City Council 09/22/2026

Good evening everyone, welcome to the Worcester City Council meeting. If you can please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and Star-Spangled Banner

of the United States of America, to the public by which it stands, formation, regard, individual,

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed At the twilight's last gleaming Whose broad stripes and bright stars Through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming, and the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air. They proved through the night that our flag was still there.

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave

and the home of the brave.

Broker. Councilor Bergman, Here. Councilor Bilotta, Here, Councilor Economou, Here Councilor Fresolo, Here ,Councillor King, here Councilor Mitra, Here . Councilor Ojeda, Here Councillor Rivera, Here councilor Rosen, Here Consul Toomey and Mayor Petty

We have public participation. The person may speak for no more than two minutes on any item appearing on the agenda. Mr. Clerk?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Room 39, Items of Public Interest at every meeting of the City Council under public participation portion on the agenda. The Chair shall recognize any person seeking such recognition for the purpose of addressing the Council on any eligible item on the agenda both in-person or remotely. Any person who wishes to speak more than one agenda item shall combine the testimony on all items toward appearance of the microphone. Time for speaking shall not exceed two minutes for any one speaker, 30 minutes for all speakers. and then rule 40 petitions. On the first occasion, a petition appears before the city council. The prime petition may address the City Council for no more than three minutes on the subject or their petition.

Okay so just your name, see residence and item number?

Yes, Fred and Nathan. We're gonna start off with nine D, nine E, and nine F. Now we have... a license commission that as far as I know is doing their job, but yet there are three items here. Wanting the city to have a closer look at the license commission? I don't know what that's all about, but I'm not a City Councilor. 10L. We have a company here that supposedly was banned from doing business in the city, but yet mysteriously somehow they find their way to be back in here in this city. And I'd like to remind everybody, Mr. Mayor and Mr. City Manager, Councilor 11 million dollars in a tax break is nothing to sneeze at.

So, I don't know if we need somebody bigger to come in like Trumpy and do a big audit of the city but $11 million. I mean, you guys in here are fighting over 100,000 here, 100, 000 there and 11 million dollars is going to be thrown down the sewer because we might begin a company that might not be reputable I'm not a city councilor. I wouldn't want to be, I wouldn' trade position with you with any, all the tea in China. Got one more here. Oh! I'm sorry. No, I got one more thing. Well, I can't seem to find it. Oh yes! That's right the homeless. So as I said last week, you can find these people. No, 25? That's too little. Find them 100. Point is, you're never going to see the money.

So nice job having the cops write the tickets and the cops go into the court and you're not ever gonna see a dime so nice try! I give you luck. You're the council, not me.

Our next speaker. What's your name? Say your residence and item number.

My name is Peter. I live in Worcester in the fifth district 18A, 18B, and 10L. Central Mass and Worcester DSA want to get to the bottom of the homelessness problem across the country as well. Why does homelessness exist? Why will it always exist? Under the current system, why is the solution always to sic the police on unhoused people and push them somewhere else? And why, as union carpenters in the room will tell you, do cities like Worcester hand incentives to developers that steal their employees' wages and threaten them with deportation? It's because we're told to rely on private capital to build housing, employ people and run society. And so those things will only happen on terms that are good for the capitalist class. Working class tenants will get the cheapest construction for the highest rent so property owners can have the best profit and quickest return. If we're lucky, two or three new apartments will get a tiny discount on rent for five years and be called affordable.

COPs exist to defend property rights and property values It's no wonder why they get overtime pay to rip down tents and why police reform usually means throwing more money at them. Cops doing what they do is good for investors. We could provide housing for everyone, built by workers who get back all their labor's value, democratically managed by tenants. That would require a world without landlords and without private developers, without city councils bought and paid for where one person doesn't own 100 properties to rip the rest of us off. That world is a socialist one and DSA is out to build the working class movement to fight for it. That's why we're campaigning in the 6th Worcester State House District down near Southbridge on a social housing question for November's ballot, not just rent control to slow the bleeding or zoning tweaks to unleash the free market. The free market has been unleashed on us for long enough.

Abby Mortolaro, Worcester resident. I'm gonna start with 10L. Ties for Optaline? No. Wage theft is bad to Hearst workers and it causes homelessness because if workers are not being paid what they're willing to owe, When it's happening, they become homeless. 10S, we need homeless shelter spaces. We need shelter spaces for the men and women and make sure that transgender people are housed according to their gender identity 18B, camping ban is fascism. It is fascistm you know? You criminalize homelessness and They're not going to be able to pay the fine. You try and issue fines for homeless people, they're not gonna be able pay it. When you criminalize homelessness

Fascism, so you know what side of history? I keep saying it every time. You always hear me say it. What side of history are you on? I always say that a lot. You know, you hear me say it a lot what side of History Are you on because the decisions you make here are going to be recorded in history History is going to remember, you know. So what side of history are you on? Are you on the side of the fascists or are you one side of humanity? Are your on a side of fascism or are your on side of Humanity? Now I am always on the Side of Humanities and then they came for the homeless. And you know what? I object. I don't care who we're coming for this time, I always object. Every time there's an injustice, I object. And I object to canning bans. I object through fascism. I objects to the criminalization of homelessness. I'm not going to be able to find.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Martha. I come to you with abundant love for my community and a belief that Our public dollars should be uplifting and supporting our community. And that transparency is the Colonel of Trust that goes throughout our entire government and that's what the people really, really respect and want. I'm so glad to be here, to be able to talk about 18F. I mean, 18A, the proposal for police reform. I appreciate that it's a effort to bring transparency and center Survivors. As a mom, I deeply believe that we should believe survivors and support them and center their pain. Personally, I'm here on 18B. And while I really appreciate the sentiment of getting to the root cause of unhousing

in our city. The end part of the ordinance is the part that I have the most trouble with, We all agree that solutions need to be found to build affordable housing and to strengthen the shelter system. As someone who is on the board of the Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center, We welcome unhoused neighbors every day to have coffee, charge a phone. And we are in dialogue with our community. They're incredibly respectful and that is who would be paying that fine even though they're on every city list that exists, and they are actively advocating and working with the city to create a solution. And you will always hear me standing with workers So I stand with the Carpenters. And then lastly, I just learned about this tonight but any support for midwives is absolutely essential and that is a loving positive view of what our city could be so I know

This is really important to me and I hope you understand where I'm coming from.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Dante Camparetto, educator and resident in Worcester. I am here tonight to urge this council to vote an unequivocal no on item 18B, the proposed public camping ordinance We all agree that people sleeping on sidewalks, in parks or in their cars is not acceptable. Extreme poverty is unacceptable but passing an ordinance that imposes 72 hour eviction notices and $25 a day Fines is not a solution, it's state sanctioned displacement. It takes the reality of systemic poverty and attempts to legislate it out-of-sight Finding someone $25 a day who already has nothing does not create an affordable apartment. It does not and does not open a shelter bed.

It creates criminalization, damages credit and burdens people with debt building higher barriers between our most vulnerable neighbors and permanent housing. The administration points to legal permission following the Grants Pass decision, but just because the Supreme Court made it legal to punish people for sleeping outside does not make it moral and it doesn't make it smart public policy. Public data is clear. Continuous sweeps fractures outreach, destroys vital medications and identification documents, increases incarceration rates, drives overdose rates and emergency visits up. Right now Worcester has roughly 200 permanent shelter beds for an unhoused population that significantly exceeds that capacity. When you tell someone they cannot sleep in an encampment, cannot sleep on their vehicle and cannot rest on public property yet offered no guaranteed bed to go to, where do you expect them to go? Displacement does not end homelessness.

It just moves people from one spot to another. If we want to disrupt the cycle of homelessness, we must invest in low barrier emergency beds, permanent supportive housing and real outreach infrastructure. Do not criminalize our neighbors for surviving. Vote no on item 18b tonight. Thank you.

Your name, see your residence and item number.

Yeah my name is David Manejian I'm a resident of Worcester and I'm representing the Carpenters Union tonight. I'm here to speak on Item 10 L, and I want to speak about taking action for Optiline workers who are victims of wage theft. Optiline is a large drywall company based out of New Hampshire. They're working currently at 274 Franklin Street, A bunch of workers got together that worked for Optiline because they weren't getting paid overtime from 50, 60 hours worth a week. They filed a class action lawsuit to try to get paid when the owner found out about it He retaliated against the workers, he threatened them and intimidated them. He called out their immigration status and threatened them with deportation.

You don't have to believe me, but you can believe a Superior Court judge who ruled in the workers' favor on a protective action and the Attorney General's citation that followed. We really appreciate the work of this council and the administration to originally ban Optiline under the Responsible Development Ordinance, and we're really asking you as leaders of our city to show that Optiline with their retaliation and threats to workers do not belong here, and under the RDO they are ineligible. Thank you.

Did your name see a residence?

Rhiannon Snide. I am a staff attorney with Central West Justice Center, a legal aid organization in central and western Massachusetts I regularly work with homeless individuals and families in Worcester to access shelter. I'm here to oppose the proposed camping ordinance, item 18B The city's goal to expand shelter capacity for unhoused people in the future does not meaningfully respond to or address the current need. The city reports that over 1,100 homeless individuals live in Worcester but only 197 shelter beds currently exist. The ordinance provides no genuine offer of shelters to individual before criminal penalties are imposed and there is no requirement that resources be available before these criminal penalties take effect. The proposed ordinance may state that being unhoused is not a crime, yet section E3 authorizes quote Enforcement by Criminal Processes. And Section F imposes a $25 daily fine for noncompliance.

People will be punished simply because there's nowhere to go. An expansion of shelter capacity is necessary, as is reducing restrictions on shelter access. EA Family Shelter has been restricted statewide The most recent shelter report indicates capacity is at less than 40%. This underutilization is not due to a lack of need, as many families who are turned away come to Legal Aid for help. Beds must not only exist, but they must be accessible to our most vulnerable and chronically homeless. This ordinance also violates the Massachusetts Constitution. the Attorney General has found that criminal enforcement against unhoused people without available shelter violates Massachusetts Declaration of Rights Article 26. We urge this council not to adopt the ordinance for the safety and well-being of all Worcester residents We encourage expansion of shelter services and the removal of all criminal fines, processes and fines. Thank you.

Good evening. Grace Ross, 10 Oxford Street, Worcester. I'm here also on 18B but I wanted to take you down a somewhat different path. I think that a lot of what's going on in our society is kind of an us-them kind of thinking, like these homeless people could never be me. and I want to challenge you on that. I don't know if the member of the Worcester Annie foreclosure team who wanted to speak tonight is going to manage it or not, but he was paying his mortgage on his home and out of the blue, out of nowhere the bank stopped accepting his payments and then they moved to foreclose on him. And they foreclosed on him when he was actively trying to get them to accept payments he had been making for years. He has since been evicted. He has now been homeless for, wow, almost a year and I think we need to wake up. This economy is about to crash.

The bank were told by Bank Insiders in the mortgage industry that they're trying to foreclose as fast as possible because they think the market's gonna crash. We know what happens when the market crashes, we're going to have thousands more foreclosures so instead of treating people as if they are them Think about walking in their shoes. Think about what it's like day to day. We save money, those of us who are housed by putting food in a refrigerator and cooking it when we need it but when you're on the street and you're homeless, you have to have money for every single meal. You have to a way to buy food. It's more expensive to live homeless on the streets and we're gonna fine people money who are already stretching beyond their limit to try and just feed themselves? This is a moral question. It's not a legal question, regardless of what a judge says.

This is a moral question, are we in it together or not?

Thank you.

I do not understand why this city wants to punish people for being homeless. We're not able to house them. So why are we going to punish them? We want to send him to the small towns around Worcester. You came from Millbury, we're sending you to Millbury. Milbury doesn't have transportation, they do not have the facilities we have. They come to Worcester because they need transportation to be able to get to social services Worcester needs to stop punishing people for being homeless. We cannot do it, then we say they can't set up tents

We haven't even found a place for winter shelters. And even the winter shelters only house about 60 people. How many homeless people do we have? I'm telling you, if I were homeless, I would set up a tent any friggin' place I could find enough space to. We cannot leave them out there. We have to protect them. In the 80s, we lost three homeless people that's set up in a truck on Jackson Street they froze to death. We cannot have that ever again, thank you.

One more thing, I wanted to thank my city councilor for putting on the agenda for our honorary street for RSC and Ward. And I hope that it passes, thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman. My name is Greg Degamesian. I'm a lifelong resident here in the city. I speak on my own volition and I have no authority nor do I represent any city agency. I do want to mention that I support order on the agenda 10T and might want to suggest and recommend for consideration as a part of that report, and that is in regards to the daycare center for the homeless. that any report and any included in that report address any fire hydrants which are out of service specifically hydrant number 1227, every fire hydrant has a identifier. And keeping also in mind Mr. Chairman that I believe we still have

and outstanding report for fire hydrants which are out of service. Thank you very much.

Good evening, my name is Meg Coffin. I'm a resident of Worcester and I run Your Access Advocates, a disability resource and advocacy agency here in the city. We work with individuals across all disabilities so they can live independently in the community and the biggest issue we see with those we work with is housing. The waitlist for accessible low-income housing with the Worcester Regional Housing Authority is 30 years. Many of the individuals we work with are housing insecure, couchsurfing and living with relatives or friends or many are stuck in institutions The proposal to fine individuals living in encampments $25 is truly ludicrous. I can't begin to think the thought process that went into making this recommendation. Further, how is the fine to be collected and what would happen to the individuals if they couldn't pay it? Recommending this at a time when inflation is so high and we're seeing huge cuts to Medicaid funding just in a few short weeks makes it even more unbelievable.

The city really needs to concentrate on creating more low-income housing, not just affordable housing at 80% AMI. and provide wraparound services these individuals need to successfully transition from homelessness to secure housing. Thank you so much for your time.

Good evening, everyone. Good evening. My name is Fred Taylor. I'm president of the NAACP but I'm also speaking on behalf of the Carpenters Union like my colleague Damon Asian did earlier. We've been working on policies and ordinances in the City of Worcester to try improve things and protect the City the residents, the taxpayers and the workers in the city of Worcester. We've been speaking a lot recently about a project at 274 Franklin Street is 364 units of housing that's getting public funding on it. We wanna just implore you and ask again to be sure that we enforce a responsible development ordinance to make sure that not only developers like the developer on Franklin Street, but future developers know they can't come to Worcester and just take our money and break the rules and get paid for that. I also want to support Item 8B as President of the NAACP.

I want to Support 8B by Khrystian King and Rob Bilotta, the request for Laurel Street from Summer Street to Evergala Boulevard to be given and honorary street name designated to Arizan Wood. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Jemma Kamara, and I'm a Worcester resident. As a public health professional, I urge you to please reject the policies that criminalize homelessness. Worcestershire is the second largest city I don't know how many of you actually can ponder upon this when you're sleeping, but to also understand how Worcester does not have a strong public health department systems. and to hear a policy or something that has been written to suggest that homeless people, which is one of the biggest public health issues in the city of Worcester, that we are going to be targeting this by having people who are so vulnerable pay a fine. And for this to be on the second largest city in New England on your agenda, our agenda, come on! What are we saying to the nation? What do we say into our neighboring cities and towns here?

Well, we're not saying anything because Worcester had a consumption with all of its neighboring cities in town. And that fell through. We are supposed to be building our public health arm, and we are not doing that. So I implore all of you here to please stop that ridiculousness. We should not be fining homeless people. I also stand here with the Copernicus Union as an immigrant Upline, I am standing with the Carpenters Union that demand immediate injustice. I'm asking that you and everyone here please support the Carpenters Union, and support the workers to ensure that they get justice. And we do not have a company that is not providing any usefulness or even protection for workers, our residents on the contracts that are supposed to be benefiting our community. We should hold up a line

to the fullest extent. And I do urge all of you again, so please as everybody has been mentioning here we ask that you please support this and do not give any more support or attention to this ordinance. So thank you.

Thank you.

Mike Cain on behalf of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce here tonight to express our strong support for the city manager's plan addressing the single adult homelessness population here in our city. Our members, local business owners and visitors have consistently raised concerns on the current situation regarding the single adult population in need of mental health and substance abuse counseling that are engaging in illegal behaviors while increasingly impacting our businesses, their customers and employees, and community public spaces. Worcester's business community contributes a significant share of municipal tax revenue to support public services while also contributing to charitable causes that assist in those needs. Unfortunately, the current situation with the single adult population in need of services is causing businesses recurring cleanup costs for human defecation, discarded needles and trash.

alongside mounting expenses for private property repairs, security and growing concerns regarding customer and employee safety. For small business owners, these persistent disruptions directly threaten their livelihood. Meaningful progress requires coordinated structural support and accountability at the local state and federal level The framework outlined in this plan provides an opportunity for collaboration and a direction needed to connect our single adult population in need of services who have mental health and substance abuse counseling, and transitional housing all of which currently exist. Treating public spaces as informal shelter alternatives serves neither this population nor the community at large. We support the City Manager for prioritizing this challenge and taking action.

A coordinated and accountable enforcement strategy is essential to safeguarding Worcester's economic vitality while providing meaningful aid for those most in need. The business community stands ready to partner with the city.

Hello, my name's Gary Hunter, District 5. First I'd like to talk a couple quick things. 10L, I would really like an explanation how Up the Line got back to work in one of our projects It doesn't make any sense to me. That means somebody didn't see it and this union has come here to fight for it? They should not be in any building in Worcester. Second, 12D. We need a charter review. We needed done now. This is cannot wait if it waits until after the election we may have some big changes here Now I'm gonna go to 18A and 18B, please. 18A. We need a report.

We didn't see what's on the report, but we needed to make public what Tom is looking at and suggestion so we can talk about this among ourselves. 18B, please everybody look at me in the eye. These people are humans out on the street. They could be you and they could be me. This is not solving the problem, the large problem of homelessness. It's not solving it. All you're doing is pushing it ahead This is a lazy government. And I'm not talking about people, I'm talking about the government. Look what's happening in New York City. Things are getting done. Person has been in office for three months The housings are getting built. Childcare is being taken care of, healthcare's being taken cared of. Food shortages in grocery stores are being taken of while we sit here and talk some of the useless things on this agenda.

We need to take care of our homeless population by a permanent way, not just push it ahead. Make it easy for all you people to get it off your minds. Look me in the face. Do you have any empathy? Thank you.

Hello, my name is Heather Prunier Stanek. I am a resident of District 5. I'm here to speak on the proposal for a comprehensive police forum Item 18A, I stand tonight in unison with members of the community demanding accountability not just from our police department or city administration but through the chair from each of you. are elected officials. This isn't the first time I've shared my story with this body. I have spoken about my experience as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by my then softball coach, John Monfredo who was later elected to our school committee I was nine years old when the abuse started. I have spoken to you about my ongoing struggle for full access to the records from the police department's investigation into my case, to which I am legally entitled. I've carried the burden of events described in those files for more than 30 years and will continue to carry it in one way or another for the rest of my life.

That's reality, but without access to those files, I can't explain to that little girl what went wrong, how we can fix it and perhaps most importantly how it was the system failed not her. But you can help her heal. You can help me understand what happened. You empower anyone who has been sexually abused by a principal or police officer to do the same, to ensure it never happens again. Despite years of using any and every legal means to obtain this information, I have received just 22 pages of what I'm told is a 78-page file. Let me make one thing very clear. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I am not John Monfredo's only victim. Not only that, it is my belief that I'm not the only victim known to the police This man is a predator who had easy access to some of the most vulnerable children in this city for decades.

The statistical likelihood that there are even more victims yet to come forward is astronomical. Who enabled John Manfredo and silenced his victims? How can we hold anyone accountable or fix what's broken without answering these questions? How do we know our kids are safe within the same system that left them in the care of a monster? Worcester has its own Epstein class that prioritizes its own comfort and privilege over the safety of our kids. I lived the consequences as a child, and now I have lived them as a mother. The system that has allowed this cannot oversee itself. It's time to stop telling the people they can trust the police department to change and start showing them you'll make sure it does. Adopt this citizen-authored plan for police reform or draft your own. Appoint an IG to investigate claims of misconduct. Hold the city manager accountable to his duties as chief conservator of the... Peace, Believe Survivors and the cover-ups. Transparency now! Accountability now! Release the files!

And I get to follow that. Awesome. Kirsten Frazier, a resident of the city of Worcester. Yeah, what she said. Release the files. Come on. I am an educator. If I ask my students to examine themselves and rate their performance do you think they're going to give themselves a bad grade? ain't gonna happen. Most students grow up to be most of our adults around us, and they aren't going to be any more likely to give themselves a bad grade or be honest unless they're forced to. So let's stop gaslighting ourselves and stop pushing this on down the road, and just assume that we need to start holding people accountable for what they have done. As far as the public camping ordinance goes, again, why are we wanting to charge those who have the least anything for trying to survive?

It makes absolutely no sense. Somebody who is living out in the street through no fault of their own, whether it's because of mental health issues or because they've been forced out through eviction, or because have been kicked out of their homes for whatever reason do not deserve to be continuously kicked from place-to-place when all they're trying to do is have a little bit of shelter and a little bit of safety. We need to start building low barrier housing for these people, and start finding ways to support them not make their lives worse. And the last one, as far as Optiline is concerned. I find it really super ironic that a city that calls itself a welcoming America City is willing to welcome in somebody who has been banned for treating our immigrants in such a horrible way. So let's think about what we're doing, folks. We're better than this. Let's start acting like it. Thank you.

Good evening, my name's Maria Montano. I'm city of Worcester. I am here to speak on item A8T. I'm respectfully asking that the City Manager and City Council request that the Department of Public Parks with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and other qualified wildlife environmental professionals such as Rapportails, Rescue of Shrewsbury and Newhouse Wildlife Rescue of Chelmsford as these organizations have been involved in rescuing wildlife from this area numerous times over the past several months. I believe these conversations are important in determining whether wildlife safety barriers, floating deterrents, warning systems or other human preventive measures could reduce the danger to wildlife without interfering the dam's operation or natural environment.

The goal is to explore what can reasonably be done to prevent these incidents before another animal needs to be rescued, injured or lost like the swans, geese, ducks and other wildlife that are being carried toward and over the dam which runs into the Blackstone now. Worcester has more than 60 parks and nearly 1,300 acres of municipal parkland. I believe there's an opportunity to look at wildlife safety not only at Institute Pond, Salisbury Pond but also other city parks where similar hazards may exist. For those of us who are visiting this area, these animals are more than something we simply pass by. We watch them raise their young return year after year and become part of the environment that is the city of Worcester. When an animal is placed in danger near the dam our response should not have to begin only after something goes wrong. Prevention should be part of the conversation.

I'm not asking the city to install a specific barrier without first understanding its impact, I'm asking for something reasonable as an evaluation by qualified professionals. I also wanted to just briefly speak on 18B. I watched last week as so many people spoke in our city bravely I've already signed to the boards and commissions, and I'm hoping that to you Mr. Mayor and the City Council and the city manager come up with a plan to have some sort of coalition or a board or commission where there are actual people with qualified experience in dealing with people that are unhoused and come up with a collective way. This is not an easy way to get out of this. There are a lot of people out there with different issues, they're not all on drugs, just out there to be out there.

