhoused to meet the needs of the winter protocol. Community Teamwork Inc. has more than 100 hotel rooms reserved to house people during the winter months. A 30-bed shelter on Appleton Street will come online once its fire-suppression system is installed and passes building inspection.
“The goal of the city is to get people out of the cold,” Golden said. “I think that has been the goal of the council as well.”
Those beds would address an existing and growing need, which was counted at 250 homeless individuals and 200 unhoused families in 2021.
While complimenting the outreach efforts of the groups working to mitigate the unhoused crisis, especially during the winter, Councilor John Leahy said interventions are a “two-way street.”
“If someone doesn’t want to give up a tent for a room in a hotel, I don’t know where we go from there,” he said, shaking his head. “There are a lot of people working out there who know what’s going on in the city, and I give them a lot of credit. We do have representatives out there. Things are happening, we’re trying.”
