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The warming center in Pittsfield opened last year as a collaborative effort to provide services and a place to keep warm during the hours the emergency shelter was closed.

Pittsfield Warming Shelter to Close at the End of the Month

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city's warming shelter located at the Christian Center will be closing at the end of May after opening last year.

Its last day of operation will be on May 27 and the structure itself will be removed on June 3.

"I just wanted to make you aware that the warming shelter is closing the first week of June," Director of Community Development Justine Dodds reported to the Homelessness Advisory Committee on Wednesday.

"It was put in place in February, as you all remember, 2021 when we were in the middle of the pandemic and there was a lack of public spaces for people to do exactly what we've been talking about, just to get warm, charge their phone, just rest,"

"And so the Christian Center has housed that for us, ServiceNet has been staffing it on a regular basis and  it was a temporary trailer so the time has now come for that to be removed."

The 24-by-60 foot trailer was a partnership between the city, the Christian Center, and ServiceNet.  Opened in February 2021, it offered housing-insecure folks a warm place to reside in the hours that ServiceNet's shelter at the former St. Joseph's High School was closed.

Christian Center Food Director Karen Ryan assured the panel that the center will continue to support the community with its services, as it has throughout the entire pandemic.

A large tent has been set up on the property with tables and chairs and there are usually 50 to 70 people at the center for lunch, which is also available as takeout. A boutique that offers both clothing and housewares is available without an appointment and the center's food pantry operates Monday through Friday.

Referral services are also offered.

"Basically we were the hub. Up until like two years ago, the Christian Center was open and people would leave the shelter and come here, so our hours are a little different. They are limited at this time, but we're still here," Ryan said.

She reported that there are a few people they have concerns about and are working to find resources for a senior woman who uses a walker so she can get into an assisted living situation.

"The shelter's leaving but we are still here and we're still continuing services and, anything that's needed, we're here five days a week," Ryan asserted.

During the meeting, she also reported that the Christian Center is working with an architect for a building on the property to house offices for agencies, showers, washers and dryers, and a place for people to be able to get mail.

"It's going to be a few years but that's that's one thing, that's our dream is to add on to the existing building of the Christian Center, where we'll be day services, be working hours like nine to five where they'll be able to come," Ryan explained.

"Agencies can have offices, they can take showers, our food pantry would move over there, so just to put that out to everybody that's our goal, that's what we're working on right now."

The committee also got a presentation from Judi Barrett, a planner hired from the Berkshire Housing Development Corp., on a housing resource center that is in the works.

Members had previously agreed that they would like to see the city adopt a facility similar to Behavioral Health Network's "The Living Room" in Springfield, which is a one-stop place for showers, sleep, restrooms, food, and social services.


This was after they were asked to identify service gaps in the city's response to homelessness and bring recommendations.

Barrett said the emphasis is going to be on housing services for people who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness. There also will be an integration with other service providers who frequently serve those populations.

The planners have spoken with a number of application service providers, she said, and has also spoken to people who experience homelessness to see what would be helpful to incorporate into the center.

At two public meetings, people expressed the need for a place to store things, secure lockers, and a place to feel safe, warm, and housed while they are applying for jobs and looking for housing.

Right now, all sources of input are being gathered to provide a recommendation to the BHDC, which will then make a decision on what the space will be. A request for proposals (RFP) will then be issued.

A couple of committee members believed that there was some miscommunication in the planning process of the center.

Christine Haley of the state Department of Mental Health recognized that the committee has talked about a Living Room model and said she does not see a housing resource center as fitting that description.

"I think a lot of the homeless population really struggles with mental health and substance misuse and I know one of the things that we struggle with here in the Berkshires is staffing programs, so I think like if we are going to go into this direction of having this type of program you know, I mean, it's just going to limit other programs depending on what your [request for response]] says," she said.

"I would just want to be sure that you're RFR has the components of everything that this group had has been talking about and working on and I don't know, maybe I'm wrong to say this, but I feel like we all probably should have been involved in talking with you, but that's just me."

Erin Forbush, director of operations at ServiceNet, said the proposal developed out of a need that was seen and that it is called a housing resource center because they don't know what will come of the ideas that have been gathered.

"So I think it's everything that you mentioned, Chris," she said.

"So people would be able to come in, grab a coffee, heat up a meal in the microwave, possibly a shower, possibly just rest."

Ryan, who said she hadn't heard about the proposal until that day, pointed out the Christian Center's efforts and said that she wants to make sure there were not two facilities doing the same thing.  

Dodds disclosed that she did help convene a meeting with folks that will be using the service to get their input.

"In fairness to Berkshire Housing Development, who really helped us try to identify people we should speak with, there's always somebody we don't get," Barrett said.

"That's why we do something like this because we don't know what we may be missing so I appreciate the input and we're happy to follow up with anybody but we don't know all the people we should be speaking with until we start interviewing people and we've interviewed a number of people."