And many that I'm seeing in the community now, it's hard to see it but they're elderly people 55 plus or more and so it's sad that four years later we're still having this conversation and I don't believe, and I know in the hearts of hearts that this is not right. And so find a better way. I know that you can. Thank you.

What's your name and city of residence?

Brian Keeney, City of Worcester. I'm here to speak on item 18B the so-called public camping ordinance which is nothing more than an attempt at criminalizing poverty and homelessness While I recognize that this proposal is attempting to address serious public health issues, it will not accomplish its aims and targeting the most vulnerable members of society and fining them for trying to exist is simply cruel. People who have no money and are already so desperate won't be deterred by fines that they can't pay. The proposed fines will not erase homelessness and will only exacerbate suffering. Instead of passing relief efforts onto charitable organizations that can only do so much, city government should do more to provide shelter and other services. At the very least, it should not inflict additional cruelty. This ordinance will be a very bad look for Worcester and I urge you to vote against the public camping ordinance. Thank you.

Does your name see a residence?

My name is Minnie from District 1. I had some files here, but I realized I didn't print out enough so if you guys are interested, I can give it to the city clerk later. But it's for unsheltered program with impactful success rate So I came back to speak on agenda item 18B, Camp Banning. Last week I started sharing data and guidelines on how to help support the unsheltered community. Since winter is right around the corner and it's impossible to build enough housing right now. And I like to take some time to talk about safe outdoor spaces According to Denver Safe Outdoor Spaces Initiative, it heavily relies on coordinated nighttime staging and transport system. The safe outdoor spaces themselves or 24-7 staff secured encampment with managed tents, electricity and shower in a logistic of how people safely reach

temporary night shelter or these designated safe spaces that involves a unique city-wide transit pipeline. For example, with an access control the shuffles drop the resident off directly into a secure perimeter managed by the camps. This ensures individuals have guaranteed warm places to sleep while minimizing foot traffic and maintaining safety for their surrounding neighborhoods. if you feel like there are no help, look around. There are many people here and many people have started the groundwork and are ready to fight this with you not against you. Please think about human lives before profit. Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Hello. My name is Jack Murray, District 1. I'm here to speak on the items related to the unhoused folks. This proposal criminalizes the unhouse targeting vulnerable individuals and worsening their financial hardship. I've worked in case management with justice-involved populations and one of the most stabilizing things that they can get is an identification card or a birth certificate because it opens up doors to receive health care and employment. Oftentimes, I'd pick up folks from the Worcester House of Corrections, set them up with a phone, clothes bag, toiletries and in many cases I drop them off at the Queen Street Shelter or give them a sleeping bag. You know, getting an identification can be hard for some. Which is why I would stay in line at the RMV for however long it took and paid with a company card $25 just to get that opportunity. So thank you, Councilor King for a municipal ID.

I think that could create a lot of opportunities for folks. With Worcester's procedures on encampment sweeps making desperate situations worse, unfortunately this results in folks resorting to stealing from one another. That is the cycle that needs to end. This creates a culture of hostility and distrust amongst each other in those who offer services. You had no shame closing the RMV shelter last winter. And you stood idly right now as CHL laid off almost 250 workers just this month And what have you done as Family Health Center? It's just gotten by over the years. Worcester did what it did best, though, lose a lawsuit when the ACLU and teamed up with the unhoused coalitions to defend the First Amendment rights of the young house. So I understand why lawsuits may create financial issues for the city, I just don't understand why $25 a day or $9000 a year

would put a burden on the unhoused folks to fill that role. You're all better fundraisers than this. I hope you are better people than this as well.

Ashley Spring, District 2. I'm here to speak in support of 18A Tom Marino's petition. I also want to speak on 18B and I want to talk about the contradiction in how we are addressing housing in this city. Worcester has repeatedly used public policy and tax incentives to encourage developers to build market rate housing, housing that many of the people who already live and work here can't afford. In fact, the city manager himself has acknowledged that nearly 40% of Worcester households are spending more than a third of their income on housing and that most workers in Worcesters 10 largest occupations cannot afford the median priced home or median rent. Yet our response to people at the absolute bottom of this housing crisis is to propose charging them $25 a day for sleeping outside. Let that sink in. We are willing to reduce the tax burden for developers to build housing people cannot afford while proposing a financial penalty against people who cannot afford housing at all.

Where exactly do we expect that $25 to come from? More importantly, how does taking $25 from someone experiencing homelessness move them one step closer to being housed. If we can use public policy to incentivize development, then we can that same creativity, urgency and political will to incentivise deeply affordable housing, supportive housing, shelter capacity and pathways out of homelessness. Homelessness is already the consequence of systems that have failed people. A fine does not create a bed, it does not make rent affordable. We cannot subsidize unaffordability on one end and penalize poverty on the other. We should not even have this ordinance proposal in front of us, we should remove this item off the agenda and be ashamed of ourselves as you all prioritize the needs of profit over people. And I just want to point out that I'm a bit confused on 10D, it seems that Councilor Bergman is proposing some speed bumps

on Harrington Way. But according to the website we have here, there's already four. I believe that this was already put in place by District 2 Councilor and the formal District 2 Counselor.

Thank you. We'll just take a motion to suspend the rules and let people speak tonight. All those in favor? Go ahead.

Hi, I'm Brady from Worcester District 5. I'm speaking against Ordinance 18B. Amazing speeches from all before me Before I begin proper, I would like to retract a statement I made last week. I said that kindergarten must have been 80 years ago for a lot of the counselors but unfortunately Mayor Petty is just a decrepit-looking 65. To the subject at hand, I'm going to make this one a little bit interactive if I may. If you're in the gallery politely speak yes or no as appropriate. Does it make sense to criminalize the homeless people? Is there any benefit to criminalizing the homeless people? Does it make sense for somebody to say that they don't want to criminalize the homeless and then talk in favor of an ordinance that makes the homeless pay $25 for existing? Does it make sense to give power to police who are actively under investigation for rape? No!

Does it makes sense to gives power to Police who cannot give a DUI charge? Does it make sense to give power to police who use their service vehicles to drive to the house of city council members who believe in their reform in order to advertise its location to their rapist buddies? Does it make sense that we the people are being told that we can't review what our eyes can plainly see? Are we going to let it stand? The City Councilors can't seem to get it through their thick skulls into their miniscule brains that they represent these voices. Any vote that does not align with the values you just heard is a complete failure to speak to the people you represent. and seeing as I still have like 16 seconds, does anyone in the balcony see if any of these guys were on their phones? Because I've seen that before. Please direct your comments here.

If they were, it's such a shame we're talking about real people here. Three seconds. Be better, come on!

I'm Maria. I live in Worcester District 5. I have a few items I'd like to comment on this week's agenda. On item 10D, request police chief provide increased traffic enforcement on Harrington Way to address speeding concerns in the area. There was plenty of police presence on September 2nd, on Harrington Way and that made no difference on effectiveness. Let's talk less about increasing police presence and talk more about reducing preferential treatment. If only we had a review board consisting of civilians to assure there was accountability within the police department. I want to express support for 10 J, T, X, W, Y and Z as all of these would actually help our homeless neighbors in Worcester unlike the ordinance in 18B. City Manager Batista is trying to hand Worcester police officers a free pass to harass, attack, displace and assault homeless people.

speaking of which, I am in favor of 18A because there has still been no real justice for the victims of WPD and no actions to assure that it won't happen again. Let's not forget the DOJ report that found that Worcester police officers have been raping victims under the threat of violence and arrest. In summary, internal investigations are a cop out from actually holding anyone accountable. We should use our resources on actually supporting homeless people in Worcester instead of criminalizing them. and the politicians in Worcester who care for themselves and their own interests more than their constituents should step down at the very least, and be arrested at most. For example, for DUI.

Does your name see a resonance?

Hello, I'm Thea from District 5. I'd like to speak on Ordinance 18B. I just like to use my two minutes as a moment of silence for all the homeless people who ordinances like this will kill.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm here to speak on 18B for today's agenda of the homeless ban. How do you expect the homeless residents?

I'm sorry, is this your name and city residence?

My name is Yanni, and I live in Worcester. How do you expect the homeless residents of our city to pay a $25 fine when they can't even afford it since unaffordability got them to where they are at right now? seems like a useless tactic. Now here's my solution to solve the issue of the tents under the bridges and all over the city, see that vacant shutdown price chopper on Cambridge Street? Why can't that be used as a homeless campground or a trailer park for them? And if you are quote unquote worried about the homeless drug addicts, Why not help treat their addiction and enable it every week? Or better yet, help them all together to get them back on their feet by housing them. One thing for sure is if the City Council and other city officials won't help the homeless get back on their feet, I'll be well sure of the people of Western Massachusetts will make that happen one way or another.

The last thing I have to say is it really sucks that you will give pedophiles free housing and other assistance programs over the homeless. You all need to do better, let's all have a good night.

Hi, my name is Grandma Wolfpaw and I reside on Nipmuc territory as we all do. and I'm gonna be blunt because I'm fed up. Worcester calls itself the heart of the Commonwealth Are you sure? You're sure about that? Because tonight, considering your because tonight you're considering an ordinance that would tell people who have nowhere to live that they have 72 hours to leave. Leave and go where? If there's no shelter bed, no affordable housing, no safe place to go, what exactly are you expecting them to do? And then you want to fine them $25 for being homeless. A $25 Fine doesn't create housing. It doesn't solve homelessness. It creates another problem for someone who already has plenty. People experiencing homelessness are angry, they're frustrated, they exhausted. and I understand why when you keep pushing people from place to place, you're not solving the problem. You're making an already difficult situation even harder.

These are not statistics, they are human beings. They are our neighbors. You cannot tell someone go somewhere else when there's nowhere else to go. That is not solving homelessness that's just moving homelessness around if you want people off the streets give them somewhere safe to go. Build housing, expand shelters, fund services but don't punish people for being homeless when you haven't given them a realistic alternative and finally tired of people blaming The trash on the homeless. Look in your own neighborhoods, you can't blame the homeless for trash that's everywhere and that's what I'm getting tired of hearing as a Native American who cares about environment. and so you say you're the heart of the Commonwealth. So I'll leave you with this, are you sure this ordinance reflects the heart doesn't look like it right now. You cannot call yourself a compassionate city when the results are people sleeping outside, thank you.

My name is Michaelin Cahill. I'm a District 1 resident, a proud Worcester public school parent and an attorney who works in downtown Worcestere. I am here to speak on 18B. I work extensively with low-income housing insecure people in our region As a lawyer, I'm concerned that this ordinance violates the Commonwealth's Constitution. The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office maintains that punishing unhoused individuals for sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to go violates constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Passing this ordinance opens the city up to costly and time consuming legal challenges. Criminalizing homelessness is not the answer to the housing and homelessness crisis. Housing is the answer, affordable housing, supportive housing. The reality of the city's proposed plan is that the social service referrals that the city will provide all have wait lists or are always full because the demand far exceeds the resources. Much of the funding utilized by social services has been cut.

The only part of this plan that will be appropriately resourced will be the police, giving the city of the ability to utilize criminal processes, to enforce this ordinance is the antithesis of what it means to be a neighbor. It's the antethesis of the Worcester I wanna live in. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Benjamin Levine, I live in District 1 and I'm an attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute where I advocate on behalf of low-income tenants and homeless individuals. The proposed strategic framework will do little to fix the problem of street homelessness in our city, People sleep outside because we lack affordable housing. While homeowners and developers continue to see the value of their property rise, the city continues to lose its affordable housing leading to displacements for residents. Worcester now ranks as one of the tightest rental markets in the country, making it harder and harder for families to continue to make a home in our city. Finding individuals will not solve the housing crisis and will only penalize people financially exacerbating their ability to find a home. The process of breaking up encampments will not make it easier for families to find affordable housing and will cause further trauma to individuals, many of whom have already faced the trauma of eviction.

While the strategic plan has a laudable goal of expanding shelter capacity and connecting individuals to services, the Plan does little to articulate how the already overburdened services will expand that capacity. Having represented people facing homelessness needing services, I know there is a long wait for those services and finding people for lacking access will in no way make it easier for them to find those services or a home. As the city of Worcester continues to become more expensive The city must do its part and invest in its residents by focusing on the creation of truly affordable housing, and the preservation of public subsidized and what is called naturally occurring affordable housing. And not penalize individuals because this city has become more expensive. Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Sam Davidson Weiss, I'm a tenant living in District 5.

Oh, speak right into the microphone.

I apologize. My name is Sam Davidson-Weiss. I'm a resident of District 5 and a tenant in District 5. I was previously living in District 4 but A month ago or so, I received a notice to quit in which my six-unit building everyone was given a notice and not given an opportunity for a new tenancy. I'm lucky that this did not leave me in a position where I became at risk of being unhoused, but I know many people from my history of work with individuals at risk of eviction and in the eviction process would. I was very troubled to see, I'm here to speak against 18B, I was really troubled to say that the solution to a problem where there were The shelter beds were full last winter, and the point in time count in January of 2026 showed that there were over 1,000 people without housing.

The solution to that problem, the city is proposing the City Council to pursue is making being unsheltered unlawful. As written, the proposal also makes sitting where not expressly authorized unlawful and the proposal It's so that criminal punishment is possible, criminal prosecution in addition to the unreasonable $25 fine. Someone who has worked calling to try and get people access to DV shelter, calling the SafeLink line and having them be told over and over call in two hours. And someone who's worked helping people trying to access EA Shelter being told that they need to spend a period of time without any housing. I'm just shocked that this is the way that the city is purporting to address a problem and disrupt the cycle of homelessness

It's just entirely unreasonable and I think as Michael and Cahill noted, there are significant potential legal ramifications.

Thank you.

Good evening and thank you for allowing me to speak. My name is Janine, and I represent One Grace Pleasant and Grace House. I know what it means to need stability and not have it because I was in foster care and entered adulthood without the support or foundation I needed Despite the odds I kept building, and this experience is why Grace House exists. We believe everyone deserves safe housing dignity accountability and realistic pathway to self-sufficiency Finding or displacing people experiencing homelessness does not solve homelessness, especially when they cannot afford housing food or transportation. Enforcement alone cannot address the conditions that lead people to sleep outside and remain in public places. A stronger public safety strategy pairs enforcement where real alternatives, including safe housing, supportive services, et cetera. If people are moved without being connected to these resources, the problem is not solved. Grace House can help provide the structure and support needed to move people from crisis towards stability, employment

Personal Responsibility, and Community Participation. Our goal is not to offer a handout but to create a pathway. We are committed to working transparently with the city following applicable rules and regulations, listening to residents, addressing neighborhood concerns, and building responsibly strengthening Worcester. The question is not whether the city should have standards but whether those standards are connected to solutions people can realistically access. Thank you for your hearing us, for considering Grace House.

Good evening. And now for something different, I'm here to talk about 13A. What's your name? My name is Bill Hughes. I live in District 1. I'm hear to talk the rezoning of 25 Chester Street. The Mercy Center. Now, Defunct is looking to be developed. It resides in a 17-acre plot in Westchester Westchester is an area that has approximately 250 single homes. Most of these homes are owner occupied, have been for decades. These are people who've come to Worcester to find good schools, to find housing, to be able to partake in all of Worcester's best. By history, the roads used to be a cow path leading from farm above. It is now a highly traveled area

The Worcester's Department of Transportation and Mobility public record report shows that Westchester Street on any given day has 4,430 vehicles transversing it. Chester Street has 4,200 vehicles. This is a lot of vehicles one of the things that ends up is we have tremendous road problems potholes In the wintertime, we actually have a season called potholes where everybody learns how to drive up and down the street to avoid the pothole. Our counselor was actually good enough get a large area resurfaced. So I've sent out a fact sheet about this to some of the councilors, just take some time, take a look at it see if this is something that we need to redevelop away from the bucolic setting of these houses I thank you for your time and support.

Is this? Oh, it is on. Thank you. Hi, my name is Emma Nurkowitz. I'm a resident of Worcester District 4. I am here tonight to speak in favor of 10 A through C, 10 H through L 10 S through Z, 18 A and in strong opposition to 18 B. I'm here My personal capacity as a private citizen, but in my day job I work on research and implementation projects at the intersection of public health and criminal legal systems. Much of my work involves people with serious mental health conditions, substance use disorder and complex trauma. I also have lived expertise as someone living with chronic health conditions serious mental and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I can tell you in my personal and professional experience that you cannot coerce people with complex trauma, substance use disorder or mental health conditions into treatment

or shelter effectively. That is not an evidence-based process, that is not equitable process, trauma informed and compassionate no matter how many times you write it in your report. People are not choosing to be unhoused in this city. There are many factors systematic that are leading them to this, there is no information in this strategic framework that seems to collect qualitative or quantitative data on the barriers or facilitators to why people are declining shelter. As raised in a Radio Worcester interview with the City Manager, many people decline shelter because it is not safe or accessible to them. And if you're making no effort to collect information on why this is or address it trying to enforce Force people into shelter that is not safe or accessible to them is not going to work.

Not even taking into an effect that there's far too little treatment or shelter capacity. Thank you, please vote this down.

My name is Janet Davis, Worcester resident. I'm here to speak in favor of 18A, a proposal for police reform which would call for more transparency and public accountability, which is absent from the current system of self-evaluation and I'm opposed to 18B and 10L. 18B, as many have talked about would charge unhoused people for sleeping outdoors thus criminalizing them and 10L is giving business to a company that has already known to violate the responsible development ordinance. These two, to me are telling the story of a city council in a city administration that is full of cowardice You're choosing to punch down at the people who have the least amount of resources and instead allowing developers and others who have plenty to get away with all of these issues that we have. And it just shows how cowardly you all are.

Good evening, Councilors. My name is Jonathan Morales and I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the Worcester Affordable Housing Coalition We are deeply concerned about 18B and the proposed camping ban, and what it represents about how our city responds to homelessness. We share this city's apparent concern for our unhoused neighbors and their well-being but making it illegal for people to sleep outside does not address the reason they are sleeping outside in the first place. People experiencing homelessness need housing, they need safe stable and truly affordable places to live They do not need fines, displacement or additional involvement with the criminal legal system. The proposed policy would give the city the authority to clear encampments remove people's belongings and impose fines on people for conduct that is often simply the result of having nowhere else to go The Coalition is concerned that these measures can further destabilize people who are already experiencing housing insecurity and make it harder for them to connect with services and find permanent housing.

At the same time, Worcester continues to face a serious shortage of truly affordable housing. The Coalition believes that our response to homelessness should focus our resources on creating and preserving affordable housing, and expanding meaningful housing opportunities for people who are currently unhoused and for lower income residents. We should be asking how we can make sure that more Worcester residents have a place to call home rather than asking how can we more effectively remove people who do not. The real solution to homelessness is housing. That means investing in affordable housing, preserving the housing we already have and creating pathways for people to move from homelessness into permanent homes. The Worcester Affordable Housing Coalition believes Worcestershire can do better than responding to homelessness primarily through fines and enforcement. We urge the city to focus its resources and attention on the housing crisis that is driving homelessness in the first place. Thank you.

Hello, my name is X Todd. I live in downtown Worcester. I first wanted to briefly address item 10L and state my solidarity with the Carpenters Union. Why is Opti-line back? Whose pockets had to get lined for that? please honor the union's request to address this matter and keep them actually banned. Also briefly on item 18A, it is one thing to propose police reform but we will remember that you ignored the community's call for civilian review board Instead, it appears a lot of the review will be left to the supervisors with personal relationships with the officers and investment in defending them. And on 18B I just wanted to say how dare this city continue to rely on us to put Band-Aids upon Band-aids on the housing crisis that plagues our city while you hand out check after check to developers and an overinflated, rapacious police department. You rely on nonprofits, like many speakers today have come from who help people find what services they can in a system that only wants them dead or in prison. You rely on good Samaritans who have $10 to spare when we pass people on the street, except now they will be asking for $25.

Not for a sandwich or for a coffee but for the fine you just laid on them. You're the city. you're the public, you're supposed to be building shelters. You're supposed making sure housing stays affordable and under a socialist system, the city would be doing that We would be ensuring that people's needs are met before the pockets of developers and politicians are lined. We don't need Band-Aids, we definitely don't criminalization We need real structural change to prevent this problem at the source. And I'll acknowledge you're incapable of it, but we the people? We are capable of it! And I encourage everyone in this room to imagine a world with its priorities straight where housing, healthcare and community are put before real estate developers' pockets. And know that this is possible.

Good evening, Mayor, City Manager, City Councilmen and Councilwomen. My name is Gordon Ward. I'm a resident of the city of Worcester I'm here to support Petition 8B, Councilor King's resolution to name part of Laurel Street or East Ann Ward way. I am a ward, and people think that I am here because it's family. And I'm saying to you that I'm here because I believe it's part of our history I think some of you have known when we became aware with the video of my great grandmother. And when I think of that video, I think at the time and the climate, and the people that wrote letters to that organization to have her phone out there and tell her story. I look at their history and right now, I am not like so many people that came from the Laurel Clayton area.

So for instance you know my brother had passed and one of the things that he had done is, he'd done a research for our family. And so recently I just carried the ball over to the goal line and finished my application for Sons of the American Revolution It was sent to the state, it was accepted. It's on its way to Louisville where it will be registered and I will become a member of Sons of the American Revolution. It is part of Worcester's history So many people in the Laurel Clayton area have the same story. Also, what my brother had done was he'd done a research on my father's side. My father is James Ward. He's on Colored Honor at Lincoln Square My great-great grandfather fought in the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, and I'm in the process now of going and applying for them to become a member. This RACN war to me is Worcester's history.

The street, the playground as this city changes in its change and leaps and bounds we need to hold on to our past and who we are so I thank you for your time and I hope you consider Thank you.

Hi, good evening. My name is Sarah Bertrand. I live in District 3 in Worcester and I'm here speaking in opposition to item 18B I just would like to note that the current situation, we have at least 2,000 unhoused adults as a last count not including families with children is a situation that our city government has actively contributed to and exacerbated, whether through active policy choices or neglect. These include tax breaks for developers creating hundreds of units with only dozens of units deemed affordable, quote unquote, for people earning A certain percentage of the area median income. It includes lack of action regarding zoning reform,

It includes inadequate shelter space and disregard for best practices, including housing first and harm reduction practices. Waitlists are truly years long for truly affordable housing. And... and the pattern of development has been a complete mismatch for the need. Market rate units do not trickle down More units for people who earn a certain percentage of area median income does not result in housing now for people with low or no income. We are deeply short, not only shelter space but truly affordable units and these are related to policy choices that we have the power to impact.

I am also concerned regarding the criminalization of unhoused people by a police force that lacks accountability and which this body voted against a civilian review board to provide more transparency and accountability. Thank you.

Good evening, my name is David Ginsberg. I live in District 5 and I'm standing tonight in opposition to item 18B The Wilhoyt proposition states that conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit there must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind alongside out-group some the law binds but does This is an accurate description of Worcester today. A few members of the in-group, only after significant public outrage suddenly faced the discomfort of accountability. But the system that maintains Worcester's Bill Hoyt standards will remain in place as evidenced by the ridiculous $25 a day fine proposed for sleeping outside. How will making life even harder for the poorest and most vulnerable members of the community help them or us? How does punitive punishment of people struggling just to survive every day make their situation better? It says so much about this city's priorities when there is $10 million to settle police abuse lawsuits and millions more in tax breaks for developers to build giant apartment complexes

that half the city's residents can't afford to live in while ignoring those same residents' demands for a civilian review board and demanding $25 a day for the crime of existing without a private place to sleep. This isn't just bad policy, it's morally abhorrent. Do better please.

