Warming center has abrupt end

By OWEN BOSS
Staff Writer

AMHERST — The town of Amherst and the Center for Human Development’s announcement Friday afternoon that a warming center for the homeless would be shut down this coming Monday sparked an emergency meeting of the town’s Committee on Homelessness Friday night.

According to Town Manager Laurence Shaffer, the warming center, which was operated by the Center for Human Development with funds provided by the town and was slated to remain open through the end of April, will close its doors Monday. The center opened Dec. 14 and is housed in the First Baptist Church.

In a press release issued Friday afternoon, Shaffer listed several reasons for the center’s closure, including the inability of the current facility to provide separate quarters for men, women and families, showering and bathing facilities and adequate accommodations to feed program participants.

The announcement of the closure prompted members of the town’s Committee on Homelessness, upset with a lack of notice from the town, to hold an emergency meeting at Bangs Center Friday night.

Hwei-Ling Greeney, vice chair of the committee, said Shaffer, who was invited but did not attend, told her he would challenge any decisions made at the meeting because it had been posted with the town clerk at 4 p.m. It is required that meetings be posted 48 hours in advance.

“In case the town manager challenges us after instructing me not to hold this meeting today, I wanted to give you the heads up,” Greeney said, adding, “He didn’t think this would qualify as an emergency.”

Although committee members noted that closing the center would ultimately be the town’s decision, they pointed out faults in the city’s reasoning behind the closure.

“It was made very clear in the beginning that this was not a facility for families and that no one under the age of 18 would be allowed on the premises,” Greeney said. “And we have dividers there to separate the males from females, and the church has a certified kitchen.”

Also speaking out against the closure was Kevin Noonan, director of the Open Pantry Community Services in Springfield, who worried the news wouldn’t reach the local homeless population.

Jim Goodwin, president of the Center for Human Development, attributed the closure to the arrival of spring weather and a decreasing need for a place for the homeless to warm up.

“The need for the center has deteriorated,” Goodwin said. “The focus of this was to provide a place to warm up during the coldest months of the year, and we are 100 percent behind putting it together for next year.”

Greeney, the former longtime coordinator of Amherst’s Not Bread Alone soup kitchen, filed a lawsuit against the Center for Human Development, her former employer, in Hampshire Superior Court last month alleging she was wrongfully fired for comments made at an Amherst Select Board meeting last year. She is seeking $153,166.67 for emotional distress and lost wages, according to the suit.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com