Homeless advocate letter to the editor: Fall River has made strides on homelessness despite state’s broken system

Fall River homeless advocate Nichole Fontaine gives her take on the current homelessness situation after a homeless man was found deceased on Tuesday.

It is as follows:

Fairest take I can give regarding the male that very tragically passed away this week, alone and outside.

First of all, my sincerest condolences to that man’s family. My thoughts & prayers are with you & I am deeply sorry for your loss & that you had to witness it on social media. I hope you find peace & understand that it is NOT your fault.

We as a nation & as a state have a broken system! I’m going to talk about those failures & areas of concern in Fall River specifically, but I do truly believe that Fall River has 1 of the best, most comprehensive, wrap-around services and inter-agency collaboration-based systems available in this state & beyond. I can list about 15 organizations, agencies, churches, community partners, etc. whom all go above & beyond tirelessly to help our unsheltered population. I truly wish that you guys could see what I get to see on a daily basis regarding the city & this administration, CDA office, first responders, & Building Inspector’s. To truly do that, I need to tell you the sad state of affairs Fall River was in prior to his election. So, please bear with me.

Shortly after Mayor Coogan took office, I was called into his conference room with Mike Dion (now my direct supervisor) & we discussed a new “Homeless Coordinator” position. They acquired a grant that allowed them to hire 2 people to do street outreach directly to the encampments. Steppingstone got 1, and they hired me as the other, to remain as a city employee. Steppingstone fought to keep both positions in-house & to keep me from attaining the position. Thankfully, the Mayor & Mike disagreed! (Improvement #1)

Prior to this moment, throughout Jasiel’s administration I was just a part-time ‘opioid clerk’ tasked with tracking overdoses and attempting to offer services post-overdose through a volunteer-based program called Project Reconnect- Fall River’s Opioid Task Force which my mom & I, EMS Deputy Chief & some other awesome community members created a year prior. However, I was ALWAYS promised help to combat the drug epidemic & homeless situation, but help NEVER came. We were supposed to get a portion of the revenue from the marijuana dispensaries, but we all know how that turned out. For years, I watched helplessly with Christine Matton as we tracked all those 911 calls of ppl struggling with SUD, Mental Health, & Homelessness. There was no help. No money. No one that cared in the city. I would volunteer countless hours beyond my 20-hr position of “data collection” & spend my own money to get people into treatment, into shelter, and everything in-between. The mayor was fine with the status quo. There were no meetings with Steppingstone. No talk about grants or funding from the city. He didn’t ever ask how he could help me or the people struggling in this community.

Now, back to the homeless advocacy positions. It allowed me to finally do the work that I was already doing for free, on a full-time basis. Mike & the Mayor gave me the freedom to grow the program into what Fall River needed. We had countless meetings on how more could be done & I’ll never forget the meeting where we discussed the FR-CARA grant. Mike & The Mayor’s EXACT words were, “If it’ll save one life, then it’s worth it.” They allowed me to assemble a team & utilize the city grant writer & we were awarded that $2,000,000 over the next 4 years. (IMPROVEMENT #2). The FAST Response Team was created which gave us recovery coaches, clinicians, educators/trainers, Narcan, a dedicated police liaison who is passionate about helping people & much more! We have now helped THOUSANDS of people & created the city’s first database which tracks n alerts the teams to overdose, SUD, mental health calls, crisis, and homelessness. FINALLY, those 911 calls don’t go without follow up visits & help. SSTAR, Child & Families, & FRPD are all working together in unison. First Responders are being trained on stigma, burnout/compassion fatigue, overdose, etc. We are providing co-response with the officers to treat ppl instead of just locking them up or dropping them at the hospital to be released to the street again in an hour.

Now I’m going to summarize to cut to the chase, all that has since come from the FAST Response Team & The Mayor & The CDA (Mike Dion):

(IMPROVEMENTS 3-21)

-2 trailers for the homeless- 1 with showers & bathroom, 1 with laundry & bathroom

-Timao center- building was completely upgraded and renovated during covid

-Day / warming/cooling center was created

-work program piloted where it gave homeless the ability to work, clean up the city & be paid to do so

– Advocacy Fund funded (The advocacy fund assists ppl whove experienced SUD/homelessness by paying for essential things in their lives such as clothing, license fees, sober homes, funeral expenses, towing, etc

– EWE program created (Enhancement w/o Encampment. Which has taken over 50 ppl in the last 8 months directly out of encampments & into treatment then sober homes

– City was able to convince SS to increase from 20 to 30 year round beds, even though they were asking for 50, it’s better than staying at 20 like the past.