Hi, my name is Danielle Alishoyan. I was born and raised here in Worcester, Mass from District 5. I've been working for the Department of Corrections for the past 15 years. Myself and both of my brothers have all been homeless in this city I'm also a landlord and a homeowner. The assistance in the I'm sorry, here I am stuttering. The assistance that's given for people trying to get affordable housing is not helping with anybody. It takes extremely long for the process to go through. The programs that are offered here and the community. And it makes it harder for their rent to be paid or even get assistance with first, last and security. I'm also the president of Warriors of Opportunity. It's a nonprofit organization that assists with bridging the gap from treatment to housing where we see a large amount of individuals who have nowhere to go after treatment and cannot afford entry fees or rent for sober housing where they are safe to recover.

Already struggling community, people can't afford first last and security. There's $2 million in abatement funding that should be going towards mental health addiction treatment housing. Police wasting their time on homeless people when they should be fighting for real crime. Massachusetts has closed four prisons since 2020, and the jails have also reported that 45% has a drop in their population. And now we're going to fill them up with the poor who are being punished for being homeless.

My name is Justin Laporte, and I'm here to speak in opposition of 18B. Criminalizing homelessness is cruel, counterproductive, costly and simply doesn't work. Punishing people for having nowhere to go is fundamentally unjust. If a city bans sleeping or camping or existing in public space but doesn't have enough shelter beds or housing for everyone, the law necessarily falls on people for the crime of surviving. You can't take it your way out of poverty. You can say being unhoused is a crime, yet the ordinance creates enforcement by criminal process. It's criminalization by substance however you want to label it. This simply doesn't work. The evidence is clear. Decades of research on quality of life and anti-camping ordinances across the United States show they don't reduce homelessness,

They simply shuffle people from one block to another, deepen distrust in authorities and make people less likely to accept services because contact with police comes bundled with citations, fines, arrests and warrants. Orchestrated streets destroy people's belongings, IDs, documents which are how they're able to get jobs or find housing. that's more expensive than housing. Arrests, jail bookings, court time and can't make clear routes. Cities spend tens of thousands of dollars per person on this a year. Housing First programs, permanent housing with supportive services with no precondition. These consistently show better outcomes at comparable and lower costs. This type of enforcement traumatizes people in an already-in crisis. Most unsheltered people in Massachusetts have mental illness, addiction, history of trauma being ticketed... I apologize

Being ticketed, searched or displaced repeatedly compounds the trauma and worsens health outcomes. The real problem is the housing supply, the shelter capacity. Worcester's rents have risen sharply and shelter beds remain scarce The moral and practical response is more affordable housing, low barrier shelters. We must do better.

Good evening, I'm Amy Ebbeson. I live in Rutland. I work at Worcester Addresses Childhood Trauma and before that I worked for 17 years teaching in the Public Health Department at Worchester State University. I read Disrupting the Cycle and am personally offended that you said this was trauma-informed, evidence based. You also went on Hank Stoltz's show and said this is a holistic intervention You can't just say those words They're meaningless when you say them. This is not trauma-informed policy, this is trauma inducing policy. This policy adding barriers to people that are already marginalized and displaced is cruel and ridiculous. We also have been here before around police oversight. We know that the Worcester Police had been shown to engage in unconstitutional practice, including sexual abuse of vulnerable women And now we're going to put them in more contact with the police?

That's like handing over victims. Horrifying! Speaking of victims, I also want to stand with Heather and say please give her a file. Believe survivors. What are we doing? This is not good public health. Evidence-based means, we looked at the data, we look at the research. The evidence in this report is that homelessness is bad for your health. Yeah, we all agree with that. There's no evidence in this report that the policies you're proposing do anything to improve the health of the citizens of Worcester we really need to do better as so many people have said. I also just on another subject of needing to do, thank you Councilor King for calling out the need to support midwifery and maternal health in this city. Our health outcomes are slipping dramatically. This is not good practice, and I'm heartbroken that you're gonna put this forward. Please do not do this. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is D'Angelo Aponte, homeless resident of Worcester on behalf of the homeless community and number one I want to start this thing here. One, I wanna look at everybody dead in the eyes and I wanna say out of all approaches, we had to take this one. Shame on you! That's what I want to say number one. I'm gonna start off there. Number two, the trash slash the homeless population. So I did a little research and now we know technology is here at the fingertips. You can have everything you need to know, right? So I do a little bit of research that takes five seconds to do For everybody that's always opinionating without no facts and just throwing rocks at the homeless community, here we go. So the population at max I've studied is 15% max in Worcester and the national average for sanitation, which is trash, is 17%.

Do you see the problem here? So we can't just say the trash is all the homeless community's fault because that's, the numbers don't support that. So we got to do better on that one so and then number three We shouldn't be throwing each other under the buses. I don't think that's ever helped anybody in history, period. We shouldn' t be throwing on the busses. We need the city. The city needs us. We build these roads. We help you guys do this and this and that in the schools, volunteering over here. You guys meet and do things on our behalf. Keywords, our behalf and number four, options. You've only given the people two options and that is death or slow death. And I don't think that's a pretty fair... Choice Board here, and I want to end it with this. Before you pass anything please everybody watching in here right here sitting down I want you to pass this with your mother in mind. What would you do if your mother was here? Have a good day.

Good evening, I'm Margo Barnett. I've been a resident of Worcester for about 38 years. I represent a community group on the Worcestershire Community Labor Coalition. This coalition fought for the Responsible Development Ordinance because that's how we show respect for our workers. This council adopted the responsible development ordinance in 2023 Right now we have a company who was banned on the basis of this responsible development ordinance for wage theft. They not only committed wage theft, the owner threatened the workers with retaliation by saying he would call ICE on them. You've got to get these guys out of here! This is, you committed to it! You committed to It! So get them out of If you don't, you're not only insulting workers. You are insulting immigrants and making their lives worse.

And speaking of making people's lives worse, there's people here who've spoken who know way more about the homeless issue than I do. I saw your report said that you weren't criminalizing homelessness and that you were going to provide services. And it doesn't, you're not providing the services. You are criminalizing homeless. So be honest with yourselves. There's every, the people who know what they're talking about have said this is going to make this situation worse. It's gonna make the situation worse! Don't do it. Bye

Good evening. Vincent Pidoni, 18 East Park Terrace Worcester representing the Shrewsbury Street Neighborhood Association speaking specifically on the homelessness issue. Many of you have been to our nating. You know the issues that we have down at Shrewsbury Street, at East Park with encampments Mr. Manager, thank you for putting forward this initiative. Thank you to Councilor King, Councilor Economou, Council Rivera, I think Councilor Bergman All of you have filed something having to do with addressing this issue. If there is any silver lining in this discussion over the last couple weeks, it's that we agree that there's an issue Getting to a solution is where we diverge, right? I'm here to just say thank you to this council for taking this issue seriously.

on Shrewsbury Street and at East Park, it is horrible. It's a horrible condition for the people who are living in the park, living on the streets. Dangerous. Just last week, there was a massive brawl the residents are impacted, the people who are unhoused are impacted. The people with severe mental illness and substance use disorder are not being cared for. Mr. Manager, you putting this forward and creating a commission is a step in the right direction. I urge you, I implore you do not get weighted down with the politics of this. Government in action is not an answer anymore. So thank you, thanks for giving me the time. Thank you for putting this forward. Thank You for this debate and please count on people on Shrewsbury Street

at East Park and the Neighborhood Association to support you in your effort to address this critical issue.

David Coyne, resident of Worcester District 5. A lot of you know me. 35 years ago when I first came to Worcester, I worked for the Worcestershire Committee on Homelessness and Housing, what's now become Central Mass Housing Alliance. And I was the exec director there for a couple of years in early 90s. I know this issue well. There's people who are hurting and they need our help, but I don't believe that what the manager has proposed is a constructive help. It's good that the issue is being raised, because there are people who are desperately in need You know, the signs have said homelessness is not a crime. I think the way we've treated people who have become homeless and are unable to get out of homelessness is a crime Our policy adoptions, not just of the city government all across this country.

Our policies have not been intended to address the problems as a quote, a famous quote from Antonelli France, Nobel Prize winner in literature 1921. The law and its majestic equality forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. And my wife and I own our home. We have grass in our backyard, and we have on many occasions, especially when it's been hot during the summer put up a tent and slept in our back yard. No one can come after us for doing that! We can go inside and use the bathroom. The city was serious about this, put some porta potties in the woods wherever there's an encampment. People would much rather have that than have to do their business out in public.

Look, when I was working on homelessness as my full-time work one of my mentors a truly remarkable brilliant man Reverend Bob Batchelder used to tell the story. used to say, there was a town and I ran out of time for my Bob Batchelder song. Sorry. All right, thank you. Thank you.

Hello, my name's Natasha. I'm a resident of Worcester and a community worker who has served with the chronically unhoused population including youth for over 10 years. I'm here to speak about 819A on behalf of the people who are homeless, people who struggling and the people that work tirelessly to help while also working tirelessly just to survive themselves. Everything costs more. Rent, food, gas bills resources for mental health basic needs and healthcare are stretched so thin The Smock Shelter is the only emergency shelter in Worcester providing sub-par temporary shelter to adults over 18 years old and has an 83 bed capacity give or take. overseen by staff who make an average of only $19 an hour. That's less than the fine that you plan to punish homeless people with. Worcester's own planning document acknowledges that youth homelessness is difficult to fully count and that the youth people experiencing homelessness face serious risks.

City Manager himself even said that on May 21st, 2025 the number of unhoused individuals in the city is growing and these individuals need service now. How did we get from that to this discussion in just 16 months? It doesn't feel like the values of resident focus, evidence-based decision making and excellence when someone loses their housing or Loses access to health care and mental health services, they don't stop being a person. They're still humans. And people can and will die out there. They will die from untreated illness. They'll die from exposure to the cold and the heat Some, when they feel like they have nowhere left to turn will die by suicide and these are human beings. People who deserve to be here and deserve to show their faces regardless of their socioeconomic status. 819 will not solve homelessness and it's the city's own words say that its mission is rooted in equity, innovation, integrity and centered on the people. So again how did we get here?

you cannot hide homelessness or address it without tangible resources and support that's humane, ethical and safe and empowering. So follow through on what you said that you believe they're humans and all humans deserve equity innovation integrity just like you say thank you

My name is Jamerson Maurer. I live in District 5, and I'm a social worker in the city who's worked with the unhoused population in some capacity for a decade. There has been an extensive commentary both last week and tonight by speakers who have accurately and aptly identified the intrinsic inherent flaws of 18B with particular attention paid to the paradoxical approach of punishing and criminalizing homelessness in this city. While I endorse these sentiments, I believe the energy is misdirected. The reason why I find it misdirected is because the experts who have worked extensively with this population, nationally but also within the city by agencies like Elliott Community Services and Worcester Healthcare for the Homeless and previously the HOPE program, among many other service providers have clearly advocated for an alternative approach to managing and hopefully reversing this ethical and social travesty of homelessness.

There has been a tremendous amount of research and findings regarding Housing First being the most efficacious and effective approach to this epidemic, despite the Trump administration's repeated braying otherwise. There has been discussion about this ordinance, including increased data sharing amongst agencies and within city apparatus. And I have been a part of these meetings and discussions in the past. I have also spoken to and worked directly with the chronically unhoused, and this approach is both unwanted and rejected by the most critically desperate and disenfranchised amongst them. collating their data against their will and facilitating the tracking of these humans by proxy of minimizing or outright eradicating their autonomy over their own personal health information is a HIPAA violation at best. those of us who work directly with the unhoused, and more importantly, those who are experiencing homelessness themselves have made it clear that this ordinance is not beneficial. Which leads me to my final point

This is a disingenuous argument being proposed by the council. It's not a surprise that business organizations support this ordinance, it's rational, it just also unethical. It about systematically eradicating the presence of the unhoused I have one more moment, thank you. So that further punishment and potential imprisonment goes by with minimized protest accompanying their reduced visibility. It needs to be called out as such. This isn't an issue There's other people who want to speak tonight. If I respect them, let them speak.

How you doing? My name is Kevin Lynch, I'm a citizen of Worcester. I'm also homeless, I was here last week speaking and I'm speaking on the band, of course. Just to explain myself real quick, I got bandage on both my arms. Was at the hospital today, I was working today. I was running around the city driving back and forth like a ping pong ball My family friend, he's homeless living in a tent that I mentioned. I'm sorry, I was receiving the call but So I had to get him propane. He ran out of propane two nights ago, it's been freezing and now the propane line broke. His name is Justin Vega and he wrote something last week. He wanted me to read it for you and Justin Vega also came here in 2019, and addressed the city council on Queen Street. You know, and we put in a petition.

I was an executive director of EPICA at the time So this is just a part of what he wrote because I know the time is short. Over 48 states explicitly prohibit cruel and unusual punishments within their own borders, and state courts across the country are continually finding that punishing people for the involuntary biological necessity of sleep is an unconstitutional overreach of government power. aside from the legal liabilities that will inevitably cost our taxpayers, thousands in litigation pushing people from one block to another does absolutely nothing to solve homelessness. and so I also wanted to mention as I did last week, we were also here. You know, I was part of the community benefits agreement on the Woodstock Statement Stadium. And we discussed homelessness at that point, and the agreement got watered down but

You know, it's been at it for a while. A lot of people out there have quarries and with quarries people feel condemned to the street as Justin does and most homeless people have either small crimes on their quarry that do not allow them into housing. Please let's think a little bit better approach to this, thank you.

How you guys doing? I was here last week.

What's your name and see your residence?

My name is Akeem Benjamin. I was here last time. What's crazy is how the YMCA parking lot, I just seen y'all just built $70,000 to $5,000 charging machines for cars, for Teslas. What that didn't go through is no homeless shelter. Another thing too, I see the homeless rate, yes it's gone up and it's crazy how Worcester is the smallest state, bigger than Texas. I've been in Texas, how the homeless population not doing what we're doing. This state is disgusting. The only state out of all 50 states that's got to go through this is really messed up. There's something that has to be done, and it's gotta be done quick. especially the suicide rate is going up and they got pregnant woman out here. Can't get housing, smart can help pregnant women that is sad. That is very sad and upsetting that more pregnant woman can't get help that they have to suffer with their baby, you know?

And then like I said, you guys wanna finance for having a sleeping tent. How about we lock this up so more people dying in the county? You might rot away and the county might die You know, this is not going to work. This is something stupid. This should not be forward. Finding us because we've been sleeping in tents. But what about if, like I said, we go to jail and run away? Because of our health problems. Because you guys can't help us with the right health doctors or something. Do something. So let's lower this. especially the crime rate too. Thank you.

Thank You. Would your name and say your residence?

Hello, Sir George Washington. Worcester, Massachusetts. Today I'll be speaking on 8C. We should fix the potholes instead.

The Brits are coming! Paul Fevere, help me dump this twisted tea into the ocean. Yes George Washington? Why are we dumping this twisted to into the Ocean? Were you not at the last meeting, you dumbass? We have to save the taxes. The government's taxing us too much. Oh yeah, isn't that funny? Wait, how are we gonna get money for the government? Oh, we're going to tax the homeless people because if they sleep on the streets you can get money from them. Oh, that's the perfect idea tonight. The Brits are coming actually. Ready it out. Bayonets going for action. George Washington, look out for the pothole. Ow!

The pain!

I'm actually not George Washington. I am Michael Jackson!

Deidre, Kevin! Thank you!

Hi, good evening all. My name's Colleen. I'm here from District 1. First off, I want to say I appreciate you all being here and you get to listen to all the people here. Obviously it's been very passionate It's hard to actually follow George Washington and Michael Jackson, but I'm going to try to talk about Line 8A and not any of the homeless or any of that stuff because it's been totally covered here. First off, I'd like to thank Councilor Economou for coming out to our neighborhood and looking over our area. A lot of the taxpayers' money is going into that area is going into the entire city. As Michael Jackson slash George Washington might have called out, there's a lot of potholes and other things in the city that are not safe In our area we have markers. I have pictures, but don't think you need to see them I'm sure counselor has seen them of five inches six inches and nine inches and I'm saying this because I We have children in the area.

We have people who are elderly, people who were using wheelchairs and other forms of being able to be and they can't. And then in the wintertime it becomes extremely dangerous for all of our residents because now you have to work around that with your equipment, and we also have people who are coming in who get paid to handle this. And they can also get hurt. So again I want to appreciate the time that everyone has spent here everyone who's been here today. And there is no shortage of obviously everything that's here, but hopefully I'm clearly not the last person for you guys to listen to. But I do appreciate your time and again thank you to Tony Economou. Thanks.

Hello, my name is Isabella Corruzzini. I am a homeowner and lifelong resident of District 5. I'm asking you to vote no on 18B the proposed ordinance addressing homelessness in public camping. Homeless people are not a criminal in the street. It was my friend who couldn't stay at their foster placement and needed to stay on my couch, it was my uncle who lost a child at a young age and battled his entire life with substance abuse It was my kindergarten classmate who slept on the train tracks with her mom. It's our families, who have to double up in two bedroom apartments because they can't afford more. I ask the council to put people first and focus on how to bring people in, not push them out. Thank you.

I already spoke last week about how idiotic it is to find the unhoused community, so I'm not going to speak on that today. But I will speak on... That I stand with the Carpenters Union. If you have already found... designed a responsible ordinance and you've already banned a certain contractor, why would you let them back in the city to work on large projects like that? That's not right. And also, I stand with the Civilian Review Board Coalition that we should have a civilian review board. I'm still going to keep speaking on that because why would you trust even the police to monitor the unhoused when we can't even trust the police? Thank you.

Terry Kelly, citizen of Worcester. Underutilized properties A lot of places were closed up, not enough businesses. Businesses were moved out of downtown You got Notre Dame Church, 2018 cut down and nothing built. Needed to do it right away he's losing money and he needs to build right away. 2018, it's empty! What happened? Across the street from The Hub 145 Front Street was built on low income money. And when it was done, it turned into Market Rate. How did that happen? SUNY's Pub, torn down. Nothing happened.

The automotive place on Chandler Street. It's painted, then it went on fire. Nothing happened. There's plenty of places to build but where is the money? Okay, I heard that you guys have an admissible funds of 18 million tax-free if you could take it out. I think it should be used. People of the city, there's a lot of things that could be changed. Shelter slash Community Center in every district, in case we have a tornado. Katrina hitting New England, right? We're not prepared. We're are you ready to see a whole bunch of people die because we have a major storm? I mean, in every district. We could show the whole state of Massachusetts how to have our heart.

We are the Heart of Central Massachusetts! Thank you. Stop letting people die!

Okay, we'll go with the first person.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The first person is David Webb. Do you want to meet the resident now?

Yes, hello. David Webb, unfortunately Worcester. First and foremost 20 I. Yes please talk about the bad apple in charge Anthony Patrone maybe thank him for getting Kate home early 10 E is a no-brainer for any councillor who cares about children or families 9J, are we still pretending the so-called Quality of Life Task Force helps anyone? 10J, Public Bathrooms. Yes fucking please. This is a public need and it's a lack of them the city's lack of that is one of the ways Worcester is inaccessible 10D, speed bumps on Harrington Way won't prevent drunk driving counselors but might reduce the chances of them hitting parked vehicles. 18A It's unfortunate that this body is terrified of accountability and cannot allow any transparency. This plan is smart, so I'm certain Councilor Bergman will be against it. 18B The Camping and Sidewalk Ordinance Call this what it is, another excuse for cops to harass people and funnel them to the House of Corrections.

Finding people for existing is cruel and unusual, both legally and morally. And the city manager and everyone in his office should be ashamed for bringing this forward. It's fucking disgusting that it got this far. Have some humanity. Don't pretend to care about small businesses They know you don't care. The people know you're just catering to developers and the Chamber of Commerce. Also, remember that Worcester Six, the firefighters What has been changed since then? You celebrate them every year, but haven't done anything to prevent the problem that resulted in their deaths. So, this city really should be built on compassion and empathy and giving a shit about the people in it instead of just prioritizing the taxpayers and the Chamber of Commerce and developers and the police union. have a heart, listen to the people who've spoken tonight instead of you know the people in the Worcester Center and wherever you guys are hanging out these days. Have a heart be better please.

Thank you next speaker.

Mayor, the next speaker is Samantha. I'm going to chime in with Rosanna now.

Hi, my name's Samantha Martin. I live in District 1 and I'm here to speak on Item 18B. I genuinely do not understand how we can criminalize homelessness in a city that does not have enough resources for the people experiencing it. If we have more than a thousand plus unhoused people in nowhere near enough shelter beds, then what exactly are we expecting people to do? Where are they supposed to go? We can call it an encampment ban. We can called a fine, we can call enforcement but at the end of the day we are punishing people for having nowhere else to exist and I think that should make every person in this room uncomfortable because Worcester has had no problem making room for expensive development. We are building luxury and high price housing all over the city, we cannot build luxury housing on one street and find somebody for sleeping outside on another We cannot continue creating a city designed for people who can afford to move here while treating the people who are already struggling here like they are something that needs to be removed. I refuse to accept the idea that the solution to poverty is to punish people for displaying that poverty where the rest of us can see it.

If you remove an encampment without creating somewhere for those people to go, you did not solve homelessness. You moved it. You made it less visible and that may make some of you more comfortable but it does not make one person less homeless If Worcester truly wants encampments gone, then give people somewhere realistic to go first. Because until we do that finding someone $25 a day for being homeless is not a solution but creating enough shelter beds, creating deeply affordable low-income housing expanding permanent supportive housing, expanding outreach, substance abuse treatment centers, behavioral health treatment centers case management and meaningful wraparound services can and will give people an actual pathway out. And I want you council members to keep this in mind Criminalizing and punishing people for being homeless is punishment for a problem you all have failed to solve. Thank you

Mr. Mayor, next speaker is Anne Assee. Can we meet the resident now?

Hi can you hear me?

Yes go ahead.

My name is Anna. I'm a Worcester City resident urging you to withdraw the anti-camping ordinance, 18b. I am a licensed social worker and have spent my career working with people who are unhoused or facing homelessness now. Why? Because no matter the agency, no matter field, the housing crisis touches everyone. Every day I talk to people terrified of losing their housing because they're out of work with a new cancer diagnosis or their home is being foreclosed on to pay for their parents' long-term care, or they simply can't make ends meet as the costs rise and rise and there's no help coming from anywhere. I can't do anything for these people. Our housing prices are wildly unaffordable, our housing programs have years-long wait lists and frozen funds, and our community agencies are crumbling under the strain of the ever increasing need as you've heard. I've also worked with people who have lived outside for decades, and their stories are unique and varied. And they may not feel relatable to you but it doesn't matter because their lives are not less important than yours.

