The Somerville Homeless Coalition has been aiding the area’s homeless population since the mid-80s.

By Douglas Yu

In the heart of Davis Square, the Somerville Homeless Coalition (SHC) has been serving homeless community around the city since 1985.

For almost 30 years, SHC’s goal has been more than just providing supportive services to those who are in temporary need, but also obtaining and maintaining affordable housing.

“We run two shelters, and we are specialized in health programs to help people stay housed as well as preventing them from being homeless,” said Director of Development of SHC, Kathryn Benjamin.

SHC started after the Red Line extended from Harvard Square to Alewife in the late 80’s. As soon as the Red Line extension was finished, there were a lot more homeless people showing up in Davis Square.

“A lot of religious leaders and community members came together and said, ‘We want to do something to help.’ So they formed the coalition and built the first shelter for adults in 1986,” Benjamin said.

Beneath the Boston Sports Club, the SHC’s office is set up with a reception desk, behind which there is an emergency food pantry. The food pantry is a small space circled by shelves of mostly canned goods that are heavy on protein, such as beans and soups.

“We have a much larger food pantry in East Somerville,” Benjamin added, “and that’s the food pantry which we took over managing in 1996. It had been run by another organization, and it’s the oldest food program in New England.”

SCH’s website says that there are five major services that SHC provides, including prevention services, housing services, case management, emergency shelters and food assistance. Among all the services, finding permanent housing is their ultimate goal.

“We help homeless people fill out applications for Somerville Housing Authority, direct them to other benefit programs, match them up and refer them to skills and further their education,” said Benjamin. “More than 50 percent of our clients have certain degrees of disability, and they actually need some on-going care to stay housed.”

According to Benjamin, one of the unique qualities of SHC’s shelters is that once a person or a family gets in, they can stay in that shelter until they have found a permanent place to live. However, they have to leave if they break the rules. “But for other shelters, one can only stay for a certain number of nights, then you have to move on. It doesn’t give anyone a chance to get stable, and figure it out what need to do to get out of homelessness.”

All the clients in the SHC-run shelters are self-identified homeless people. That is to say, if a person says he or she needs a bed, and SHC happens to have a bed available, this person can just get in. It is also noted that SHC’s shelters are CORI-friendly, meaning, a person with criminal background can be in their shelters too.

“Homeless people with criminal backgrounds have to abide by our rules, and work with our case managers. One of the rules here is no violence and stealing,” Benjamin said.

Following the incident of physical assault by a mentally ill homeless person who lived in one of Vinfen’s group homes in Winter Hill last October, Somerville residents showed their increasing concern about the safety in their neighborhoods potentially brought by homeless people.

In response to Somerville residents’ concerns, Benjamin said, “SHC’s shelters are 100 percent professionally staffed. We do have ongoing training for our case management staff to recognize situations. There is a lot of check-ins and accountabilities.” Benjamin has no record of any incidents caused by SHC’s clients in the past.

The biggest challenge for SHC when it comes to helping homeless people find permanent housing is that “there is simply not enough affordable housing,” according to Benjamin.

“There are a number of those permanent housing situations in Somerville. Somerville Community Corporation (SCC) helps advocate for affordable housing,” Benjamin said. “A couple of years ago, they were able to open up eight new units, and five of them were filled with families from our shelter.”

In the past five years, SHC has prevented over a thousand people from becoming homeless, according to Benjamin. And many of them, especially young adults, who were once homeless, were able finish their education, to get a college degree and to work on their employment skills.

Benjamin described those homeless young adults as “a gratifying group to work with.”

“Because they are still young, they haven’t become chronically homeless like some of our older clients, who have been homeless for 20, 30 years. I would recognize them sometimes and say ‘hi,’” Benjamin said, smiling.

In Somerville, SHC provides hope. People in the community who happen to know any homeless people are free to reach out to SHC for help. “Somerville is a great community for helping neighbors. People are more than welcome to financially support the work we are doing. And we also have volunteer opportunities,” said Benjamin.

On New Year’s Eve, SHC’s clients were not left behind by the joyful celebration. Supported by their case managers and staff, SHC’s clients were thankful for having a warm and safe place to stay.