AMHERST — Eleven months after being forced to implement an around-the-clock temporary shelter at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Craig’s Doors is again teaming up with the Amherst congregation to offer shelter for those who are experiencing homelessness this winter.
The move, which came about unexpectedly in January amid a COVID-19 outbreak, is a new model in which shelter patrons no longer have to vacate the space during daylight hours and instead can stay 24 hours a day when the shelter is open during the winter months.
The change to an around-the-clock shelter last season worked so well that Craig’s Doors Executive Director Timothy McCarthy went to the Rev. Jeffrey “Pastor Jeff” Schulz and the congregation to see if this was a partnership the two entities could explore again.
“I attended church on Sundays. I even did a Q&A at the front of the congregation,” McCarthy said. “Overnight shelters don’t offer a comprehensive or robust sense of home. If you’re getting kicked out during the day, there’s no real semblance of home. You continue to feel marginalized by the larger community and the stigma remains high. Being able to relax or having a place to go is a luxury we often take for granted, and we wanted to afford our guests with this.”
Schulz and the congregation were on board, and on Nov. 1, Craig’s Doors opened as a temporary, around-the-clock shelter in the church.
“I’ve seen how we as a worshiping community have become sort of reinvigorated and enlivened by actively engaging in the gospel mission as we understand it,” Schulz said.
The change is one of several “action-based” initiatives — others include establishing a permanent site in Amherst within the next five years, expanding services to nearby communities such as Easthampton, and offering mental health care, housing placement support and job assistance services — that McCarthy believes will enable the nonprofit to better address the needs of those who are experiencing homelessness.
Craig’s Doors offers the only behavior-based shelter in the region, and accepts everyone, including active drug and alcohol users and those with severe mental health obstacles.
While the “heads-on-beds” model has proven to be a beneficial harm-reduction method, McCarthy hopes that some of the changes the nonprofit is undertaking will provide more resources and more opportunities to find people permanent housing.
“The same folks surviving and suffering in the winter will be suffering in the summer and back in the woods. And we’re committed to change,” he said. “We don’t want to just keep people alive — we want them to thrive.”
Moving forward, Craig’s Doors is hoping to become a more accessible organization in Amherst, and someday throughout the entire Valley.
That outreach is already under way this winter season, as the nonprofit is partnering with Liz Plouffe, Easthampton community social worker, and Bridget Diggins, Easthampton’s public health nurse, to offer emergency shelter and support to residents in need this winter.
“Bridget and I were working on some resources for our community because it was brought to our attention that the housing instability was not being addressed in the city,” said Plouffe.
Through a collaboration with McCarthy and Pamela Schwartz, director of Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness, Plouffe and Diggins were able to establish and implement emergency cold weather assistance plans for Easthampton residents.