And I know some councilors here care about this issue and have real skin in the game. But for the rest of you, have you ever had a conversation with an unhoused person in the city? Do you know anything about them? The majority of the people in this city are closer to this edge than you want to admit, and your answer is what? A fine for daring to exist in public? For not just vanishing as a political problem for you? It's almost too absurd to merit a response, but here we are once again. Community members, social workers, housing lawyers, advocates, impacted people Far far more qualified to speak to an effective support for unsheltered people than any of you arguing for an ounce of decency, an ounce humility and an ounce humanity from you. I sat in community forums last election cycle listening to every single one of you opine the housing crisis and the quote unquote homelessness problem. And what single productive thing have you done since then? The Homelessness Commission has not met once. Not once!

What are you doing? If you pass this ordinance, you're worse than useless. You are actively making life worse for the people of this city. Withdraw the anti-camping ordinance.

Next speaker is Jeff Burnett, which I'll meet the resident now.

Hello. My name is Jeff Bernet and I live in District 4 I am one of the many speakers speaking out against 18B. You have heard statistics, stories, facts, pleas to do better and have been called out for the clear harm this ordinance will do. I'm a commissioner on the Worcester Historical Commission, so I know as well as you do how slow housing development is. How little of even the small amount of affordable housing is truly affordable and how little some of you care about ensuring all in Worcester have safe and adequate shelter. I also know that you will claim that this ordinance must come before providing meaningful housing and shelter due a lack of funds Sure, there are funds for overpaid unaccountable police, funds for lawsuits, funds from developers but none for us. This we know. What few may know is that Worcester City Manager Eric Batista

makes $354,000 a year more than the mayor of New York City. More than the Mayor of Boston. I ask you is it reasonable? that the city manager makes $354,000 while people in the city sleep outside. I ask you how much good could be done with that money? To fine unhoused Worcester residents $25 for existing and to pay an unelected official $354,000 is unconscionable. It is insulting. What is this ridiculous salary doing for the people of Worcester? City Manager Bautista recommends you adopt Ordinance 18B. He does so secure with a contract and with the anonymity of an unelected official. You, the council will take the hit for this. Listen to the voices here tonight and know

Any council members demonizing unhoused Worcester residents and supporting Batiste's $354,000 salary will not be re-elected. It is too much.

Next speaker is Eric Stratton.

Good evening, Eric Strattan. I'm a resident of Worcester in District 1. I am calling in for a few different items. First 10G This is the item from Councilor Economou looking to regulate electronic scooters, bicycles etc. I would urge the council to oppose this for a number of reasons. One is that there's already work happening at the state level to look at this and more specifically this proposed ordinance or draft request for a draft ordinance doesn't address the different varying levels of motorized scooters, bicycles or other vehicles. So, do I need to register the Power Wheels scooter or bicycle that my child has? Obviously not. This again I think is something that has not been completely thought through and frankly should not be something the City Council is looking to move forward. There have been numerous cities that have looked at things like licensing and registration of bicycles.

And frankly, this absolutely could not be done. This really works against providing people with a means of being able to get around. Many people who look at e-bikes are looking to do so and not own cars, many people who own those do not own another method of transportation Adding additional burdens both administratively for the city and for these users is frankly not really feasible and will lose the city money. It is not something we should move forward, and again it's something that is poorly thought out. Second, I'm calling in an opposition to 18B, I believe it is regarding the homeless encampments. Again, the city should not be looking at criminalizing the homeless while it may state that that is not the intent having a $25 Penalty as well as the ability to go after someone criminally and put them in jail over this, it speaks things. What should we expect? Thank you.

have been supporting homeless shelters in place.

Okay, we'll go to our next speaker.

Next speaker is Laura. Charmita resident.

Hi, my name is Laura Solis-Matthew. I am a long time resident of Worcester currently in District 5. I want to echo everyone else who has spoken so eloquently against agenda item 18B the anti camping ordinance and State strongly do not pass this ordinance. Lots of people have shared personal stories, statistics, research lots of information. You have this information, you have this data I think that there are many of you on this council sitting here tonight who have already made up your minds because you know how you feel about the issue I want to remind every single one of you voting on this ordinance tonight that you all have homes that you will go home to tonight, warm beds that you'll sleep in tonight protected from the elements.

It is easy to convince yourself that putting a criminal consequence and a monetary fine on homelessness will somehow get people the help you think they need when you, yourself have a home to go home too. Maybe when those of you planning to vote to essentially criminalize anyone forced to sleep outside place this vote, you won't sleep so soundly in those safe warm beds afterwards. Maybe you will feel that guilty conscience for not being able to face the humanity of others who you view as blight, who you wish to clean off the streets. Whether you sleep soundly or not after this vote, you will sleep inside your homes. As everyone else has said, do better. I yield my time.

The last speaker is Nadine, turn with the resin now.

Hi, my name is Nadin Page I am a unhoused person in the city of Worcester. When I became unhous,ed I was living in an open sky program on Fairbanks Street, and I have been unhoused since June 30th of last year. I have had problems with the MLK shelter Queens you don't fight with for the most part. It's the MLK show that I haven't been able to get back to because they need to decide whether I can go back or not, okay? Now, I have a brother, three chosen family. But I have brother who's also been unhoused for more than 10 years and he's back in the hospital with UMass abusing power. So no, I do not agree on this ordinance. And I'm actually here, I'm speaking from my sleeping spot tonight and I know for a fact that I am four years clean and sober.

So, I'm seeking as unbathed homeless especially the sober and clean population that have been unhoused Open Sky does jack shit sometimes, pardon my language. But I'm getting help from Safe Exit for a place to be during the day at least. I don't have a housing... Ample means I am physically and mentally disabled permanently, so I'm relying on a disability check. I'm on the champ waiting list! And I had to apply for Abby's house twice! Still haven't heard! So what are you doing? Why, I can't afford $25 a day. There's no way! Like, I might only get a little more than 1500 a month. Right now with somebody else handling my finances, I only get about $100 a week. That's like four days! Four days out of a week that I could pay.

What are you doing?

Thank you.

Okay, so we have people here. So we'll go through the petitions then we'll do the 18B. Excuse me Mr. Chairman?

Is it possible to take a couple items out of order?

Councilor King has one too.

Okay, just because they're here the residents are here just to get them home.

Oh which item is that?

Item 8A and item 13A, please.

Okay, 8A, Council of Economou on behalf of residents of the Winter Heights neighborhood request grant survey markers that stick out of the sidewalks some six to nine inches high be cut down at the payment level in interest of public safety. What was the other one?

The other one was 13A.

13A. for the Planning Board, Director of Catholic Charities of Diocese of Worcester request to amend the zoning map by establishing adaptive reuse orderly overlay district that wholly encompassed the property of 25 West Street.

On item 8A? Yeah, 8A.

Go ahead.

Mr. Chairman, this is not just a problem in this neighborhood but throughout the city and I would venture to say from my experience in areas where there is newer construction where the granite markings in the sidewalk have protruded through the sidewalk. Now they're not just out an inch or two inches, in some cases there are nine inches if not more. We talk about walkability and safety in our neighborhoods, and these are impediments in our neighborhood. I would ask the city manager to kindly reach out to DPW and come up with a plan to address these as soon as possible. I know in some areas, as we approach Halloween and the kids are out walking the streets People put orange buckets over these so the kids don't trip.

But as the young lady had said at the microphone, People are tripping, they're hazards. You can't even if you were wheelchair bound you'd have difficulty navigating these sidewalks so I feel these need to be prioritized throughout the city and especially in this neighborhood. Whether it's rampant, throughout the entire neighborhood. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

We'll send that to Public Works

On the next item, Mr. Chairman if we can just I would just ask for a roll call vote on this please

13A, motions to send the Economic Development Committee. Could you read it Mr. Toomey? It's a report of the Planning Board upon the petition of Timothy McMahon Executive Director of the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Worcester, request to amend the zoning map by establishing adaptive reuse for a void district that wholly encompassed the property at 25 West Street. And the motion is the Senate of Economic Development. Roll call.

Bergman, Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Councillor Economou? No. Councillor Rosolo? Yes Councillor King?

Abstain

Mitra? Yes. Councilor Ojeda? Yes Councilor Rivera? Abstain Rosen, Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. Mayor Pettit?

Yes Okay we have let me see councilor King had asked 10E, I think we have people in the audience for 10E. Inquest Commissioner of Health and Human Services work with the Worcester Community Midwifery on the mission to expand quality midlife King, Midwifery Care and Education Diverse Communities in the City. Councilor King?

Thank you Mr. Chairman. This is a request that HHS engage in active cooperation, collaboration that we explore city support for such a facility development and city support from mobile clinic including site coordination, parking needs investment in birth sending facility as a community health resource Mr. Jim and I preface my comments by saying here in the city of Worcester, we welcome about 7000 babies each year. Our community deserves access to a full range of health care options, including skilled midwifery. in other counties where maternal outcomes are better than the U.S., which is about more than 12 countries, midwives are the entry point for reproductive healthcare.

Here we have fewer midwives that are available for our families and many people are unfamiliar with their role. Mr. Chairman, a midwife is an independent healthcare practitioner skilled in reproductive and sexual health care including pregnancy. Berth, Postpartum, Fertility, Wellness and Contraception. Hormonal and menopause care as well. They are licensed in the state of Massachusetts, and can provide care in offices, homes, and clinics, hospitals, birth centers Midwifery Style Care is based in patient education, health promotion provides evidence-based care that reduces interventions and improves outcomes for both parents and babies. As the World Health Organization recognizes, midwifery care has been shown to do six things. Reduce health initiatives.

improve cost effectiveness, improve people's experience of care, reduce assisted vaginal birth and cesarean section rates, and increase vaginal growth rates. Mr. Chairman quite simply it saves lives. Commonwealth of Mass defines the birth center as a home-like facility where births expected to be low risk are planned to occur following uncomplicated pregnancy. These centers are led by the midwives and staffed by a trained healthcare team. They contain much of the same medical supplies and equipment as labor and delivery, and they typically provide greater comfort measures such as larger rooms, larger beds, and birthing tubs. The American Association of Birth Centers tells us birth centers are universally committed to family centered care. In those centers, childbearing person's right to be decision maker about the circumstance of her birth are fully respected.

At birth centers, clients are encouraged to eat if they're hungry, move about, spend time in the tub if they wish and push in whatever positions they find most comfortable. And these centers recognize that the laborer knows what their body needs to give birth The midwives and their staff attend the needs while Dylangy watching for signs that are outside of the realm of wellness. Birth Center Care is again better maternal outcomes, lower risks of complications and less C-sections and lower overall costs of care. The state, the DPA, Department of Public Health has thoroughly researched and called for a statewide expansion of this care in the licensed birth centers. It also recognizes that these vital services help address many health disparities, including racial and cultural inequities that persist in our system. At this time, Worcester has a low number of practicing midwives and no licensed birth center facility.

Our community deserves choices in care, deserves access to the benefits of midwifery care and birth centers. Yes, the system is strained to take care of needs of people from Worcester and surrounding areas as we've seen especially with the continued closures of maternity units at smaller hospitals and local OBGYN practices. We need to utilize skilled midwifery, midwives to care for our community and create educational opportunities for more people to become licensed midwives. Worcester Midwifery is a small local practice that has been working towards big goals. A group that includes nurses, doulas, lactation consultants, childbirth educators and they have been providing care to our neighbors while advocating for positive change including a community birth center, and a mobile midwifery unit.

These initiatives, Mr. Chairman will benefit patients seeking care as well as provide places for clinical education for future providers. Worcester Midwifery Center will be a licensed birth center facility with additional services providing sexual and reproductive health care, lactation care, pediatric and other joining specialties. Community Space for classes, groups and events. And will be covered by insurance including Medicaid. With city support this facility could open its doors to growing families in the next couple years. The Midwife Mobile would be a licensed mobile health initiative an office on two wheels with two treatment areas and lab space that allow teams to park in areas of need, provide appointments for prenatal postpartum lactation gynecological care labs and ultrasounds. they will help provide care for those planning to deliver in the hospital but the need of a regular appointments and they hope to help supplement the city's free clinic program.

With the current support of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and adequate local support, this mobile office should begin seeing patients after this fall, Mr. Chairman. This request again is to request the City Manager to work with the Commissioner of Health and Human Services, then work with The Worcester Community Midwifery on their mission to expand quality Care, and Education to Diverse Communities in the City. Mr. Chairman, thank you.

Let's send that to the manager. All those in favor, opposed so ordered. On this item? On Councilor King's item?

No, we just took a vote on that one. What's that? We just took the vote at that item. I wanna take another item out of order.

Oh, okay which item? 18B. Can we wait for that till anybody else? It's gonna be a long discussion, I just wanna get through the petitions then we'll go to 18B There's people here on petitions. This is first 7A and 7B, hold your hearing. Motion to open the hearing. All those in favor? Opposed? So ordered. Anybody opposed any item on 8-7-a and 7b? Seeing as nobody opposed. The motion is to adopt. All those in favor? Opposed, so ordered. 8A we did. 8B the motions refer to Public Works.

Mr. Chairman, Councilor King Thank you, just want to first on 8B this is the request from myself and Councilor Bilotta for Laurel Street from Summer Street to Everett Gaylord Boulevard, to be given the honorary street name designation of Arizon and Ward Way. You know this is realizing a promise that was made many years ago, Mr. Chairman to this family and to this community at large. And I want to thank this Council for already taking a vote in support of this informal resolution some months ago. And I want to appreciate the family's patience in regards to this, and I look forward to identifying a time when Ms. Ward's family can come from far away and Neer to realize this street name designation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Finkel, Senator of Public Works. All those in favor or opposed so ordered. 8C to 8S refer the traffic and parking. Councilor Ojeda regarding HG.

Thank you Mr. Chairman, yes I just want to um I guess it's just uh we could just file this the reason why is we've been working on the redesign of Beacon Street and I actually have the rendering so there's going to be a stop sign there already. So we can file this, that'd be good. And then if you could reach out to the resident and just let them know that maybe share the rendering with them as well. Thank you, I appreciate it.

So motion to file 8G. All those in favor or opposed so record? Mr. Chairman? Councilor Economou?

If I can ask for an amendment, if I may. Sorry. On 8i, a friendly amendment, let me just pull it up if I If we can, I'll come back to it. Let me just find it. Thank you.

Okay, so we'll do 8C to 8S, motion of the traffic and parking minus 8G which we put on file in 8I. Is it 8I you said, Councilor? I'll hold that for a minute.

Chairman?

Okay, Councilor Bergman?

I think we're pretty much in tie on that. On HC and there's an order so these were These were discussed with Mr. Pottle back in August at that time I was aware the 2023 there was an item regarding similar items filed and nothing was acted upon. I've since found in the last couple of days that speed humps are to be installed there, so I'm happy to hear that. State Councilor Bilotta carried the ball across the goal line. I congratulate them for that, and I think all is good so I could file both of those.

The motion to file HC. All those in favor? Opposed? So ordered.

and there's also an order that's reflective of something similar.

We'll get to that one.

Okay, file that one too? Yeah. Okay.

Motion. 10D. Motion to file 10D Councilor Toomey has recused herself on 10D. Motion is to file. All those in favor, oppose? So ordered.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

I'm going to say that, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Councilor Economou? Thank you this would be a friendly amendment if amenable. To add at the end After Councilor Bilotta's name, on behalf of Maritza Cruz requests installation of a truck ban weight restriction from the beginning of Shore Drive at the intersection with Norton Drive to exclude trailer trucks from traveling on shore drive. If we can add that as a friendly amendment,

Yeah, no problem. I thought we could do it in community but yeah that's fine. Okay thank you.

Okay so as amended. Mr. Chairman? All those in favor or opposed so ordered. Councilor Ojeda?

I just want to check on 8R. I'm not sure, we're moving pretty quickly here.

8R request traffic control signal intersection of Sulphur Street and Hammond Street be Review to add at least five additional seconds of a protected left turn, drivers traveling north turning onto Hammond Street.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah I just want to make sure that we do you too also to make we look into the other intersections there. There's about four intersections in that area and I know I've been working with Councilor, I'm sorry Commissioner Raleigh on The amount of time, I think it's like 10 or 13 seconds to identify that. That's a really congested area. There's actually been several accidents on Quinsigam and Ave that lead up to those intersections as well so if it can include looking at the time between the red light and the green light to stop and go because it is a highly congested area, if we're gonna touch on this, we gotta make sure we look at the rest of that intersection. A lot of traffic is traveling on those roads and like I said

probably seen within the past month or so several accidents, several side swipes as well within that vicinity. So if we can amend it or make sure that we're including the other intersections are meant from each other.

Okay, so as amended. All those in favor or opposed? So ordered.

Excuse me Mr. Chairman. I didn't get to speak on 8B. Oh sure you can speak on AP. King, and other people from the community. You know, Worcester's history is multicultural history. Worcesters' history is black history just like for the rest of the country and it's great to really recognize this family who as we heard from their Great-grandchild earlier today at the meeting that this family has a legacy of serving our country and in the city of Worcester. So it's great to recognize them and looking forward to doing this. Thank you.

Thank you. So we're going to 8 C 2, 8 S minus a T H E A I and they are because we were done them those in favor of a postal order. AT referred to Veteran Memorial Parks Recreation Committee. All those in favor, opposed so ordered. We have one more petition that was held last week 18A. Tom Moreno requests City Council consider adopting an attached proposal in pilot or in whole title executive summary of a proposal for police reform on Worcester. It was held under privilege

Is your name a city resident?

Tom Reno, City of Worcester.

The attached document- Mr. Chairman do we have a recusal? Mr. chairman is that what you said? Councilor Toomey has recused herself.

The attached document is a 30-page report I wrote. It has 45 provisions largely drawn from past agreements between the Department of Justice and other cities that investigated it. and also uses the Worcester DOJ report, and other state documents. The Trump administration has abandoned the process that has been observed for 30 years by the Department of Justice. It's a four-stage process, which was at a second stage when it Trump administration came in and abandoned the process. But there's a long history, again almost 30 years of them doing these investigations in cities where police departments had issues like it found in Worcester so there is a lot to draw from there. We just get through two years of kind of being held hostage, waiting for a Civilian Review Board vote that was never going to be in the positive. You know we waited for the Research Bureau report, waited for The Manager's Report

and then almost two years later, we get a no vote and we're nowhere. It was never real authentic process of comparing different types of oversight of which there are others Trying to find what was best for Worcester, it was kind of the process which is held hostage for this one report. The city manager announced, if I interpreted his words correctly, that he considers the police department is done with its DOJ report work. So according to the website that he's directed people to, 14 policies were either created or amended. And we have that system they presented two weeks ago which is untested, unproven, never been done before. And bifurcates jurisdiction which I don't think anybody in the world thinks is a good idea unless you're in this room. Future plans on police reform, I'm unaware of them. They have not been announced. We've been told that...

This chief has made a difference. I think he has. He's been an agent for change, but it's been so everything is fine. Don't worry about it. Nothing to see here. So we were told the same thing five years ago. We were told to say anything five years before that and some of those people that said those things are in this room So this is, I hope, the beginning of this council coming up with its own recommendations. Now that the managers said their DOJ work is done, I think it's time for this council to look at what they've done look at the available information and make its own recommendations, whether that's done in special committee or it's done public safety. I don't really care as long as it is done. And I'll just point out two of the items, of the 45 items that are in this report. 5.1, that the department's internal investigation policy does not declare a standard of evidence. I know the chief said what they used last week is not in the policy. Why not? and also that it's maintained this exceptionally cleared status for investigated officers.

It is the off ramp to stop investigations when the complainant leaves the process. And that was all over the DOJ report, it is in Recommendation 16 so the idea that DOJ recommendations have been fully implemented is just not true

Okay, can you wrap up now?

That's it. So I would hope that we could take some action in this council to now make its own recommendations to the administration. Thank you.

We have a motion to send that to Public Safety. All those in favor or opposed?

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to speak on that.

Councilor King?

Thank you Mr. Chairman, I certainly look forward to an authentic hearing in regards to this particular matter we know that The DOJ process was short-circuited in terms of any continued oversight by the Department of Justice under the Trump administration, not just here in Worcester. and across the country. Mr. Chairman, through the Charity Administration if you could share what's the most recent communication been regarding police reform with the Worcester Research Bureau?

Mr. Manager?

To the Chair, to the Council I don't recollect any discussion related to police reform with the Research Bureau The last conversation we discussed and that I met with the research was related to the actual report, in the presentation of the report about two years ago.

So there's been no discussion regarding the recommendations for two years, is that right?

Through this here to the council, that is correct.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I have nothing further. I look forward to this item going to committee, thank you.

All those in favor or opposed so ordered. Okay. We got, oh 18B. The communication statement recommend adoption of the proposed public camping ordinance in the context of disrupting the cycle and strategic framework for supporting unhoused individuals. And the manager asked to have maybe a good presentation by the commission, maybe five minutes to 10? So what's that? Oh, because we do have the rule presentation and you're up first.

Mr. Chairman, some motion for a two minute recess like use of bathroom.

Okay, we'll take a quick recess. All those in favor, oppose the order.

We are back in session, roll call.

Councilor Bergman?

Who is it?

Councilor Bilotta? Here. Councilors Economou? Here! Councilor Rosolo? Here, Councilor King? Here Councilor Mitra? Here We missed an item before we go into the homeless report.

to approve the minutes on 5A. The City Council hereby approves the minutes of the City Council meeting of September 8th, 2026. All those in favor? Opposed, so ordered. Commissioner. We'll get going in one second, I think we're missing one Councilor. Is there a Councilor Ojeda out there? In the hallway? Okay. I think it's important that he doesn't miss anything.

Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, could you introduce who our two guests are? General public, no?

Commissioners can do it themselves and people may not know. It's a good way to start.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Through the chairs of the council, I am Seema Dixit. I am the Health and Human Services Commissioner for the city of Worcester. and have been instrumental working with my team as well as the city manager's office in developing the strategic framework for homeless for the City of Worcester, which I'm going to present on today.

Through the Chair, to the Councilors. My name is Alex Arriaga and I'm the Assistant Commissioner of Health and Human Services.

Thank you. Commissioner, you can make a start. Go ahead. You have a few minutes

To the Chair, to the Council. Thank you for the opportunity I wanted to speak a few minutes and give the background on the development of this framework which we have called as disrupting the cycle, a strategic framework for homelessness in Worcester. It has been our observation and no surprise to anybody in this room that we needed to do something different and better as government for the homeless in Worcester. There are several social service agencies and resources currently in place to serve the homeless through a variety of places, through a varieties of channels, and through a verity of outreach. Our goal and purpose of developing the framework of disrupting the cycle has been to really do better as the government here, and to that effect we have multiple components in the framework.

First of which is to actually assess and find who are the ones who are experiencing homelessness in the city. What services are they receiving? Who is offering the services? At what stage are we meeting the people who we need to serve? For that, we are proposing something called as data sharing between the different agencies and organizations that work with the homeless populations in Worcester including the city. The city's offering to really help social service agencies look at the data, see who is being helped. See who is out of care See where we are falling short and how we can do better a job by actually looking at data because as we all know, public health is dictated by how data shows whether what we're doing is working or it's not working. along with the data sharing component.