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Crosby/Conte Statement of Interest Gets OK From Council

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Architect Carl Franceschi and Superintendent Joseph Curtis address the City Council on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With the approval of all necessary bodies, the school district will submit a statement of interest for a combined build on the site of Crosby Elementary School.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously gave Superintendent Joseph Curtis the green light for the SOI to the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 12.

"The statement I would make is we should have learned by our mistakes in the past," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.

"Twenty years ago, we could have built a wastewater treatment plant a lot cheaper than we could a couple of years ago and we can wait 10 years and get in line to build a new school or we can start now and, hopefully, when we get into that process and be able to do it cheaper then we can do a decade from now."

The proposal rebuilds Conte Community School and Crosby on the West Street site with shared facilities, as both have outdated campuses, insufficient layouts, and need significant repair. A rough timeline shows a feasibility study in 2026 with design and construction ranging from 2027 to 2028.

Following the SOI, the next step would be a feasibility study to determine the specific needs and parameters of the project, costing about $1.5 million and partially covered by the state. There is a potential for 80 percent reimbursement through the MSBA, who will decide on the project by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, city officials took a tour of both schools — some were shocked at the conditions students are learning in.

Silvio O. Conte Community School, built in 1974, is a 69,500 square foot open-concept facility that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s but the quad classroom layout poses educational and security risks.  John C. Crosby Elementary School, built in 1962, is about 69,800 square feet and was built as a junior high school so several aspects had to be adapted for elementary use.

Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said the walkthrough was "striking" at points, particularly at Conte, and had her thinking there was no way she would want her child educated there. She recognized that not everyone has the ability to choose where their child goes to school and "we need to do better."

"The two facilities that we are looking at I think are a great place to start," she said.

"As the Ward 6 councilor, this is where my residents and my students are going to school so selfishly yes, I want to see this project happen but looking at how we are educating Pittsfield students, this is going to give us a big bang for our buck and it's going to help improve the educational experience of a vast group of students in our city."

During the tour, Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey, saw where it could be difficult to pay attention in an open classroom with so much going on and imagined the struggle for students.

Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said, "we cannot afford not to do this" because the city needs schools that people want their children to attend.

"I know that every financial decision we make is tough but we have to figure this out. If the roof on your house were crumbling in, you'd have to figure it out and that's where we're at and we can't afford to wait any longer," she said.

"We can't afford for the sake of the children going to our schools, for the sake of our city that we want to see grow so we have to build a city where people want to go."

Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso, who served on the School Building Needs Commission for about 18 years, pointed out that the panel identified a need to address Conte in 2008.

Curtis addressed questions about the fate of Conte if the build were to happen, explaining that it could be kept as an active space for community use, house the Eagle Academy or the Adult Learning Center, or house the central offices.

School attendance zones are a point of discussion for the entire school district and for this project.

"At one time I think we had 36 school buildings and now we have essentially 12 and then it would go down again but in a thoughtful way," Curtis said.

Currently, eight attendance zones designate where a student will go to elementary school. Part of the vision is to collapse those zones into three with hopes of building a plan that incorporates partner schools in each attendance zone.

"I think that going from eight schools to three would be easier to maintain and I think it would make more sense but in order to get there we will have to build these buildings and we will have to spend money," Kavey said, hoping that the city would receive the 80 percent reimbursement it is vying for.

This plan for West Street, which is subject to change, has the potential to house grades pre-kindergarten to first grade in one school and Grades 2 to 4 in another with both having their own identities and administrations. 

The districtwide vision for middle school students is to divide all students into a grade five and six school and a grade seven and eight school to ensure equity.

"The vagueness of what that looks like is worrisome to some folks that I have talked to," Lampiasi said.

Curtis emphasized that these changes would have to be voted on by the School Committee and include public input.

"We've talked about it conceptually just to illustrate a possible grade span allocation," he said. "No decisions have been made at all by the School Committee, even the grade-span proposals."

School Committee Chair William Cameron said it is civic duty of the committee and council to move forward with the SOI.
 
He explained that when seven of the city's schools were renovated in the late 1990s, the community schools were only 25 years old and Crosby was 35 years old.  The commonwealth did not deem them to be sorely in need of renovation or replacement.
 
"Now 25 years later, Crosby is physically decrepit and an eyesore. It houses students ages three to 11 in a facility meant for use by teenagers,"
 
"Conte and Morningside opened in the mid-1970s. They were built as then state-of-the-art schools featuring large elongated rectangles of open instructional space. Over almost half a century, these physical arrangements have proven to be inadequate for teaching core academic skills effectively to students, many of whom need extra services and a distraction-free environment if they are to realize their full academic potential."
 
He said  the proposal addresses a serious problem in the "economically poorest, most ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse area" of the city.
 
Cameron added that these facilities have been deemed unsatisfactory and need to be replaced as part of the project to reimagine how the city can best meet the educational needs of its students.  He said it is the local government's job to move this project forward to ensure that children learn in an environment that is conducive to their thriving academically.
 
"The process of meeting this responsibility needs to begin here tonight," he said.
 
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