According to Ward 1 Councilor Matt McLaughlin, the city is not moving fast enough in dealing with the needs of the homeless. ~Photo by Bobbie Toner

By Fernando Cervantes Jr.

Homelessness in Somerville is rising, with parts of the city like Davis Square and East Somerville being impacted the hardest. Recently, the City Council urged the mayor to declare the issue an emergency.

This comes weeks after Governor Maura Healey declared a state emergency as the state’s family shelter system has become overwhelmed in recent months. Locally in Somerville, the city council passed an order on August 24, calling on Mayor Katjana Ballantyne to declare a state of emergency.

Councilor Matt McLaughlin represents East Somerville’s Ward 1. During the August 24 meeting of the Somerville City Council, he called East Somerville one of the most under-served areas in the city.

In an interview with The Somerville Times, he called on the city to address the issue more urgently. “We’re behind on addressing a lot of needs. If you go back, you can see years of policy orders from me, requesting warming and cooling stations, requesting shelter for people, requesting for basic services,” McLaughlin said.

As of now, the city does not have an accurate count of homeless individuals, with the City Council approving an order calling on it to produce data on these rates. The Council also passed orders calling for additional shelter spaces and other measures.

Michael Libby, Executive Director of the Somerville Homeless Coalition spoke on the various measures being taken by the SHC to help tackle homelessness in the city.

“Over in the east part of town we have Project Soup, which is our food pantry. We serve hundreds of families every week,” Libby said. “We love what we do, we’re very passionate, it’s exciting, it’s complicated.”

In a statement on August 25, the Mayor Ballantyne said she would take the resolution passed by the city council “under advisement.”

“We are paying close attention to community reports and understand the urgency residents feel about addressing this situation,” Ballantyne said.

But, people like McLaughlin think that these much-needed resources and actions from the city need to come sooner.

“I think they care. I think they’re working on things. I just think it’s not happening fast enough. I would not let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” McLaughlin said.