We are also, the other component of data is to look at the different resources available in the city and to that effect Health & Human Services with its partners has developed an asset map which is on the city's website, where anybody can click and find out where is the nearest homeless shelter. There is a sober house where there is a food pantry where is there a resource for behavioral health, where is their resource for substance use treatment so on and so forth. So our goal is to really make this more scientific, accurate as much as possible understanding the challenges of this displaced population and how hard it is to track them. By doing that, we would really know how our work is ongoing as well as help us coordinate to connect those resources with those who are very much in need with our community partners. The second component we are hoping to do and is a component of this framework, is to standardize the outreach.

give the training and the technical assistance that is needed to our outreach staff as well as different workers. There's public health nurses, there are social workers, case managers, there's outreach staff to ensure that everybody can use their potential to the maximum and they are trained to serve the complicated population. They're working with day in and day out, and there is no stone left unturned in providing those services to this most vulnerable in need population. One more thing we are working on as a part of this framework, we are proposing and have already started making an effort is ensuring that there is shelter capacity to the best of our ability. We have started already working towards a winter shelter, hopefully to open on time considering all of our resource challenges to make sure that it is as seamless a winter as possible for the most vulnerable who are out there.

Lastly, a part of the framework we are proposing is identifying the encampments around the city that are there. We all know there are encampment but where exactly are those? Who is living in those and what services do they need? Once we know them, we will be more poised to provide services to them through a variety of tools that we have providing outreach and making sure They get repeated opportunities, people who are living in encampments and do not have the luxury to have a stable home but are in need of services. It could be behavioral health. It could be an overnight shelter, it could be a temporary shelter. It could permanent supportive housing or it So in order to do that, we want to make sure that we reach out to the encampments. We know where the encamps are. We offer repeated opportunities and encourage people in encampment to avail these services, connect them to care.

So the encampment ordinance or ban ordinance is just a proposal towards ensuring that we don't leave any effort in making sure the services are available and they are well coordinated in the city to reach these populations because for them to live in the encampment is not safe for their own safety, for their offsprings as well as there's fire risk. There's overdose that we may not notice because citizens are living in encampments. So in hindsight, I'm happy to answer questions. But I want to repeat and reiterate that the proposal Camping on City Property, Bain is a part of the system we are trying to create to do a better job with the homeless in our city. It is not the system itself.

and the fine that has been proposed as a way to enforce it is something that it's up to the council to decide how they deem appropriate in order to enforce this so those are some of my Thank you for your thoughts and in sharing why we came up with this framework because we don't want to do a sweep of the encampments. We want to providing safety to those who are living in these encampments. I'm happy to answer questions, I just want to share one final parting thought which is the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness has repeatedly published that Cross agency coordination, engagement with encampment residents, coordinated approach and connecting them to housing and shelter is one of the best ways we could support those who live on the streets and don't have a stable home. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you, Councilor Rosen?

Thank you Mr. Chairman First of all, I appreciate all the testimony we've had the last two Tuesdays from folks here in the city of Worcester, our residents shows how many of them really care. How compassionate they are. None of us can find fault with that certainly and so I'm glad they came down I agree with much of what they said. In a way, I like that the manager and the Department of Public Health administrators and the staff recognized finally, finally that what Worcester has been doing for years has not been working. Okay so that's the first thing. So they came up with a plan Much of which I don't agree with and much of which, I won't support. and it's the homelessness issue, and I've been on the council several times over the long years.

It's been one I've concerned with for many years. And previous to this election last year to the city council, I was on the Board of Health and I worked closely with folks at the Department of Public Health. and we talked, not at length but sometimes about that issue. And Mr. Chairman as you know, you appointed me as the chairman of our public health committee so I'm glad you had faith in me for that appointment. And again, this plan sees the need for a plan. I just don't think it's the right plan We have to have something in place there's so many people and they all weren't, they all couldn't be wrong. So many good compassionate caring people spoke tonight and last week and we'll probably have a chance to come back once again on this issue.

but they talked about this plan really harming the homeless, penalizing the homeless and making homelessness a criminal act, a crime. And as I read it and as I listen and as learn To some degree, they certainly are right. They're right. So it's good that we started with a plan but this plan needs a lot of work I couldn't possibly support it in its present form do i want to throw it out tonight and file it and say oh no let's go back to what we have been doing, we all admit hasn't worked for the last 20-30 years. No I don't want to do that either! I would have been glad no matter what plan came in front of us even though I don't agree with so much in this. It's a start, it's a stop. You know why can't I support it?

I mean I couldn't support fining people for being homeless I mean, we've already talked about it. Many of them have mental health challenges and issues. Many have addiction issues Many are older. We know the growing population of seniors across the country, a lot around fixed income. They can't afford the ridiculous rents especially ones we have in this city that so oppressive and so those are good reasons why a lot of people find themselves homeless. And it shouldn't be a crime, it should be something we have to all work together with, all the folks who came tonight and last week. We have to work as a city as a city to try to solve these problems. And it can't be through fining, it can not be through criminalization of the homeless. To go into an encampment and say you can't stay here

Okay, but you can only be outside or inside. You cannot be outside in public space. Then where can I be? There are no apartments for you. There's no affordable housing, there's not enough for you and there is not enough shelter space for you but I can't be outside where I am? No, you can't be there either. It just seems so wrong to me. It seems like if I was to write a plan like this the first thing I'd start with here's how Worcester is going to provide more affordable housing and here's how Worcester is going to provide more shelter, beds and services. Services to the homeless, Mental Health Services, Addiction Services, Job Finding Services. That's how I would start my plan and it wouldn't mention anything about fines. Fines? These people, most of them don't want to live outside

Some we think they do only because they're afraid of what lies ahead with all the issues they have. They were afraid to go into shelters, A couple years ago, three or four years ago I guess, the one at Blessed Sacrament. I must admit, at least three, four years go, I volunteered there. and I saw the fears that they had. Some came in because they had no other choice, it's freezing outside December and January February cold snowy icy they had to come in, but they didn't wanna come in. And I looked around and I saw the threats and the fears that these people had. I can understand that. So we need...

Second five minutes.

Second five, okay is that 38 seconds? My first five or my second five?

Second. I'll pause it since you asked the question.

Okay thank you. Anyway so addiction mental health they can't afford the rents. I can't support the approach of this plan, but I'm not saying tonight let's file it and some people would suggest well why don't you send it to your public health committee? It's not ready to go there yet. I'd love someday to have this or any other future plan in my public health committee. I think we can do some good work with the public's health with their help and my colleagues on the committee. It's just not in the right form, it's not ready, it got too many things that have to be updated and changed and we have to take a little, have a little more compassion. Some of the things that I do like it recognizes that we haven't done well over the years. It recognizes that don't have enough affordable housing. It recognize that we don't enough shelter beds

It recognizes that we must do more in coordinating all the agencies the city works with so we're all rowing in the same direction and we're getting maximum efficiency out of our efforts. and it offers a real-time dashboard of shelter availability. That's good, I don't think anyone could argue with that we want more shelter availability but we have to have it just give me a plan that says we need it not good enough we know we need It offers a centralized system, or it suggests the centralized system for people seeking beds. Expanded transitional and single room occupancy housing, stronger data sharing among city departments, healthcare providers, and non-profit agencies There are some good things in this plan that I could support. But the ones that aren't good, the ones criminalize homelessness, the one's aren't safe and healthy for our homeless population

they make me say right now I would reject the plan. So to send it to my committee, I'm telling you right now, I can't accept it. It shouldn't go to my community. I'm gonna make a motion tonight that we recommit this plan back to the city manager and then the city manager with his staff in Department of Public Health, maybe some of the agencies out there. Maybe some of people who spoke tonight or last week who seem to be very knowledgeable on the homelessness issue. Some work in that field then maybe Mr. Manager, if you can come back at a future date hopefully not a year in advance, maybe a month or two, come back with a new plan clear this up get rid of the fines, I'll never vote to find the homeless. Get rid of criminalization of the homeless, get rid those ideas come in and start first page Here's how we're going to have more affordable housing, and here's how are going to help more shelter beds. And here's I'm gonna offer more services

Job placement, mental health services, addiction services. That's the way I want you to start. Be very positive. this report doesn't do much better than what we've been doing over the years. Not gonna see any improvement, we might see more problems if we vote this in so that's my motion Mr. Vice Chair is that we recommit it back to the administration and ask them to do a better job on the report, and then come back to us, and hopefully that new revised report will be ready to go to the Public Health Committee where we can have a public hearing and we can ask our questions, and we dissect it. And we can make sure it's right for the homeless population in the city of Worcester and its right for the people in the city of Worcester. Thank you, Mr. Chairman

Thank you, Councilor Rosen. So we have a motion on the floor to return this to the city manager for revision. I'd also like to announce that Kathleen M Toomey, Council at Large has recused herself

We're going to go to Mayor Joseph M. Petty Thank you Mr. Chairman, I agree with Councilor Rosen

Might be a first. I'm gonna make you know the time and date.

No, I agree it should go back to the manager. This is not the city of Worcester. This is a statewide problem. You talk to anybody, every mayor who's doing it in the gateway cities and Massachusetts, you can go outside of Massachusetts, they're all struggling with this issue. and we are too. You know, I think from the federal to the state local governments will be filled this whole homeless issue over the past several years there's no question about that and I'm not working to criminalize this. I think it was a sign, homeless is not a crime. I Think Councilor Rosen was completely correct. We should be, don't support any fine either. We shouldn't have a fine and we just need to show some dignity and respect to the people who are homeless here. I know there was a person spoke, they said last week, there's more people who become homeless than can buy million dollar home or when the million dollar lottery ticket. were so true.

When this was discussed last week, there's an article in the Telegram about a couple on Mechanic Street who was on who was living in the doorway there, and he was a step away from supportive housing. And they were having trouble getting it or respite housing to make sure that you could get to that next step. So I think it's important When you look at all this stuff, especially when it comes to these encampments, whether it be in the doorway, would it be a tent? Would it be somewhere else? The thing I always struggle with is when it comes to encampments is, okay we go down. We take the encampment down but what then? What then they're down in a corner or they're here and we move them just go to another neighborhood then they come back. So how do we provide, and that's part of I guess the criminalization people are talking about tonight is how you handle that. Where's the beds? Where's services?

and so it's important that somehow before we throw them out, how do you connect them into services? and which is important because we have services. I think your report's been pretty excellent, I think when it comes to accountability, collaboration, data sharing, you had mentioned data sharing Commissioner in your speech and the only way we're going to get through this is every organization has to be held accountable, including the city of Western especially. because we have some great agencies out there who really do a good job and we need the data. All of us have to share that data, understand this issue how we're going to help people because how many people you think are on the streets at one single time, at the highest point around the streets in the city of Worcester?

Commissioner. Thank you. So Mr. Mayor, our last data shows anywhere between 150 people on the street but this is all a point in time so it's very difficult to track It could change tomorrow. Yeah, it could change any time.

The way that it gets colder people maybe go down to a very transient population. Correct.

It is a very

So it's 100, so I think in the report had mentioned how many beds that we have?

We currently, so 150 is a number that is We have close to under 200 beds in the city currently for shelters. That's the capacity

You doing running time? No.

You got plenty of time.

Okay, then... So we need to match services. Somehow, I hate you throw somebody out and they just come back. There's no service there. So somehow Gary Rosen was mentioning that. How do you make that happen before we take down an encampment? I know the beds are real. I know Joe Ruiz worked with another organization outside in Boston that Michelle Wu uses, in the city of Boston and I've talked to her about that too and her struggles in what she's trying to do. And she received a $4 million grant because she has heightened than we have here with the masks and casts, et cetera. And if there is any funding available, we should ask. And I know money is tight. and from the state level. But if we need additional funding, brief spring up to the State Delegation as the manager for motions. If there's any of funding available, we should be working collectively the data sharing, collaboration.

It's all this grant money out there which should be on one page and applying for one grant, whoever that organization is, the city or one of the nonprofits who provide any services and the other issues of course is shelter capacity. We had a whole section report on that, and we need to expand that real quick Mr. Manager. Shelter capacity I just want you went to shelter Do we anywhere with winter shelter? I know if you want to give an update now, you wanna wake up. The manager? Yes of course.

City Manager? Is that to the manager?

Yeah, Commissioner.

Commissioner Dixit? Thank you to the Chair, to the Council and Mr. Mayor. We have started working on the winter shelter capacity so I can tell We are still working with resources from the city in terms of a timeline, but plans as well as working with community partners and working with the state. We've proposed, the city has submitted a request for information that the state had asked last month We are hoping our timeline is sometime between November and December, which sounds ambiguous but part of it is out of our control with the resources coming from the state. We are looking at a capacity of minimum 60 extra beds for winter, about 120 days.

Would you say 60 extra?

Yes.

We had that last year, I think.

Yes. Last year we had 36 is my understanding. This was before my time. My understanding was last year we started Councilor. Councilor, thank you. Thank you. St. John's opened their shelter for additional beds February consistently but intermittently in January so our hope and goal is to have 60 this winter

Okay, so you need wax. So the previous years we all got funding from the state for the winter shelter. So we're still waiting for the funding from state in order to open our winter shelters is that correct? If that doesn't come what are we doing? You don't have to answer that now.

We have been in discussions on alternative plans.

Okay, make sure the State Delegation, I know you talk to the State delegation all the time how important that is and also regarding, this was very successful in Quincy in the day center. I know it's, I think at some time March, April is supposed to be open. Mr. Manager, is that correct?

Manager Bautista

To the mayor, that is correct. The day research center was scheduled to open this winter. Unfortunately some delays have occurred so right now we're looking at sometime in March or early spring.

and that made a big difference in Quincy as far as people who are unhoused going went to that day center, they used the bathrooms. They used the shower and it made a big difference in the business community. It's been pretty successful is my understanding. Is that correct? Yes. Commissioner Dixit.

Mr. Mayor, Quincy, we visited Quincy and we have a similar model and as Mr. Manager stated, we are hoping mid-spring early to mid spring as the opening for the resource center One point that I should also make everyone aware is we are also assessing the current social service agencies and looking for ways to increase the permanent bed capacity in one location. It all remains to be seen, but that work is in progress as well to assess and see how the permanent beds could be increased.

I know it's seven months away, but we should be also thinking ahead Mr Manager on that second floor at the Resource Center. That we're applying for funds, whether it be for the operational funds for the day center that would also get funds for second floor for the next phase of our project and we move as quick as possible to it. and finally I know Council Barter, I think Councilor King have an item on. They got in bathrooms for the parties and if they could report me come back what their best practices are

through the Chair and Mr. Mayor, we are working on a proposal.

Excuse me, those are separate items, Mr. Chairman? No it's not, it's part of the homeless thing.

Okay, go ahead. I guess my point is, I want you guys to speak about it. My point on that is I've never been a favorite but I'm not against it. I just need best practices and how we're gonna move that forward because I think that's an important issue. probably make a big difference to what people are talking about here tonight. And finally I just, I don't know if anybody had a chance to read this tonight? It came in like five o'clock it's from the National Homeless Law Center. And they have some pretty good stuff in here, and he's given us some ideas and also best practices in different states that we can look at, whether it be Milwaukee County or Florida. There's a lot of good stuff in here if people want to read it. I'll just read one paragraph which caught my attention. Research spans decades shows that mental health problems and homelessness have a bi-directional relationship.

A 22 study revealed that 21% of individuals who experienced homelessness reported having serious mental illness, and 16 reported 16% report substance use disorder rates significantly above average. And then it goes on and talks about the highest suicide rates too, so this is a true statement you would say I would think. So these are some of the things that we need services for when we go forward And it says here, the proposed audience is based on a false assumption also known as the myth of service resistance. That people choose homelessness and treatment aversion over appropriate services that are available. and if the services aren't there, they can't reject it. Right? So but we have services there that would probably actually I think this is sent to every Councilor and to the City Manager.

Thank you Mr. Mayor, we'll take a look at it for sure. Thank you.

Thank You Mr. mayor I'll be followed by the next and then followed by after myself Bilotta, Fresolo, Mitra Thank you, Mr. Chairman I just want to begin by saying we have legitimate concerns here

from the folks that came out today advocating against criminalizing the homeless to business communities, neighborhoods. and folks who are talking about our parks, talking about these issues that we're facing. These concerns are coming from housing coalitions, the unsheltered themselves their families again folks that use our public spaces Certainly, we know that there are concerns of loitering, vagrancy, concerns about fires. in public spaces and in the woods, you know concerns about trespassing blocking the public way etc. This particular

Ordinance in this particular product that was produced by the administration, Mr. Chairman already has ordinances that address them We have loitering, we have state laws, local ordinances that speak to all of these. Overnight parking, trespassing, camping in the parks. We already have this stuff so there's not a lot of new and many more aspects of this. What is new, is the issue of fines Mr. Chairman. And I'm going to ask the administration through Section 30 of this proposed ordinance or 30, section C. Numbers 1 and 4. If you could share with the public what those say, because it's not simply about campsites through the chair. Sections one and four

Hold the clock please. Section 30, or I think that's how you say it. Chapter 30, sorry. Section C numbers one and four. what's being outlawed under this ordinance through the chair?

Camp on public property in Columbia, unlimited use and placing.

Mr. Chairman I'm just asking the administration to read their proposed ordinance.

Oh okay one of you can read it if you like.

Section 1, Section 4 through the Chair. Commissioner?

Through the Chair, to the Council. Camp and public property including but not limited to using placing or maintaining a tent sleeping bag blanket or other materials for the purpose of sleeping lying or dwelling Construct, place or maintain on public property any semi-permanent structure including but not limited to handbilled shelves. But the number four is sit, sleep, lie or camp on any public street road bike path sidewalk or public property.

Thank you. Sit, sleep or lie Mr. Chairman. Those are the standards and the enforcement aspect of this is that this section may be enforced by civil process or criminal process which is our concern Mr. Chairman I would like to make a motion Mr. chairman we talked today about and a winter shelter. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion that the city explores the establishment of a permanent overflow winter shelter, Mr. chairman. We've had all the opportunities in the world to do what we're supposed and it comes to this I support certainly sending this item back Mr. Chairman that doesn't quite go far enough Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion that this council opposes these homeless ordinance and specificity separate from the report

Mr. Chairman, because it is certainly nothing more than an ordinance that creates a situation where folks are unsheltered and perhaps arrested, making additional barriers Mr. Chairman. I've yet to talk to any Worcester leaders, and policy experts on homelessness that supports this proposed ordinance Mr. Chairman in its entirety through Charity Administration. On the website, we have a commission of homelessness. Can you report what recommendations they made in regards to this ordinance? Hold my time please.

Yeah, through the chair to the council. As I've previously stated- Hold my time please. As I previously stated in a one-on-one meeting that we discussed, the commission has not been in place in many, many years. Prior to me and I believe even prior than previous administration nobody currently is serving or has been appointed to that commission

So it's an unfilled commission during your time as city manager. Am I saying there's a homeless steering committee? Is that right, through the chair? Mr. Manager?

Through the chairs of the council, there was an establishment of a committee by previous councillors in this floor that the administration played a role in coordinating on a monthly basis where we had multiple conversations and brought multiple partners to discuss not only this report, but also discuss any other strategies and ideas in which we can address the unhoused population in our community. And that has been happening for over probably 18 months by now. And that's something that I lead and I chair and oversee on a monthly basis.

and through the chair, what feedback did you get from the homeless steering committee as it relates to fines and criminal process that was written in the ordinance through the Chair?

To the Chair, to the Council. Time please. We spent a number of times discussing a lot of the topics in this report. There was numbers of feedback related to that, and then most recently discussion on the actual fine was not something that was available to the partners in that discussion. It was something that added later as part of the development of the ordinance that was submitted to the City Council.

So you didn't receive any feedback on the $15 fine or the criminal process?

To the counsel, there was no feedback directly from the partners on the 25 dollar fine.

Were they aware of it? prior to the submission?

Like I just stated, they were not aware of that. That was something that was added later as part of the process.

Mr. Chairman, that's a glaring omission. We have a commission on homelessness that's not there. Through the Charity Administration, what lived experience from folks either recent current or past Waiton on this $15 fine. I'm sorry, this fine and the criminalization potential through the chair. Commissioner?

Through the Chair, could you repeat the question just to clarify?

I don't want to lose my time from repeating a question. The voice of the unsheltered lived experience What input did they have and what feedback that they give? And what engagement did you have relative to this fine, and relative to the potential criminalization of sitting in public or sleeping in public.

There was no input received from them. This was something when we finalized the plan as well as the ordinance that was submitted

Mr. Chairman, for these reasons I'm going to reiterate my motion to strike down this Homeless Incarceration Act as a council. We can send it back. We could send the report back. My motion is to strike down this Homeless Incarceration Act that's before us in the form of an ordinance. We know that there's a number a number of issues here. We know that service and housing is needed, not handcuffs. We also know that in our business corridors, in our streets there is There is public urination. There is defecation. Concerns. There has been aggressive behaviors, of course. Yes, absolutely and we should address those. Those things should be addressed. We have the laws in the books, we have ordinances for folks engaging in such behavior.

That is not new, we need to make sure that we're doing what we can including public bathrooms which will come to later in the meeting Mr. Chairman. Unintended consequences of this ordinance would open the city up to future litigation, as we've heard. and Mr. Chairman, encampments certainly work in the moment for suppression but in every city they fail as it relates to long-term solutions because of the lack of resources through the Chair of the Administration. Are you aware of research that shows 24% of increase in deaths due to involuntarily being displaced? Through the chair, are you aware if that data

We have reviewed whatever information was available and our understanding is When folks are displaced without enough supportive services in place, which is why we are proposing offering services as well as connecting them to care. In the absence of that, an isolated action of displacing individuals from encampments has unfavorable outcomes. But if it is supported with a complete outreach as well as case management and connection to care, its success is what we have

Mr. Chairman, I reiterate the question. Are you aware of research that shows an increase in deaths due to involuntary displacement with this population? I don't want to waste any more time asking the question again, Mr. Chairman. I'm losing time here.

Through the Chair and Councilor, we have not...I don't recall reading this specific report that you're mentioning.

Mr. Chairman, could we get a report on that please by way of motion? Just this spring as the mayor mentioned, the House of Representatives pursued $4 million for housing resources on behalf of the city of Boston, Mr. chairman. I've spoken with Leader O'Day, I've spoke with the delegation. You know and they're waiting you know some engagement with the city on this matter. They're ready to go, Mr. Chairman and I have other orders that I will speak to in regards to that that are coming up later. Mr. chairman these folks are in Maslow's hierarchy of needs they're surviving they're not worrying about fines, they're surviving. If they don't have a solid place to be, they can't lift themselves out of life's circumstances Mr. Chairman. Through the Charity Administration is there a regional approach on the way?

Mr.

Manager So there is a regional approach in the way. We know folks are coming from outside of the city. Mr. Chairman, I've spoke previously about this and I'm going to make this a motion on the floor I'm going to request that the city manager work with the council, work with mayor and pursue and many more. And we're going to continue engagement with our other municipal gateway cities Mara Healy, and Lieutenant Governor to provide the city with additional funding and resourcing. Mr. Chairman that was my additional motion. Mr Chairman as it relates to the winter shelter we didn't have one last year in time. We didn't was an issue. We're talking about life and death when it comes to the winter. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion for a Winter Shelter Readiness Report.

