How You Can Help Worcester’s Estimated 1,600 Homeless

Monday, May 14, 2012

Ashley Klann, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

The Central Mass. Housing Aliance (CMHA) will be holding their 27th annual WALK for the Homeless on May 20th at Institute Park. The event is second longest running charity walk in the city and is projected to gather over a thousand walkers and will be benefiting five local causes to help combat the increasing number of homeless in Worcester.

Last year the event brought in $134,000 in cash and in kind gifts, and organizer Amy Walsh is hopeful that this year’s 4.2 mile fundraiser will be a success.

The Scale of Need

“Every year in January Worcester County does a Point in Time survey to count the number of people who are homeless. In January 2011 there were 1,311 homeless individuals in Worcester on that day,” said Walsh. “The numbers for 2012 haven’t been approved but we expect over 1,600. The need is growing and growing.”

How it Started

As the second longest running charity walk in the city, the event proves the organization’s dedication to the cause of helping stop homelessness. Although their efforts have been substantial, the numbers are only increasing, highlighting the need for more support on this issue.

“It started 27 years ago with a gentleman in the community who noticed in the early 80s that there was a big up-kick on people sleeping in the streets in Worcester. He decided there should be a walk,” Walsh said. The first year of the walk, $8,000 dollars was raised by 100 walkers. “They took the money and distributed it to all the agencies in the area – buying grills for outdoor cookouts.”

While these initial efforts made an impact and started an annual event, CMHA’s WALK for Homelessness is doing more now than ever.

Making a Difference

“We’ve shrunk the number of beneficiary agencies so that it makes a bigger difference,” Walsh said.

The five programs that will receive aid this year include: Friendly House, Interfaith Hospitality Network of Worcester, the Youth Against Homelessness program, Donations Clearing House, and Hopes for Housing.

Each organization offers aid in unique and innovative ways, incorporating various aspects of the community to raise awareness.

“One thing we talk a lot about here is that it’s cheaper for the populous, state, and city to help people from becoming homeless in the first place. It costs $3000/month for a family to stay in a shelter, compared to $800-900 for an average apartment,” Walsh said. “It is a lot cheaper for us to intercede and help people before they become homeless. It’s also better for the families and better for children.”

Preventive Action

Due to the benefits of preventive action, CMHA has partnered with Donations Clearing House, an organization that collects gently worn furniture for families to use. The furniture is collected in a warehouse, and families are welcome to set up an appointment upon being referred and go shopping.

“It’s the only one like it in Worcester County,” said Walsh. According to the manager at Donations Clearing House, Jessica Cox, the organization 1,588 people last fiscal year, giving away over 2,000 pieces of furniture.

Donations Clearing House, which is sponsored by a partnership with local furniture outlet, Rotmans, has received thousands of donations a year since its start in 1989 and picks up all over Worcester County.

“We started out of a garage, and we’ve grown over the years,” Cox said. “The majority of the donations are in the city, but we also get a lot from Shrewsbury and Auburn. We cover a lot of area.”

“It just goes up every year. Right now, we’re booked out a month for people coming out to look at furniture. We see three to five people a day, and we have to limit it, just to try to accommodate everybody,” she said. “We have one truck that does all pickups and deliveries and only three staff members. It’s a small program run on a shoestring budget, but we’re able to get it done.”

To access the warehouse, people are referred by a social security agency, which could be anything from a church group to a counselor to a transitional assistant. “The referral is pretty broad,” Cox said. “We just need the referral form.”

“Already this year, we’re going over our number from last year,” she added.

If you have furniture you, but no space, the organization is always looking for more opportunities to help out Worcester’s homeless.

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