-Rapid Rehousing program (by CSS) funded which paid first, last, security for ppl & also paid ppl back rent owed. This was literally just provided more funding this week because they ran out this fiscal year.

-EWE budget doubled this week because we ran out funding & smashed the goal of housing 20ppl.

-DOJ grant application submitted with Mayor Coogan & Mike Dion’s approval & we were just awarded that. This adds an additional clinician and a mental health peer worker

-Mayor just provided a letter of support for Child & Family’s to obtain & operate a high-tech van where clinical services & crisis work will now be happening on the sides of the road, at the encampments, hot zones of crime, etc. FAST Team is providing assistance & locations.

-Supplies, tents, toiletries, gift cards, bus passes, etc. have all been purchased by CDA to the tune of a hundred thousand Dollars and distributed to SS, Fast Response Team, Thrive, & other street outreach teams.

-multiple encampment clean ups, dumpsters placed, crews working, trash bags given etc.

-Christ of the Rock opened as warming center with city reimbursement now (began as volunteer)

-First Baptist opened doors for overnight with city

– reimbursement now (began as volunteer)

– Ann O’Neil Souza made it her personal mission to ensure no homeless child is left outside & contacted the state directly. She now has DHCD’s phone & email and will contact them herself to make sure those families are immediately placed.

-city contracts with motel to place those in need & I’ve placed over 100 ppl in them, never mind all of the people Mike or the mayor place.

-The city just acquired a massive building to create 20-30 transitional units

-CDA oversees multiple projects and buildings that provide affordable housing

The crazy part is, I’m still missing things. It’s hard to keep track of everything I’ve witnessed or been a part of over the last 4-5 years. This is what I know though. Not only do Mike & The Mayor Paul E. Coogan care immensely & hound me at all hours of the night if some1 is left outside in frigid temps, they’ve been in those camps with me DOZENS of times. I’ve attended 100+ meetings regarding homelessness with this administration. THEY NEVER STOP FIGHTING. And maybe the biggest accomplishment that has come from this administration is the collaboration that occurs between agencies in this city who used to refuse to collaborate. SSTAR, C&F, Catholic Social Services, Southcoast Hospital outreach team, CTC, St Anne’s Hospital, THRIVE, Seven Hills, FRPD, EMS, City building Inspector, Compassionate Healthcare, all work tirelessly to address the problems TOGETHER!!!!

So, to the ppl who sit on their laptops/phones from their comfy couches & complain nothing is being done by this administration, Do your research first!

Now to the BARRIERS & PROBLEMS:

We just counted about 350-400 homeless right here in Fall River. Some of those housed in different programs but only for the winter. Even if you could get SS to go up to 50 beds (10 of which I guess are “transitional housing”) is NOT going to be even a drop in the bucket to meet the city’s needs. There are also a ton of barriers with this system such as ID. They’ve tried to work with us on this & will accept a printout from police database with their picture and name, but that doesn’t help everyone.

The shelter is full the rest of the year as they go down from 50-30 -no1 else is getting in. So ultimately, this means WE HAVE 0 SHELTER BEDS from April until December. We utilize other towns, treatment, rooming houses, sober houses, etc.

FALL RIVER CAN NO LONGER AFFORD TO PRETEND!!!!!

300 + STREET HOMELESS—- 0 AVAILABLE BEDS.

Another issue: Anytime there’s a possibility of something going up, everyone screams, “Not in my backyard!” What about the old Wattupa Heights, or the abandonned schools, or mills. Well, will ppl stop fighting it now & allow it in their neighborhood?

Bc honestly, I think the only solution is to build tiny homes on Wattupa where these aforementioned agencies are allowed to provide a continuum of care, collaboratively.

Will city council approve of another property for shelter or funds to get this off the ground or is it just more of the same talk that’s occurred for years? I think if a space is designated, theres enough agencies willing to throw their hat in the ring & look at the community members banning together now to say, “No more!”

U want an honest take, that sees where a piece of the blame could lie on all of us! What if, for once, we use this momentum to finally create TOGETHER. Fall River needs a solution. Weve gotten as creative as possible with what we have. First Step Inn can no longer accomodate the need here, city counsel needs to help appropriate some kind of funding or space to expand the shelter, and if that happens, we, the people, need to not fight it.

And lastly, why are millions of dollars being spent to house non-residents, when we can’t even help our own!

I write this as a private citizen using my own viewpoints that are not affiliated with any agency or city government.