I'd like to ensure that has an operator selection reported to us within the next 15 days. Mr. Chairman, that the budget is there so we understand what the staffing would be? Is there an MOU with who's going to run that? Wednesday go live time, Mr. Chairman and including a contingency capacity if there's further delay, Mr Chairman by way of emotion. We need to be involved as a council, Mr. Chairman for sure. Mr. chairman we know that there's an uptick in our elderly who are unsheltered, our youth that are unshelted, folks that are chronically unshelterd, situationally unshelted and we know it's not just about dual diagnosis and comorbidities. It's also about

Crippling debt, stagnant wages, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, physical and psychiatric disabilities, rising housing costs, declining affordable housing options. The choice to stay awake or be arrested is not a fair one, Mr. Chairman. Mr. chairman through the chair to the administration if you could tell me we've talked about the mapping of these encampments Not too long ago, we had that here. We had the mapping here through the Charity Administration. How long ago was that?

Through the Chair, that precedes my time so I am not aware when it was last presented here.

To the City Manager please. Okay, Mr. Manager?

I don't recollect when we brought that to the council floor. But again, that's something that either we could be able to provide back to the Council but I don t recall that.

Mr. Chairman, I like that report once again and I want to just state for the record it already told us where the encampments were they were clustered they showed us where they were they told us they knew the finite number of folks chronically unhoused, they knew their stories Mr. Chairman I called for data what are the barriers to these folks? What are the issues? Mr. chairman through the chair what is the finite number of folks that are chronically on housed in the city

through the Chair, to the Councilor. The number of the chronically unhoused is a little over 60 in the city of Worcester

Thank you. And I thought it was around 40, Mr. Chairman, but I'm off 20 or so. You wrap up the comments. Yes, thank you, Mr Chairman. the number right there, 60 of folks that are chronically unhoused. That we know their stories Mr Chairman. Can you wrap up please? I'm gonna wrap it up with one more motion Mr Chairman, I'd like a report back on clinical co-response to concerns of the unsheltered, coupled with the response from our HHS team. Thank you.

Okay, we have Councilor Bilotta.

Thank you Mr. Chairman I appreciate the administration putting this together and I know where as council Rosen said doing is to respond to an issue and point out that what we've been doing hasn't been working. And you know, I found the report Difficult to read only because I found it was very kind of vague. It didn't really talk about, I understand we need to do more coordination and data sharing and that's great. but you know it really didn't talk about what the end is and that's we need more housing. More and more people are experiencing homelessness, we know that senior homelessness is on the rise, more families with children Worcester public school students that are homeless and the answer to this is affordable housing We need rent control Mr. Chairman, we need rent Control.

We also need to do more when it comes to a variety of housing low barrier housing non-congregate and a lot of these, the funding for this is going to but I think what we can do here is invest in solving this problem. It takes resources, it takes money. We invested over 150 million to build Polar Park we should be investing more in this problem because for folks that you know want everyone housed and or even for folks just don't like For all of those folks, the answer to this is investing. We need to invest resources to solve the problem. and that's I really believe what I think was missing from this report.

It would be great to send it back like Councilor Rosen had said and get more information. Because again, I've met with service providers, met with some folks from Elliott and they had some concerns. And in conversations with them, I'm realizing that this the report as you know, I know it was well intentioned is it just provides a small scope of really the ecosystem of all of the systems in place that are dealing with homelessness. The continuum of care, and this isn't a slight to the councilors but I don't think any of us know as much you know, service providers and the staff here from the manager's office. So I think it'd be really beneficial for us to have a broader understanding and a better understanding of what all goes into this. And I think that's something that was, Missing from the report, but I understand we absolutely do need to address encampments. It's a problem it's a challenge. It does present unsafe you know

I think we're all in agreement that we need to do something. It takes investments to really get Thank you. I'm going to make a motion to take 19C off the table and send it to the administration, we should invest in establishing an office of housing stability. I've had great conversations with the folks out in Somerville. Ellen Schachter who runs that department, who runs office they're doing great work we need A specific department to focus on it. Because again, I don't think it's fair for it to just be on the shoulders of economic development and HHS. We should have a whole department that is about this because we need affordable housing, we need more different types Shelter, and we need year-round shelter.

And we need more again non congregate congregates supportive housing wraparound services this is what it takes if we need to address some of those lower hanging issues like human waste We need to invest in public bathrooms and the resources to manage them, to make sure that they're taken care of. So I think it takes resources and that's what we need to do and I really believe we should send this order back, and work on getting more information about what is the ecosystem of all the folks that are involved in this. What are their thoughts? And I think it is time to get that commission on homelessness up and running. We have the information out there, and the expertise Let's bring them in, and I know that's happening. I think we could do more of that. So let's do that. And again, let's invest in that. We need affordable housing. We need rent control. The housing costs are just untenable, something has to give and I really think we need to work on that

and again, I will say investing in people because I'm part of the disability community. And the only reason why that community succeeds is because the government invested in people, invested in care that allows us to live independently, allows us live life like everyone else If you invest in people, they will succeed. So I think that's what we need to do and really looking forward to working on the ordinances to help with unhoused, to help. And again, Councilor King mentioned our business community neighbors. All of these folks have concerns and they're valid concerns so let's work on addressing all of them.

Thank you. Thank You Councilor Fezzola

Thank you Mr. Chairman, through you I agree with a lot of what has been said so I won't repeat that but I want to ask through you Mr Chairman to the Commissioner I thought I heard you right. You identified how many encampments we have throughout the city? Could you give me that number, please?

Through the Chair, Councilor, I believe we have identified anywhere close to 300 encampments in the city. There are two definitions of encampments. So I would say safely that we have anywhere, one way to county encampment is 120 encampements depending on How many people live there and if you know it is occupied when it's being counted. And 300 is the number where we see that there is an encampment. There may or may not be an individual there and it mean, that individual may have multiple encampments so there's two ways to count it which is why the data is... So that's the range we have counted but we've done their assessment

Okay, so how many locations are there? You're saying it's 300 locations?

Correct. So through the Chair to Councilor, We have about 300 locations that we have recently, I don't know how recent it has been but that could be defined as encampments.

Wow, I found that alarming! I know there were encampments, but I never thought of it that high. Because I know in the district I represent There are a few that are frequented by our own house. McCune Road across from Holy Cross football field in that set of woods over there, the bike trail that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has off of Millbury Street, always getting a lot of calls about homeless while people are trying to walk on that bike trail. and then behind Vernon Hill Post, the woods that take you all the way to Granite Street. So many encampments are in there but so I thought

I thought the district I represent might have as many as any district, but if you tell me 300, I'm sadly mistaken. and that goes for as far as the parks, as we've mentioned. I have received phone calls that people are sleeping and staying under trees that night in different parks in the district, Vernon Hill Park, Greenwood Park.

Yeah, so through the chair to council encampment is defined as a structure. So it could be in a park. It could be on the pavement. in front of a store. So we count encampments or we define them based on the structure that is left about an individual who may be staying there or may have stayed there and left some belongings.

Okay, thank you. Just one other item I know I get a lot of calls from business owners. I had a business on Water Street for three years, many days I would go down and find and so on. and have people sleeping in front of the doorway. So I sympathize with the business owners. Do we have a plan of action regarding that?

Commissioner? We are looking at proposals for public bathrooms. to see how feasible they are, as well as to see what neighborhoods would be ideal because neighborhoods are not exactly thrilled to have them either. So we are assessing that currently. We don't have a concrete plan but yes that is in the works.

even though it's not my district, but I hear a lot of... I get many phone calls about the Canal District. That area of Water Street, Harding Street, Milbury Street. Having said that, I'll close with this. I know my colleague Councilor Bilotta mentioned congregate housing I believe that is the best way for this city to go. It would address so many more bodies if you have a particular place with one living room, a couple bathrooms and you know half dozen bedrooms. You'd get six people into one dwelling so I encourage that type of That type of, you know. As you go on if you could touch on that?

through the chair to the council, duly noted. Duly noted to look into that. There are multiple different housing options currently that the city has that currently exist, that are in the works of being constructed. That are in works of be expanded. That serve individuals, that serve families, that sort congregate settings as you just rightly mentioned that serve sharing of rooms, that serve families who need and need more privacy than being. So there is a variety of options that are currently available and also the expansion is in works My understanding is the expense of just doing and so on. So recreating them or creating new ones is way more than what our budget currently efforts, but nevertheless it is I do know that there is expansion work in the process.

Thank you, Councilor. We have Councilor Bergman?

Thank you Mr. Chairman. You know... I'm sure there's somebody who came up with a quote that I'm about to paraphrase, but I don't have the author. With difficult problems it's easy to point fingers and we sat here and listened for two hours from the public who are passionate about this issue. They certainly feel strongly about overwhelming majority that it's not a good idea, and they also feel that somehow we haven't lived up to our obligations. I would disagree with the latter spot. There isn't a city, latter accusation. There is in a city town America that's figured this problem out. I've been on this council long enough to know that we try I heard Council Rosen say it's good they were finally realizing what we've done in the past isn't working. But then I heard Mayor Petty say that the agencies are doing great work.

I'm going to say things that probably, certainly not shy about doing it, probably are going to offend some people. But at the end of the day a lot of what we've done hasn't worked because the population continues to increase and that no disparagement on the new director or Alex, or the city manager all who are relatively new at trying to solve an issue again. that nobody in any city or town in America seems to have been able to solve. But I do know certain things, and I'd like to inquire through the chair To department heads to confirm some of the things that I'd like to have confirmed so that I could discuss them a little bit more. So through the chair to Commissioner Dickinson. The question I have is of the 300 encampments, do they seem to be mobile in a sense that on a yearly basis they may not be in the same place?

Commissioner?

I would not be able to give you a definitive answer on that, but we could certainly get back with more details.

because it would seem to me before we decide on public bathrooms, we need to decide on where they should go if they're going to go anywhere. And if they can go anywhere, the need to address and the majority of people who need them. If the cameras are mobile, that's going to be a challenge. So it would be great to get that information. also through the chair to the commissioner. I've gone out myself with a quality of life team to a large encampment not that long ago and I remember going to each Tent, so to speak with that group of quality-of-life professionals. And I would say out of 10 or 15 conversations maybe one person was willing to go to housing the city had, maybe one. Through the chairs, does that surprise you?

Commissioner? Yes and no, through the chair of the council yes and no. We sometimes If our outreach person reaches the person who is in the encampment at a time when they are ready to seek services and the site services are offered to them, sign up for the services. We've had individuals being transported to care services to one of our social service agencies Successfully to have them in treatment. After that, they may continue. They may choose to leave. That's up to them But we have done that but again it depends on the individual It depends on what is being offered and so it largely varies

So through the chair, it was a very hot July day. Very hot. It was deep in the woods and the explanations I got for refusing to accept the bed included not wanting to go to a wet shelter because at night they use, and I wanted to go to a dry shelter because they used. Having a companion male or female that didn't want to be separated from having possessions they didn't wanna put in storage because they were afraid when they got left the shelter the possessions would be stolen or misplaced. And then there were other explanations as well, including the freedom of being by themselves and not having somebody supervise them and also having some sort of family that the friends or the encampment kind of is a substitute for. So with all those What percentage would you say people take advantage of the opportunity to use shelter or a bed?

Commissioner.

Through the Chair, I do not have a number to share with you in what percentage. Studies have shown and our own experience has shown that Once the outreach workers build a trust and relationship with those living in encampments such as our own staff at HHS, who know some of these individuals, that trust and relationship go a long way in getting that person into treatment or getting them connected to the care they need or be apart of any shelter. So that has been our best bet in terms of repeated efforts, in terms developing the trust and the relationship. But I would not have a number in Worcester as to how many actually accept and get connected

through the Chair, if we increase the number of beds how do we prioritize those for Worcester residents?

Commissioner.

Through the Chair, that's a very interesting question. While we have anecdotal notes about Worcester being the gateway city and folks coming from all over the place to Worcestere to avail services What we have proposed in the framework as one of our creative ways is there are limited beds and there are numerous, the demand and the supply is clearly maybe unequal, especially in times of winter. What we have proposed is a system where The outreach workers have an individual in their database because they've reached out, they've done a preliminary assessment. They probably connected them to care in the past so on and so forth. We want to come up with a system where the existing shelter will prioritize those who are already in the city's database as having made some sort of a connection or having some level of availed services. If not, there would be a waiting list for the others.

Currently the way shelter system works in Worcester is anybody and everybody who could knock on the door of the shelter, if there is a bed available they can avail that bed. So our hope and goal is once we do that interaction, once we have them documented in their system as having made the outreach and knowing they would be prioritized. Which will one way to know that the frequent I don't want to say the term frequent fires, but the individuals that are frequently met with by our outreach team are the ones who get preferential treatment to enter their shelter. That's one of the proposals in the framework.

And that would be irrespective of whether they were from Worcester or somewhere else. Is that correct?

Yes.

All right, is it fair to say there's a significant number of the unhoused that don't come from Woricester on a regular basis?

That is our anecdotal information, again through the relationships and the trust and interactions that our staff have with the residents who are homeless. Numerous funding sources that provide services to homeless individuals in Worcester do not allow for information sharing or collection of personal identification information to be shared So while we may collect through our initial assessment and conversation where they are from, that information is always embargoed because of the grant requirements and cannot be included in any data that we review.

But through the chair you have that information?

Yes.

So let me just finish with some comments. I think if we're serious about understanding of the dangers to not only the surrounding area, but the encampments themselves. People should go to some of these encampment. What I saw were boxes piled up next to barbecue grills with containers of gasoline God forbid, if there's a fire in some of these encampments. I don't know how the Fire Department would find them. I dunno if they'd get to them in time. I know off of Granite Street there was a fire which caused by an encampment which firefighter was hurt significant amount of property damage There's a medical emergency, particularly at night. I don't know how people reach them. I think for variety of reasons it's not a good situation for the encampments to exist. Now I hear people say Well, we're fining people $25.

Well, were giving them three days to move and it also is a trespass on public property. Granted, the argument is there's no bed so I don't personally have an issue with much of what the manager's proposing. I do have an amendment that I think may make sense to some, but makes sense to me and hopefully makes sense my colleagues is I don't think the fine needs to be criminalized. I think it could be a $25 fine, civil penalty. And that way takes away the stigma of criminality and also removes the interaction between the police who certainly have a lot better things to do and the unhoused who probably don't want to have that interaction. And I think if you're going to get rid of the fine altogether, you might as well get rid or the ordinance all together because there has to be some motivation for people to understand that they can't congregate in public spaces.

Now, I'm mindful of the Public Library, for example. Can I finish speaking?

I'm sorry, excuse me. No, no, excuse sir. Councilor Bergman go ahead.

Thank you.

Councilberg, excuse my sir.

So I'm mindful of the public library, where mothers and fathers have an absolute right to bring their children inside without having to see people unfortunately Overdose or get into altercations, so on and so forth. Many of whom are unhoused. So there's that conflict between the unhousing who need a place to live, I get that, and the general public who sometimes where that interaction happens It's not a comfortable situation. This isn't about me being comfortable not seeing somebody that's unhoused, it's about the person that's and others by not realizing that the encampment shouldn't be their first choice to go. So my motion would be to get rid of the criminal aspect of it. I would also say that, you know, the city of Springfield... I'm sorry, City of... Brockton recently imposed a $200 fine with a $50 certifying. I don't think the fining part of it, the amount is the issue.

I just think there has to be some incentive for people understand after three days you have to move on. I do think we should have more beds, but I also think there needs to be a regional approach because as many beds as we get, if we don't prioritize Worcester residents, we're really not going to be helping Worcestershire residents any more than we're helping them right now which is a limited amount of bed space. So it's a complicated problem. It's unfortunate, it's sad. I don't think any of us go to bed at night feeling good about the decisions we make regarding this issue but I also think none of us caused the problem and we'd all like it to be fixed. I think all of us have different ideas on how to fix it, I don't think anybody's bad intended as far as how they think it should be fixed people can disagree and I don't think it's gonna be a quick fix, but I do think we have the right people in place and the right approach to do a good job in trying to make it better for the unhoused. So again my motion Mr. Chair would be to get rid of

Thank you Mr. Chairman

Rivera. I'm sorry, Councilor Rivera, I missed Councilor Mitra. Yeah, that's okay. No go ahead, I'm Sorry, I skipped you. We think you said something.

No problem. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through you to the Commissioner, thank you first of all for coming and making the presentation. Before I ask certain questions, I just want to say that it was very overwhelming to see so many people came and express their passion, how much they feel for these people who really need help. And at the same time, The remarks that were given to us, I would say, you know, to manager, to mayor, to all city councilors Look like that we are heartless. We aren't. I just want everybody to know that we feel equally same way as... I grew up in my childhood without a house, without roof on my head. My father and I were used to always look for shelter. So it was, I understand what the situation is but we also feel exactly same way that residents came today and talked about.

We want to solve this problem. We wanted to see that everybody has A shelter over their head, everybody has a roof. That's the ultimate goal I just want to ask you a question that when you presented your report Look like you were very optimistic that you said that we wanted to make a breakthrough. We wanted to do something different. What is in there that you thought that this would eradicate this problem?

Commissioner?

Through the chair, the council. Thank you, Councilor Mitra for the question. I'm gonna say this very carefully. It is a very complicated issue. The match between the demand and resources is not there right now in terms of how much housing The homeless folks need and how much services they need. There is a gap, and there will probably always be a gap given the circumstances by proposing this framework, again the ordinance is a part of the framework but there is a framework. By proposing this frame work what we are hoping to do as a city help our social services agencies work together so that whatever resources we have may be optimally used because We are not convinced it's being done optimally right now. There may be a few beds empty, but because nobody knows

The homeless folks may go to one part of the city where there maybe no beds empty, and then there may be beds empty elsewhere. So we are hoping to provide some leadership and to facilitate that collaboration to see There is 15 outreach workers in the city to make sure that they are doing the same outreach. They're providing the same opportunities to folks on the streets and there is more connection between all of the social service agencies because there are quite a few who are doing noble work right now in the streets. So that is our goal to look at the data. If so many people, right now it's a very fleeting population we can't tell you for sure if it's 200 people on the street or 150 or 60 It varies by the day. We do not know how many people went to which agency, we do not now how many folks had their information inputted in a database So we are hoping by doing this, we will be somewhere able to do a better job with the resources that are currently in the city.

And then also know exactly what the gap is because right now it's all very fragmented. We all know there is a homelessness issue and crisis in Worcester, but we don't have the exact numbers or the data or know what's happening in different parts of the city. I hope I answered your question.

I think the way I look at it, that the simple way to resolve this issue is how many people are out there? How many people homeless are out their? If we know it's about 200 of them Do we have 200 people to shelter somewhere? Do we or we don't? By understanding the answers that you gave to councillors, those who asked you questions I think there are about enough room that they can go now. 200 shelters are available, rooms are available and about 197 if I'm not wrong are the number of people that are looking for the shelter. Am I wrong or am I correct?

Commissioner. Through the Council, through the Chair to the Council that's a very interesting way you're asking us the question and I truly wish it was that simple because there are under 200 beds available in the City of Worcester for shelter roughly there may be anywhere between chronically homeless is 60 but there's anywhere between 150 to In winter, it could be more. It depends on the circumstances and the day when we are doing the count because it's a very transitional population. Having said that, even if on any given day we feel there are 200 homeless and other individuals in the city, and 200 shelter beds. We cannot make that direct connection knowing Berkman. Folks may not be ready to avail the bids, as Councilor Bergman said. They and where they need special services there may not be a bed available because some folks may need a bed where they can use

If they are using substances, they want to be able to continue doing that and not go stop it overnight. So making that connection is very hard. So even if we have lesser homeless people and enough beds to be able to make that connection with the right amount of services and the right services they need. That could be mental health, that could be behavioral health, substance abuse, clinical medical help or other things.

I understand. would be provided as per their need, right? I think our theme should be house first. We all want that there is no one outside on the street. It is not a good idea for us to have anybody outside on this street. Not good for our business owners, not good for the city, not for those who visit the city because it's not a I have many business owners call me. I just gave the order the other day on the South Bridge Street, you know where the Coney Island and Garden Graphics They have these people always standing in front of their office and they don't have a place to go to the bathroom. They're doing everything urinating, defecating in their parking lot and he cleans those things. So nobody wants that we want our business owners to be in a peaceful mind and safer place, and also do their business in a proper way because their clients are not coming. So there are issues all over.

I think the ultimate goal should be house first then determine what they need, health. Whether their mental health or drug abuse or whatever they need can be found out so we have to have that To the manager, to you Mr. Chair that I think we should look into that We have to have a budget for this is a serious issue We've got to solve this, one way or the other. I know that budget is an issue as you mentioned Commissioner that we need homes but we don't have it so I would request that maybe we should talk to all our state representatives. Have them come here or make a motion, then let's have a meeting with them to let them propose this problem that we need to solve it. Maybe talk to our US representatives and senators, and talk to them how can we procure some fund? Because we have limited budget. We have a lot of expenses that we want to allocate

I don't think we have enough money to allocate for such a vast need that we have in our community where we need to give the shelter for each of those who are sitting there on the street which you don't want. So our ultimate goal should be that we should have all of them some room somewhere. If I have to expand the shelter, expand the day resource center for example we're doing maybe we should've done the first phase with some rooms rather than just for them to go and use the bathroom and clean up and all that. Maybe we should have had some rooms there so they can be there. I think we need to solve the problem, I think the $25 fine I don't think that's really something we need to do in my opinion. Is this a regulation that requires us to have some fine on them first? that we cannot avoid it? Is it true that there is a regulation that we have to, you know, minimum fine them

Through the chairs of the council, my understanding is we proposed the ordinance and in order to enforce it, we added the fine. It was a proposal that my understanding that we can always remove. It doesn't need to be there is how I understand it.

I would agree with Councilor Rosen that I think we should probably remove this fine. Maybe this proposal should go back to the manager and rehash it over, and see what we can really do See that everybody is given a shelter in a very friendly manner. I don't think we, if we give them notion that within three days you have to leave and they don't leave what's our option? Or in other words, just to chair. Can you just step by step explain me like consider I'm homeless? You come to me how do who comes to me? How does this whole thing happens? Can you explain me that, the step by step?

Commissioner.

Through the Chair to the Council, thank you for the question, Councillor Mitra. When we find out there is the process, we have planned for or we currently do without the encampment ordinances. When we know somebody's living in an encampement Our outreach folks reach out to them, offer them services, whatever they may need. They may need permanent housing, temporary housing, they may Low Barrier Shelter where they can continue using. They may have a family, they may not want to share the room, they might not want congregate shelter which is 50 people in a large hall or whatever it maybe or a mat. They may refuse services, they may refuse to leave the encampment. They may refused to be in the shelter that we have space for them.

or the requirement to not use substances while they are in a shelter, they may just refuse to even talk to our outreach workers despite multiple efforts. So that has been our experience.

Again, the experiences like that's what I think Council Berman was also asking that how many people say no? Do you have any idea to keep track of that? Out of 50, 60 people out there were unable to get anyone.

We certainly keep track of that. I do not have the information on me right now, but we do have track because every outreach effort that is made is documented in a database.

So those who say no, I don't want to take your offer

There is a repeated effort to them depending on our limited staff. The next time when they can go there, if they are in the geographic area, if there is an issue, if Some untoward behavior is noticed in the public. The repeated effort is made to pay...

So they said that no, we don't want to vote. Yeah, what's their answer? Councilor through the chair and Commissioner through a chair. Commissioner.

