Open the Doors - End Homelessness
July 11, 2005 Press Release
Worcester Homeless Action Committee Launches Public Education and Action Campaign on Homelessness: Open the Doors - End Homelessness
Worcester, MA - July 11, 2005
This summer, Worcester Homeless Action Committee (WHAC) launches "Open the Doors - End Homelessness" - an educational awareness and action campaign to educate the public about homelessness in Worcester, and to seek sensible solutions for bringing homelessness to an end. The campaign addresses three areas of concern for our community: the root causes of homelessness, the real economic benefits and savings enjoyed by our City as a result of the work of social service/anti-poverty agencies, and the need for a comprehensive plan in the City to end homelessness.
WHAC believes that Worcester citizens need education on homelessness issues. The campaign will address misinformation and fears about homeless citizens in the city, and will distribute information on how we can work together to end homelessness in Worcester. Through its awareness and action campaign, WHAC intends to educate and motivate Worcester to take concrete steps in addressing homelessness issues:
- WHAC encourages citizens to insist that our City provide clear, strong, moral and economic leadership on homelessness issues. One such proposal might include a "CitySquare" economic project for the homeless, achieved by qualifying for existing Federal funds to fight homelessness
- Lobby for the immediate retooling and adoption of the City's Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness which would serve as a comprehensive planning tool on the part of the City in partnership with citizen groups, social service provider agencies and State funding agencies in addressing the local homelessness issue.
WHAC knows that there are workable solutions to homelessness; research has shown that viable solutions are available and accessible to us as a community. Philadelphia and San Francisco are just two examples of communities that have successfully revitalized their downtown business districts, in part through the eradication of chronic homelessness. Worcester can utilize these models and others, to achieve its own economic revitalization while ending homelessness.
WHAC believes that social service provider agencies, like neighborhood groups and State partners, are part of the solution, not the problem. The current Worcester policy work on siting, panhandling, and taxing non-profit organizations does not address the underlying crisis that stems in part from a lack of action by the City on its own planning objectives on chronic homelessness, as well as from the need for comprehensive planning on the complicated issues of homelessness.
Worcester's solutions to homelessness will be achieved through the result of collaborations between Worcester citizens, City government, and service provider agencies. Together we will end homelessness--and our community will be the ultimate winner.
July 11, 2005 WHAC Press Release Campaign 2005 (doc)
July 11, 2005 Media Advisory (doc)
Homeless Action Statistics
- Estimated homeless population: 2,000 (for Worcester, according to Homeless Outreach and Advocacy Project). From Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.
- Approximately 10,000 young children (0-5 years) will experience homelessness in Massachusetts this year. (Source: UMASS Boston, McCormack Institute, Report 2000, Meeting the Housing Needs of Lower Income Massachusetts Residents)
- Nationally approximately 500,000 children aged 0-5 years old are homeless in a year. (Source: Urban Institute, 2000)
- Today there are over 1,000 families in shelter in Massachusetts. Within these families, there are 1,000 children under the age of five. (Source: Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance)
- Compared with low-income housed children, homeless children experience more health problems, developmental delays, increased anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and lower educational achievement. (Source: National Center on Family Homelessness)