I apologize, through the Chair to the Council. The repeated effort is made depending on the situation on the frequency of availability of our staff outreach Once the effort is made, that person may not be even available for the next 3, 5, 7, 20, 30 days because that person is homeless. They may move away. But there are often times where our outreach workers have established a relationship with the frequent folks that we see in different areas, where repeated outreach is made to them to offer them services. Sometimes they avail it to get a warm meal, sometimes they avail when weather is not conducive or they may have some clinical condition that requires some medication. But there is a very strong possibility that they may not want to avail what we are offering them. And even if they avail and are introduced to treatment, they may continue in the treatment because they have the freedom to walk away on day two, three, four.

And that's where this ordinance comes into play through the chair to the commissioner, that that's what this ordinance is coming into place. That if you do not leave within three days, 72 hours will have to take some kind of action, am I correct?

That is the proposal currently. But at the same time only after making repeated efforts to connect them to whatever care they desire, they need and are willing to take.

No, to the chair. I think if that is the approach, I'm with it. The approach makes sense that you are making repeated effort. You're trying to do your best to really give them a shelter It's not a harsh approach. It's a friendly approach, I suppose. And then if they're not going we do have to have the consequence that it's a city. Some kind of discipline we have to maintain. We want them to have a shelter for their own safety and the safety of the entire population of the city and business owners I'd like to make a motion that I think we need funding, we need more money. I would like to see that we talk to our state representatives and sit down with them, make kind of appeal to them Talk to our US representatives and see how we can bring the money, because we don't have enough money right now to do anything. But we need to expand the shelter. That's the bottom line.

We have to have houses for them before you can get them out of there. and solve this problem because we do need everybody to be having some room but not on the street. So I agree that I think it should, if City Manager, to you Mr Chair, if this could go back to the City Manager to kind of Reshuffle this and also my recommendation would be not to penalize anyone with $25 whether it's civil or any criminal but I think We just should not have that because we understand that they are homeless. It just doesn't look good, so I think I would agree if we can take that out and We bring the new proposal for us on how to solve it, talking to you. There's so many players out there that I think we can solve it. Every problem can be solved. That's my belief and if you work hard on it, I think will get to the point but it's a good start I agree with the proposal that you made. We just need to make some little changes on this, thank you.

Thank you. Councilor Carnival and Council Rivera?

Thank you. I won't be long, because everybody asks all these same questions. I just have a few questions myself. So as the chair to Commissioner Dixon, can you please share with us your experience in human services?

Commissioner.

Through the Chair of the Council, I've spent about 25 years in public health and human services. I worked previously at the Department of Health in Rhode Island in a variety of chronic disease as well of Human Service Programs. Prior to that, I was with the Massachusetts Department of Health as well and I have worked through the trajectory of human life starting Prenatal care for the underprivileged up to medical death certificates and what that means. So I have been fortunate and honored to work through the gamut of health and human services of human life.

Right. Yes, to the chair just speaking from a personal perspective so obviously I've got to meet you ever got to sit down with you I know where you're coming from So through the chair to the commissioner, is the city trying to criminalize the homeless population?

to the chair, to the council. The city is not absolutely trying to criminalize the homeless population. It is unfortunate that the strategic framework proposed by the city has been received and maybe it's a communication issue because communication is never easy. but especially on complicated issues, it is a part of the larger framework that also suggests this bunch of things we want to do and then one of the things is as an additional push to get the homeless populations into treatment and connected to services, we want to propose the ordinance then.

Yes, I agree that. That's the I think the misconnect going on is that by reading your report and everything like that through the chair to commissioner what I see is that we're trying to help the unhoused population get services. And the report, by the way that it's been put together is a great job. I would agree with the other counselors though we should get rid of the $25, that's fine. Send it back to city manager and work on that aspect of it. I think the framework in itself, the goal and motivation that you guys have put together to help the unhoused population is being overlooked by many advocates who come here and have a certain Mindframe on the situation.

Another question is, has any of the advocates you've heard we've heard many of them in the last couple weeks reached out to you personally to talk to you about this? You guys put together

Through the Chair to the Council, no I haven't received any information communication or heard from any of the advocates.

All right, I assume that. I would say To the chair, to the council. This disrupting the cycle that you guys put together is something that's very well needed in the city. Granted we're gonna get rid of the $25 component I think there's been a lot of hard work done in this. I think when people are not looking at, and the reason I asked for your experience is because I want to remind everybody even my colleagues and everybody here who do their research on Google that you have a personal you know, experience with the unhoused population. So we're not just putting words on a piece of paper and but I think the most also important component that they have to understand is us as a council and city manager, and your office is not trying to criminalize the homeless population. would you guys have put together something that's never been done before?

And they've been asking the city to do something, and finally the city steps up. And now granted this one component that we all agree, we wanna get rid of but I think everything else in itself put together is a very good job. Thank you guys. trying to put something together to help the unhoused population and help the city with this issue. I can speak for myself when I say that uh, I know this is really a hard situation. I mean councillors have been dealing with this situation for a long time, but no one has been able to put this together like the city administration has done. So thank you for that.

Thank you very much. Through the Chair to the Council, thank you and we appreciate it and we will hope to do a better job communicating that the plan and the hope and the effort is to reduce homelessness and support people with services and not criminalize them.

Thank you, we have Councilor Economou.

Thank You Mr. Chairman I just want to start by saying thank you to the manager, thank you commissioner and her team for bringing this forward. Obviously it's a discussion that's needed We're dealing with an unsolvable problem. If it was solvable, we wouldn't be having this discussion. So it's a problem of how do we make it better? Right? I'm not going to reiterate a lot was said. I agree with Council Rosen, I agree Council Bergman, with yourself Mr. Mayor. I just have a couple questions that I just asked just for My clarification, please. I agree with the data sharing. I think that's an important piece of this puzzle and to that have any of the agencies

committed, reached out, asked for more information how this comes together or have we reached out to them asking them this is what we'd like to do. How can we put this together?

Commissioner. Through the Chair to the Council that's a very good question I'm glad I have the opportunity to share the process as Mr. Manager for mentioned we have his chairing committee with the and other major social service agencies in the city that we meet once a month as leadership. Mr. Manager leads and there are subcommittees of that steering committee related to operations, related to data. There's one more committee. The reason I share this is over the summer we first presented this framework to the steering committee in June and we followed up in between monthly meetings of June, July, August and September asking them for feedback other than the $25 encampment ban fee, enforcement fee. Other than that component we have shared with them and they have provided feedback to us which we have incorporated in this plan So that back and forth has happened.

And some of the data pieces, the agencies have already started working on with the data sharing team.

Yep, through the chair to the commissioner. I also appreciate the standardized outreach across the board if everybody's working off the same playbook and I think we can accomplish far more, far better. So I like that as well. When we talk about the winter shelter too and I remember the conversation last winter as we started that. The 36 beds, how many did we end up needing from the chair to the commissioner or to the manager?

Commissioner? To the chair . to the Chair of the Council, my understanding is because this precedes my time we planned for 36 beds but we needed the additional 60 which was provided by St. John's through the month of February and for six days during January So 36 at Oriel Drive and then 60 additional the month of February.

So about 100 is what we're looking at?

Depending on the day, but 60 is the number that we have repeatedly realized as a need in capacity

Mr. Manager?

Yeah, I just want to add something. I think one of the challenges is that point in time number fluctuates depending on the month, depending on individuals being connected to services but also what plays a role in this is also the perception or the reality of some individuals who don't want to go to Queen Street may choose to select other options that become available. So the census may drop on Queen Street and these numbers may go up in other areas because of that experience that they've had, and that they been able to share with us in those shelters.

Thank you Mr. Manager, thank you Commissioner. I guess what's bothered me the most the last two weeks in this whole thing too we've heard testimony from probably close to a hundred maybe more than 100 people but we didn't hear from any of the agencies out throughout the city because I feel that's the missing piece to this entire puzzle is getting the agencies together in the room to have an honest discussion, to be part of the solution. To not work in individual silos as this is what my funding sources for, this is what my funding source is for. This is what My Funding Source is for it all relates we need them all so that is something that I feel is missing Councilor Nguyen, like I said, I agree with many of my colleagues. It can't be all the city of Worcester It just can't be.

We don't have the resources. We need these agencies to come to the table, they need to be part of the discussion We do have a responsibility to not just the residents, to the taxpayers, to businesses, to children and unhoused. To do the best we can to help better the situation because I'm not going to say we're going to solve it, because it's never going to be solved. As the manager just said people some people just don't want to be helped they want to on their own. But it's disingenuous to think that we can't do better, all of us I take responsibility for that as well myself. And I would agree with my colleague, some refining back to the manager and your team commissioner would be appropriate But I do want to answer a question that Council Bergman brought up.

It was more of a comment that he brought up The City of Lowell charges $300 a day for illegal encampments on city property. Fall River, first offense $100 second offense $200 third offense $300 They do not collect it, but they have it. Brockton, they also have $200 a day for illegal encampments, $50 a day loitering. as Councilor King had mentioned. A lot of these things may be on our books already. Northampton, yes they do have a policy but they choose to use it more through a no trespass policy. And the city of Boston, even they have a policy

They do not collect a fee, but yes they do have a policy. So this isn't something new. It's new for us, but it's not new in this state So I leave you with that. And again, thank you for the report. Thank you for your efforts. Thank You Mr. Manager. Thank-you Commissioner and as Mr. Padone said at the microphone earlier tonight this is our opportunity. It's an opportunity to have this discussion and come forward with something that will better our situation, thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Hayter.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just got several questions through the chair to the commissioner. I know we talked about the day center and hopefully in spring we'll be able to open a day center but through the Chair to the Commissioner What are our efforts right now to reach out to some of the unsheltered? To let them know what The Day Shen is gonna offer. Because I don't see it, I would love, don't get me wrong. I would for it to as soon as the doors open you know everybody uses it but many people probably don't know about it what are we doing to reach out to those residents and also reach out and put them to feel safe knowing that they can go in there through the chair to the commissioner.

Through the Chair, to the Council. We are waiting for a definitive timeline and date for the Dairy Resource Center to open it has been pushed ahead a few times due to the construction issues and funding and many other things. But once we know that currently, we are looking at early spring So once we know that, there would be extensive communications for people to be aware that this is a huge resource in the community centrally located for them to support their day-to-day needs.

And to the chair, can you explain what that would look like? Like when you said extensive. Is that going into certain areas? Is that working with neighborhood network centers? Can you just explain in detail?

Commissioner. Through the chair to the council, we don't have a formal communications plan as of now because we are looking at least another seven or six months for the day resource center to open But if I were to be asked, I would envision something like through our steering committee that aforementioned with our major social service agencies. who have outreach staff as well as the HHS outreach staff to be sharing that information through the relationships they've built with the unhoused individuals. on the streets that they talk to every day. We have a social worker in our office who feels phone calls everyday as well, just like our recovery coaches to share it with them, to also share it through an organization and listserv like Worcester Together which has about 400 individuals and agencies. on that listserv. So getting the word around as effectively and timely would be the goal to share what an unhoused individual can do at the resource center.

They could get their phone charged, they could get a hot shower, they would get a breakfast, they will get a meal so on and so forth.

Okay, yeah thank you. I think again to the Chair, It's important to start putting things in place before you know it. Hopefully the center will be up and running, and it's important get out as much information as possible. So you had mentioned through the chair to the commissioner, you had mention looking for data. For me it was a little unclear when you were mentioning that is this ordinance also another way of looking for Data to help the unsheltered?

Council.

Through the chair to the council, the ordinance is not so much a way to look at the data and collect includes a very significant component of ensuring that everybody enters the data into a database. It could be this agency, it could be that agency, these outreach workers but once they are doing the work every day if it is entered then we know that it's the same individuals we are working with, whether they're 100 or 150 or 60 chronic or at a point in time 180. but if everybody enters into the same database and there is information related to what type of services they need or they avail, or have been given that would help us versus reinventing the wheel when the first, when the outreach is done. So we are proposing through the framework to collect better data from all of the agencies and the work that is done

Okay, so that brings on two... Well one question it adds to another question I had. You know, I think one of the issues within this report It had mentioned data sharing, client monitoring exist through HMIS, yet several agencies have not agreed to share data on unhoused individuals. So in mentioning that, that's a concern. How do we go about making sure that we're working with these agencies to share this information, if this is viable information through the chair or commission?

through the chair of the council, through the meetings that we've had in the last several months. Once we started, we had the framework and we communicated it with the steering committee the data subcommittee of all of these agencies in this group has already started working to ensure if there is any barrier to all of the agencies doing the work entering the data, how that could be resolved. Some of them have barriers of data entry, some of them want to do bulk entry. They're trying to define what needs to be entered so everybody's clear on what needs

That's great, that's great to hear. I think that's important to start building those relationships and share that information. Can you explain? to the chair, to the commissioner shelter and treatment options. Prior to any enforcement actions individuals will be offered options including but not limited to shelter, treatment and housing so that compliance and service agreement is voluntary for individuals, and personal belongings are protected with due process safeguarding. And explain how that would be protected through the chair?

Through the Chair of the Council, what we are proposing is when an outreach is done, when an encampment is identified, we would be reaching out to the individual and to assess what kind of option they would be willing to go into. Whether it's and so forth. So that area of options would be offered to them, and that connection would be made that will hopefully be more encouraging for the individual to accept services. Because as we have mentioned before, every time we do an outreach, the individual has a right to refuse the services or being moved to another shelter, to a place.

Okay, and then as far as their belongings. What does that look like to the Chair?

So we have been exploring options for belongings. Currently, the Quality of Life team does save the belongings when they move individuals So we are looking into what the feasibility is of storing the belongings and how long that would be. And what would that mean for individuals who may have important documentation, social security card? Identification, and how we can make sure that they keep their belonging in a way that those kind of important documents would be accessible to the people who are being moved.

Okay, I appreciate that. But I think one of the most important things is some of these individuals may not have identification but some of the other belongings are very important to them as well. And just keep that in mind on how do we identify an individual's items if we don't have identification for them? Obviously, we're not going to take a picture of them and post it and have whatever may be. But that's something I hope we look into. I popping things of this is the $25 charge or sorry, fine. To me it's obviously not necessary. I think a lot of our councilors agree and a lot and Uproar about this as well. And I agree, as well, throughout District 4 unfortunately we've had some issues with some encampments and stuff. And you know, I like the approach that we had where we worked with the quality of life team WPD, Worcester Fire Department, Quality of Life Team. I have mentioned that and then some local agencies as well.

And I feel as though again building those relationships and having them come into those neighborhoods where we're seeing an uptick and having those conversations and making sure that we're there to support them not to arrest them, not to give them a fine but also let them know that will be here the next day. We'll continue to come to buy more services and see what they need so I think it's important to use that data, I think one of my concerns is that we do have a lot of data already and we understand what the issues are. We understand what our residents are facing so I think You know, we're behind on a lot of things. And I think it's time to just use what we have now for data and try find better ways, better practices We have all this information from other states and cities, but we know what's going on in our city. And if it requires more resources, more funding I think we need to start allocating in that way a $20 fine Like they said, who knows if they're going to pay it?

We have absentee landlords that probably aren't paying their fines. You look up and down certain streets they're not taking care of their property and things like that. And we find them in, they'll just pay it and let it be but that's stuff that we're dealing with consistently. But then we have our unhoused who are dealing with some issues. And again, I do agree that we need to look into it deeper and support them but to me is also a health issue. It's a fire issue, it's a safety issue for them and for others that may come to support them and help them. So I think we got to look at the data that we have now can't waste more time on this situation. It's taken up a lot of our time tonight and other nights, One last thing, so through the chair it says the Housing and Homeless Task Force. Can you explain to me how long they've been in... How long this has been going on for? Through the Chair?

Mr. Manager? Through the chair to the council, that's a good question. Actually I was gonna try to address that towards the end. In 2018, the city of Worcester previous administration announced a housing first task force that housing first class was charged with creating over 100 units in the city. Give it or take 103 units in this city of permanent supportive housing The task force called for that housing was the first solution and we needed to provide permanent supportive housing. Since 2018 into now, with the understanding that COVID played a role in challenges and kind of delaying some of the work. the city in partnership with a lot of the agencies have produced over 60 permanent supportive housing units based on that strategic plan that was laid out back in 2018 on the Housing First Task Force.

that has enforced task force since then, has been meeting on a quarterly basis chaired by the City Manager and the Commissioner of Health and Human Services. when I took on the role of city manager, there was a lot of conversation on this floor about what was the current need in the city and the situation where 2022 or 2023 and all the impacts that COVID has had, all the economic impacts. The situation was much different in 2018. And so we needed to do a new evaluation of the need of our community related Permanent Support of Housing. So we partnered with the health foundation who provided some dollars, some initial dollars so that doing analysis. And we had Rutgers University, a professor at Rutger University and Boston University work together to provide us a report that identified

what number of housing units and what was the need for the city to be able to develop? That number was roughly 150 permanent supportive housing units that the city would need to develop based on current need. and that housing availability or the permanent support of housing would change depending on that point in time number of unhoused or need in the city. The challenge with this is that it requires millions and millions of dollars from city, state, and federal dollars to be able to get permanent supportive housing. Not just to develop the units but also the ongoing supportive services that are required as part of that. And which even requires a case manager to live on site, to be able to assist the individuals on a day-to-day basis

And so that ongoing supportive services, it's extremely needed and is crucial as part of their ability to not only recover but also be self-sufficient over time in these permanent supportive units. Through my time as City Manager, we took a step back and said okay, we need to look at this differently. because one of the challenges is that there's been a lot of effort, a lot dollars put into this kind of work but yet we still seem to fall short in providing the services and doing them in a way effective or even efficient. There's still challenges, there's still gaps in the system and so we've poured monies We've tried to expand permanent supportive shelters with our current partners. We're currently in the process of expanding permanent shelters in this city.

on a yearly basis. We've tried to put dollars for further outreach in case management, not only on the municipality the agencies as well. So a lot of these efforts have come to fruition in terms of resources whether it's state, federal or local funds that have been allocated to this however we still have challenges, and we still have deficiencies in the system. So the framework, what it's trying to do is looking at this historical work that we've done. The current work that was done in the past few years under my administration and is trying to just give a framework It's not saying all the programs and initiatives, and things that we need to fund, and other goals and objectives and ideas. All of that still needs to be worked out, right? How many supportive housing, how many more shelter beds do we need to open up? How many services? How may more outreach workers do we? All of that still needs to be worked out.

What we're just simply presenting is a framework of saying these are the things core in this system that we need to address within our partners, including the municipality. to at least get us to start identifying what's the real issue, what's their real number and how do then we start to fund it accordingly. so that we can then be able to attain those goals. That's still an ongoing work, and that's gonna probably be another report that we're gonna have to come back with specific goals and Dr. Mitra will like this, SMART goals that it will define what it is that we're trying to achieve over time and how do we move in the needle in those areas? This is just simply overarching framework that will still require some work with the agencies, with partners, with folks in the community and lived experience. With the city council to continue to develop because there will be perhaps additional policies to address the system. There'll be additional dollars that we will need, not only from

I'm glad you asked that question because it's an all-encompassing answer It's important to contextualize. And so right now, the Housing First Task Force has been restructured to be this steering committee of partners with multiple committees that meet on a very frequent basis It used to be quarterly. We've been meeting monthly and we will continue to meet monthly because this work is extremely important, and we all need our hands on deck Thank you

City Manager. I think the night should have let off with that, but I appreciate it. But it did give me a bunch of more questions and I apologize to everyone, but these questions need to be asked. at the end of day we're missing the mark, right? Like you said, which we're trying but we just keep missing the Mark. But what I've seen in district four is many units for the elderly. I've seen more affordable housing. I've seen housing that provides accessible housing for individuals in wheelchairs, so I've see more of that, more and more of but it seems like we keep on missing the mark. And I don't want to say put a pause on all those things, but I think this needs be a strong effort on saying to some of these developers or the agencies

we need your support in this and we will help you whatever way we can. I mean, we're obviously giving tips for other things but residents have brought that up. We need to have a strong effort with the unsheltered population and say, this is what our push is gonna be. This is what we wanna focus on. We understand that we need affordable housing but again in District 4 up on Madison Street they just opened another apartment So there's a lot of, all these buildings are being built. All these units are being build but I think it's like let's just put a serious focus on this issue that we have here that has been an issue for many, many years. So the other question I have is... One second, I'm sorry.

With the task force, is there any specific... Do they meet with other agencies? that provide the, what should I say? The work on the ground with these residents in our house. Meaning some of the agencies that deal with substance abuse and things like that through the chair to city manager.

There's a number of agencies that are either part of the steering committee or part of subcommittees. In addition, the commissioner in the last few months have started to engage different partners for different circles based on their particular needs, whether it's the hospitals and the healthcare providers, the behavioral health agencies, et cetera. there's a correlation in work that's happening and that being coordinated through the commissioner. And she's been starting to put these meetings together on a very frequent basis where bringing all these partners together to have this conversation, including the folks in the lived experience. There's been a survey that people in our community with lived experience have been able to express their thoughts and ideas in that survey so there's been significant amount of work at all different levels. That will continue, and that's something that Commissioner is currently right now leading and coordinating.

Thank you. Lastly, and I appreciate that through the chair, I think it's important to get this information out. Everything that you stated is important to give us information out in the commission has stated it's a point to get some information out the work that we are doing, the work because once the residents saw this ordinance, you know, this ordinance obviously came from a lot of research and a lot work you've done. I don't agree on the $20 fine but it came from somewhere and I think it's important to show that this task force is out in the community. And how do we build that relationship with them and give residents an opportunity to attend certain meetings, to be able to hear their voice? But again, to hear the work that you are doing to help the unsheltered. So thank you, and I appreciate if there's any opportunity as a district councilor to be a part of some of these meetings or we can have smaller meetings in some of the neighborhood meetings that I have. to the residents, to show that you know the work you're doing and then take some notes in and get some more feedback. Thank you.

Thank You Mr Manager Okay, so the first motion is to take 18B and recommit it. Correct, Councilor Rosen? so people understand that would mute some of the other orders to eliminate King, the ordinance and also to Councilor King.

What's the point of order, Mr. Chairman? I have a motion and I want to know if it would be mooted as you worded it, the motion to strike down the Homeless Incarceration Act. as it relates to the fines and the criminal process, that's an option. Are you saying that if it's voted to file back, that cannot be taken as a outside motion? Correct. Okay, if that's the case Mr. Chairman I'd like to make a motion to file this item.

Which takes person? Foul takes person. What? Foult takes person over the reconnector.

Over what? So Mr. Chairman, three chairs of council the order of motions is to place item on files number six and then number seven is to refer back to the city manager

The first motion is the motions to file this. So yes would be a file, no not to be filed.

Yeah.

Roll call.

Councilor Bergman? No. Councilor Bilotta? No Economou? No. Councilor Pizzolo? No, no. Council King? Yes. Council Mitra?

No!

Council Ojeda? No Council Rivera? No council Rosen? No Councillor Toomey has recused herself and Mayor Petty

No. Okay, so the motion is to recommit it to the city manager roll call.

Councilor Bergman?

No.

Sorry, sorry. I'm sorry, what's that? Just a quick question to the chair. Rosen, you wanted to recommit it but that was used I think you had said to also take out the $25 fine. That was my motion.

Is that what you had said?

That's my motion, okay. Yeah I suggested I could never support through the chair, I can never support the item if we didn't do that but it's gonna be recommitted and I would think that it's best for the manager to do that.

I just want to make sure of that.

Point order, my motion was a resolution stating that we want to strike that. It's a resolution so I'll make that clear. It is a resolution that the City Council

vote to file.

I know, that's a separate motion. My original motion you said was gonna be moot. Was the motion at the Worcester City Council stands in opposition to this Ordinance as it relates to the fine and the pursuit of criminal process. And you indicated that would be moot if it was sent back to the manager, I just want to be clear. So Council Rosen's motion is recommit, roll call.

Bergman, No. Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Council Economou? Yes Councilor Rosolo? Yes

And if it's a yes, I'm voting against my motion to... I just wanna be clear with my vote here. It's not time, this is a roll call. Just as point of order, point of clarification. There's no point in calling the roll call I was asking, my vote Yes, that means I'm voting against my motion according to your ruling. Yeah, right. OK. Abstain?

Councilor Mitra? Yes. Councilor Ojeda? Yes! Councilor Rivera? Yes, Councilor Rosen? Yes Councilor Toomey, Recruit Result and Mayor Petty?

Yes Okay. Do we have some other motions for information? All those in favor, opposed so ordered. Then we have, oh let's go back to the agenda. So we are chairman, we'll go through this pretty quick some of the stuff. Chairman's orders 9A to 9O, motion is to adopt. All those in favor?

What item was that, Mr. Chairman?

Items 9A to 9O, chairman's orders. 9A?

Yep. That's something I want to put on here.

Tonight, okay. Those in favor or opposed? So audit comes to two. Oh you were out of the room so. Oh Mr. Chairman hold on nine. Hang on hang on. for the record, Councilor Toomey has accused herself of nine C, D, E, F, G, H and J. Okay.

Mr. Chairman, yes I'm sorry I was trying to catch up with you after that last vote on a couple of these items here. Am I able to speak on them or do we have to do a motion to reconsider?

No, I think we just redid the whole thing so you can speak on it.

Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you everyone.

We're not on the orders.

Councilor? Yes, I'm just reading through them here. Mr. Chairman, I'm not familiar with the draft ordinance on 9C increasing fines I have some questions on that through the chair. So just to the charity administration, What communication has occurred or what are you aware of regarding increasing fines? Like, what are we talking about regarding excessive noise and how is that measured? Is that too far down the road? Mr. Manager?

Judiciary, because I'm not aware of any conversation on that. I think it might be something that's too far down the road based on what this Chairman's order or this request is here

I'd like to hold 9D. Nine what? D. Okay. and I like to hold nine C, nine G.

Okay, so we hold 9C, 9D, and 9G. And the rest will adopt. Those in favor, oppose? So let's help them approve.

Mr. Chairman I think with Councilor Bilotta online don't we have to take roll calls? Oh you're right, I forgot.

Okay, so roll call.

Councillor Bergman? Which ones those are again?

9A to 9O minus nine C, nine D and nine G is held under privilege.

All right can I just speak on nine L real quick?

Nine which one? Did I know? Yeah. Okay, Councilor Bohannon.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just, I just wanted to make sure that it includes in multiple languages. Think it's important that we stress that instead of it just coming out in maybe one language or two.

Okay, so these items as amended 9L, roll call.

Yes. Councilor Bergman? Yes. Once the toomer recuse himself, I'm Mayor Petty.

Yes. Before we go to the audits, maybe just do some of the busy work at the last part of the meeting here. If you'll go to 12A to 12D, refer them to this for legislative operations. Those are reports from the city clerk Roll call.

Councilor Bergman?

Yes. Can I just finish reading them, hold on? Thank you. All set? Roll call.

Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Council Economou? Rosolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey and Mayor Petty

Yes, 13B and 13C refer the Economic Development Committee.

13D and 13 C? Roll call. B and C?

Birkin. Yes. Ms. Bilotta? Yes, Councilor Economou? Yes. Councilor Resolo? Yes Councilor King? yes Councilor Mitra? yes. Councilors Ojeda? yes, Councilors Rivera? yes! Councilor Rosen? Yes! Councilors Toomey? yes

Yes, 14A and 14B. Motion to accept and adopt on the roll call.

Councilor Berman? Mayor Petty. Yes, 15A to 15B.

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King.

Yes. Mr. Mitra? Yes. Ms. Ojeda? Yes Mr. Rivera? Yes To Rosen? Yes Ms. Toomey? Yes Mayor Petty

Yes. We have 16A to 16B, motions to accept. 17A to 17C, motions accept and adopt.

I kind of have to recuse myself. Which ones? 16 A and B. Mr. Chairman, what are we adopting?

What's that? I'm trying to see here, 16 A and B. What are we adopting? Would you say we're adopting?

Okay, we're just gonna do 16A and 16B. Councilor Toomey has recused herself. Okay. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Yes, Councilor Economou? Yes! Councilor Zolo? Yes Councilor King? yes! Councilors Mitra? Yes!! Councilor Ojeda? Yes!!! Councilor Rivera? Yes!!!! Councilor Rosen? Yes!!!!! Mayor Petty

Yes. 17A to 17C, motion accepted and adopted in the roll call. 17D, 17H, motions accepted and adopt. And 17I to 17O, motions to accept, roll call

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, Mayor Pei.

Yes, we're at the audits 10A. We'll take 10A and 10B and 10C collectively. Request Standing Committee on Municipal Operations hold a discussion concerning feasibility of creating a new Rule 61 of the Rules of the Council to read as follows. in order to assist the City Council carrying out its duties related to the oversight of the legislative policy's budgetary functions within the city, each of the city department listed with an Appendix B and the rules of the City council. through the City Manager shall hereby submit an Annual Department Report to the City Council in the length of January 1st of each calendar year that includes said department's performance measures, for upcoming calendar year since submissions should be presented in a specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound SMART goals format to include the department's prior fiscal year budget information. B, request to stand and convene an M.O., hold a discussion concerning the feasibility of creating Route 62 of the City Council to read as follows.

City Council may know later than March 1st of each calendar year, project manager with recommended budget priorities for the city's upcoming fiscal year budget. Said recommended budget priority may include but not limited to identifying proposed Projects, Programs, Service Improvements, Operational Needs and our Policy Initiatives that should all be considered by the City Manager informing each department's budget. Said recommended budget priorities shall be submitted to each city council standing committee according to departments assigned to such committees. and C is also a whole discussion of feasibility creating Rule 63 of the City Council to read as follows. Submission of the Primary Budgets, City Manager should submit an annual primary budget report to Council for referral to the Council Standing Committee on Finance. Some primary budgets being submitted in the way of March 15th for each calendar year and should identify budget priorities for upcoming fiscal year, including information concerning budgeted proposed projects, program service improvements, operational needs and Policy Initiatives being considered as part of the upcoming fiscal year's budget. Councilor Mitra?

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I am trying to propose three new rules to add to the Council's rulebook. Currently we have about 60 rules for the City Council in the book. The reason of this is that in the last budget session, what we experienced was that when city manager brings the budget allocations or appropriations We discuss on it. We have questions we ask and at the end of the day, we find that the city councilors really do not any authority based on our charter to make any addition or we can make the cut but you cannot add I think we all probably, at least I felt that we should have a say.

We should have some way to let Mr. Manager know this is what I would like to be in the budget when he does the appropriation. I know that we do have time that we spend with Mr. Manager, two city councilors Be with him in his office, and he shows us the preliminary budget at that time. But I think that is very informal. It's not something that is recorded what we are saying if we have anything to say It's pretty much when city manager has already appropriated, City Councilors don't have any say. Keeping that in mind I felt that probably we all should get a chance to express our priorities So I came up with these three rules. Number one is rule number 61, which says annual report of city departments

So I would request that all city departments which are listed on the Appendix B of the rule book with all the departments that is listed there they all present to us the their annual report by January 1 if they can give us the performance report and how they are doing adding to the last year's budget report so that we get a chance to kind of take a look at it. So if they provide us that report through the city manager, to each department standing committee by January 1 Then the next rule is Rule 62, which is the submission of budget recommendation. Then the city councillors get a chance to see the performance level up to that point also look at the last budget report, have a comparison.

Talk to the department heads and come up with if there is any suggestion that they think maybe we don't need anything but if we think there's something needed for example It's a homeless issue that we have. We need more budget, so if I say that yeah I recommend city manager to see that if he could add extra money towards this cause or towards fixing the roads or getting more law enforcement officers I think this would be our chance every city councilor can take a look at the performance up to January and then from January through March 1 We will have our chance to give, review it, analyze it and prepare our priorities for the City Manager and submit it to this City Manager. That'll be Rule 62. and the Rule 63 would be, now City Manager always gives us a preliminary budget so that we can go over with him. I'm just suggesting here's Rule 63

Submission of a preliminary budget city manager then takes our priorities or our recommendations that he already has by that time and Then by March 15th, which generally does prepares A preliminary budget including his priorities, considering our priorities and come up with a compromise budget and present it to the finance committee. The finance committee consists of all city councillors and thereby we can review it, and then move from there to our budget session. So the whole idea was to create a situation, and so on. This is an official way of giving our priorities to the City Manager for consideration. Now once the budget comes to us, the preliminary budget appropriated by him considering We are going to honor the charter. We won't have any say, I understand that. We'll live with it.

Like I remember last budget when I had requested to kind of even a loan order of $20 million, I was said that we couldn't do it because the budget has already been appropriated. This probably gives all of us a chance that we can say something to city manager officially It goes to him that we want this to be considered and then he puts that into consideration, comes up with the preliminary budget which the finance committee then goes over. And then we get down into the budget session So those are my three new rules. Rule 61, 62, 63. First one is that department heads gives us the report and the performance report in a smart goal fashion 62. We submit our recommendation after we review their performance report and then request the manager to consider those, our priorities, and then Mr Manager

then brings us rule 63, submits to us the preliminary report and we can then go from there. So those were my I hope it will help each councillor to have an official recommendation of their own to the City Manager and City Manager hopefully will take into consideration of our recommendation and move to create the appropriate budget appropriation so we can all be looking into that. That's the order I have.

Okay, so we'll send out all three items to Councilor King? What purpose is your eyes?

In opposition. Mr. Chairman, regarding 10 A, B and C, so I get some feedback from the city manager sort of on this through chair.

Mr Manager

To the Chair, to the Councilor. Just on kind of the face and explanation that the council has provided me The City of Worcester we have, through my role even previously a city manager, we developed an actual strategic plan back in 2017-2016. We actually used Tom Hoover's 2004 plan as a beginning stages of that discussion with previous administration. that actually then evolved into a development of departmental development plans that we started to initiate in the current budget. And that practice has continued as well. One of the things that we added was a significant number of KPIs as part of that effort, and that's something that we're working right now to enhance but our current budget process, we have a strategic plan that we've outlined that we brought forward to the council it's a five-year strategic plan.

It has a number of goals, objectives and initiatives and things that we're working towards that are in that document that has been publicly available and has been communicated every single time that we try to, in addition to that every department is required to submit a departmental development plan that is in line with the strategic plan. so that their goals are being measured, their outcomes are being measure and they're being presented as part of the budget. So the budget that we present to the council every single year has a breakdown of those goals, the objectives and the outcomes of that and that's something that we continuously work to increase and enhance it. But again, just looking at here in terms of the desire- Mr. Chairman if I could just reclaim my time so this says by January 1st

for those departments to come forward with that. Can you speak to that aspect on 10A?

Yeah, through the budget process January 1st or in the beginning of the new year it's when we start the process of working with departments where they are now putting together the Departmental Development Plan plans. They're reviewing their outcomes, they're reviewing data and outputs based on those goals and initiatives that they were working on and they're also then working through their budgets in submissions to the budget office for review. So by the time I receive and I have the opportunity to discuss with department heads we're probably looking at sometime between February and March.

Thank you. So that time frame is not feasible. Mr. Chairman, 10B to the Chair of the Administration. Budget priorities. I just want to kind of make a statement on this so folks understand my vote. This calls for the council to recommend budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year by March 1st. Mr. Chairman, we meet monthly with the manager. A lot of folks meet more than monthly We have a number of orders that come through here. We have orders right now, that sets the agenda during budget season. That's an opportunity where we set priorities for the city manager as relates to budget, as it relates to operations. As it relates priorities Mr. Chairman I certainly don't want folks to think that this is not occurring. For example, our orders we have orders pertaining to potholes so if there's 47 orders of pothole over the last three weeks

the manager knows that's a priority for the city it doesn't require you know a formal form or paperwork to the manager. The orders speak for themselves, emotions speak for them selves and you know I just pause at really 10B as well. 10C, Mr. Chairman, I just want the manager to speak to the submission by March 15 through the chair.

10C. Mr. Mayor?

It's for a preliminary budget by March 15th.

through the gist of the council, that is actually a conversation that the CFO and I have actually begun. There is a possibility we can. We oftentimes when we submit our preliminary and we have the briefings with the council. We often need to wait until the governor's budget is presented to the legislation and we then utilized that budget as the leading factor to the preliminary budget. I believe March 15th, It's a good time frame that gives us the ability to come before the council and give a preliminary budget. Again, we will be subject to the governor's numbers to be able to set what those revenues in the taxes that we would be receiving from the state

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to be clear for the public. I appreciate Councilor Mitra's forward thinking as it relates to all of these items. Many of us have asked for improvements in and the budgeting process over the years. So I certainly appreciate the effort on all three of these Meacham, it sounds like 10C is something that could happen and perhaps wouldn't have happened without Councilor Mitra's and the Board of Directors. Thank you for your initiation here. Mr. Chairman, as it relates to 10A and 10B, just for the record, 10B I'm not going to support. It's something that we already do frequently sort of guided as relates to our individual budget priorities outside of what we already do. would be paused for me, for concern.

And it sounds like 10A is not able to be done by January 1st because he's not in receipt of that information until February or so. So just for the public, not that I don't want improvement but 10A and 10B doesn't appear feasible. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Thank You. Councilor Mitra second time?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to go back and say that my goal here is to give the city councilors an opportunity to connect to Mr. Manager with their priorities I understand that Mr.Manager takes the remarks and feedback from all department heads and creates the budget But what city councilors know is the voice of the constituents, is the report that we go to the neighborhood meetings. We hear them. The department heads don't know. So we're bringing you the real issue that we hear from the residents, from the constituents. I think we should have a chance to also be a part of your budget creation so that's why I created that The dates that you see there, it can be changed. It can be made to what is suitable to you.

I said January because from July through January It will be a half-month, semi-annual report we have with the previous year's budget. So we have a comparative picture and it is not something new. It has been done by City Manager Hoover. I have attached those. It was in the system It just doesn't get done. But I think our view, our priorities are coming because we're meeting with our residents, we're talking to our constituents and bringing you our side of the story, our side Managers are giving what they are facing, what they need. But I think when you have all this it will be a much better appropriation of your budget which will help the entire city. So I think it's a much better approach. I think the dates can be made suitable to you, the few days here and there if you say that well not March 1 then I can We can probably change that.

This whole thing as a proposal is to go through the MLO and have a discussion where we can make it, refine it and bring it back to you. So I think if we just approve 10C without approving 10A and B, then it's mute doing 10C. I think it is interlinked with each other Dates could be changed, it was already there before. The portion that I want to emphasize is the city managers are now getting their chance to offer you our priorities so you can now put together department head city City, City Councilors and your own. And that's why I would like this city councilor to consider is good for all of us.

Thank you. Dr King for a second time?

Thank you Mr. Chairman, I just want to state for the public I don't want any questioning of whether or not I as an elected official give my priorities to the city manager and voting against this would mean that I'm not giving priority in my monthly meetings, I'm giving them through orders. all sorts of contacts. So I just want to be very clear to the public that is not an issue for myself as an elected official Mr. Chairman, if there's an amendment to remove January 1st I'll vote for A 10B as I stated we do this regularly it's our job as a council to set priorities and again multiple intersects, including especially during budget time where folks are like why they talking to one it sets an agenda. Chairman, and Tennessee I would support. I don't want any sort of misunderstanding that I'm not doing that on a regular basis.

Councilor Bergman?

Just briefly, Mr. Chairman, I'm wondering if the manager would consider taking these for a report, sending it back to us and then we can discuss whether or not it makes sense to send it down below? providing some feedback from the manager could be very helpful because he may be able to guide us whether A, B and C is something he's already doing whether you could do better, whether it can't be done at all. My colleague Councilor Mitra doesn't object I think that starting with the manager's report will be a better way of going about it than sending it right away to the committee

I think, Councilor Mitra. He's asking to send all three requests to the same manager. Mr. Councilberg, is that correct?

Yeah. Yes, I think dates being an issue. I think it will be better that Mr Manager looks at it and gives us back what he thinks would be feasible and I'll be okay with that

Is everybody fine with that, or do you still want? Yeah. Okay, so motion is the Senate of Manager, all three items, I'm sorry, roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Council Bilotta? No. Council Economou? Yes, yes. Council Rossello? Yes! Council King?

These are collective. I just wanna be no on B, but yes on A and C. That's why he asked if everybody was all set.

Okay so we'll do them separately. 10A to the manager roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta? No. Council Economou? Yes, Councilor Rossello? Yes Councilor King? Yes councilor Mitra? yes Councilor Ojeda? yes councilor Rivera? yes, councilor Rosen? yes Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey and Mayor Petty. Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes. 10F, request to be amended and requested by Commissioner of Public Works by City Council with a report detailing the feasibility of adding a recycle bin at the Clark Street drop-off site for our residents to drop off recycled items. Councilor Economou?

Thank you Mr. Chairman, just real quick I've heard from a few residents just asking, just to save them a trip from heading down to Millbury Street. I don't know if it's something that's doable Mr. Manager. I know we're looking at a bit of a redesign of that Location. If it's something that we can do, I think it'd be a great asset for the north end of the city. Thank you.

So now to the manager, roll call. I just like to sign on to that. Roll call.

Bregman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes, Tenji requests the man to provide counsel for the draft ordinance. Councilor Toomey has recused herself. The request to be made provides the council with draft forms and other regulations to ensure that the operators of all kinds of motorized scooters, bikes, et cetera have vehicles licensed and registered for requests pedestrian safety considerations be made When drafting settlements or regulations, Councilor Economou.

this has come up at numerous neighborhood meetings over the last few months and in speaking with the manager there seems to be something coming down from the state or at least the state is looking at it so If we can keep the item in our purview until something comes down from the state, that's what I would appreciate Mr. Mayor

Okay, send that. Councilor Ojeda?

Yes just real quick through the Chair maybe Nico can help me out with this City Clerk did Councilor Toomey put something similar to this There was an ask, I know some of the residents in my neighborhood meetings and I can't find it in the email that I received but something similar to this.

To be sure, to the council. I think it was put in but it was past 90 days and I don't think that I've seen anything from administration come back on it. Could you repeat that through the chair? I didn't hear the clerk. So through the chair of the council, I think Councilor Toomey has put on similar items in the past but it's been passed to 90 days.

Okay, thank you. We send that to the committee. What are we doing with this?

It says here, Senator Public Works. Yeah.

And then we'll just hold off on action on that until we hear from our partners at the state.

Okay. Okay, so you're saying, okay.

So it's not gonna be heard in committee? Correct. But we'll send that to committee, okay?

In case we don't hear then we can take it up.

Okay, roll call. he's amended this under the committee and hold it there until the state.

No, I understand Mr. Chairman. I'm not looking for more business. I respect what Councilor Economou is asking. I was just wondering if Public Safety wouldn't be the more appropriate place. I don't care, I'm just asking.

I thought the motion was to send it to the manager and pending, that's what he originally said.

Pending state... That's what we should do. State movement. Yeah, we should send it. Okay, roll call.

Yes, and Mayor Petty.

Yes, 10H requests the manager to request the chief development officer work with the housing partners and stakeholders developing homeowner and tenant submit to educate residents about housing programs benefits and tenants rights. Councilor Bilotta?

Yeah, Mr. Chairman just given the late hour I would like to hold my two items.

The next two? Okay. Yep. H&I?

Yes and excuse me Also item Z, 10Z.

I'll hold 10-J as well if he's holding 10-Z.

10 what? I'm sorry, Councilor?

I'll whole 10- J as well, if he is holding 10 Z they kind of go together

Okay, so we are on 10K, and request the Standing Committee on Public Health and Human Services meet jointly with their Board of Health for the purpose of reviewing matters related to public health. Rosen. The other way, the Quality of Women, Youth Services, Public Housing, Disabled and Community Development Block Grant Fund listed on their agenda. Councilor Rosen?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I did spend previous to this term on the council four years in the Board of Health and a lot of the issues that that board continues to take up our public health committee of the City Council will also be taken up. So I just was hoping that maybe once, at the most twice a year our Public Health Committee could meet with the Board of Health and discuss issues that we have in common, and see where we want to go each body with those issues. So I thought it would be good to have that partnership even if you go back to what we had the past year about Noah Mesko and the business over there on Lower Pleasant Street. It would have been good, I think to have the Board of Health meet with of Public Health and discuss that. So I listed some items that I think we might have in common, and it would be once or twice a year

City Council to endorse the meetings of two bodies. Thank you, Mr Chairman.

Thank You roll call

Yes. Councilor Bergman? Yes. That's Bilotta? Yes, that's Economou? Yes Fresolo? Yes That's King? Yes Mitra? Yes Ojeda? Yes Rivera? Yes Rosen? Yes Toomey Mayor Petty

Yes. Okay, we'll get through one more, maybe these, but we'll see. 10L, request of the Manager and Chief to call an office to explain to City Council at its September 26, 2026 meeting. Why Opt-Align Enterprises and Commercial Drywall and Metal Framing Subcontract and Documented Violations of Labor and Employment Laws is being allowed to work on the 364-unit residential complex being built on 274 Franklin Street, which is a project heavily supported by $11 million in local private tax relief over 15 years. The property was previously banned from taxpayer funded projects in Worcester in June 2025 Due to the documented violations including wage theft, paying employees under the state, failing to pay proper overtime rates to tradespeople working for over 40 hours a week. and tax insurance fraud. Senate explanation should address whether upline's work on the aforementioned project is in violation of the list as responsible employee lawrence Rosen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of the several reasons that Worcester has a responsible development ordinance is to make sure that the developers and their subcontractors when they receive public money or tax rates, they follow the labor laws and they support their hiring practices. And that hasn't always occurred even though we have the responsible development ordinance and I know we all support the ordinance, but the question is do we all want to enforce that? And I hope we do. I hope in every violation of this ordinance we try to enforce it have penalties for the developers, subcontractors who might be engaged in things like wage theft. Failure to pay prevailing wages, safety infractions. Those are all things that we have seen at times during these especially publicly funded projects.

Optiline Enterprises, the ones that I've mentioned here. It's a drywall subcontractor and they've been accused of wage theft, intimidation, retaliation against immigrant workers and a judge already found that Optiline threatened and intimidated workers when they had a lawsuit over unpaid overtime. Optiline is working at 274 Franklin Street now on a project, 364 units. Great project. and that developer is receiving $11 million in local property tax relief. So it's an important project for the city, and it's important that the developer and the subcontractors do follow the responsible development ordinance. And workers allege that OptiLine has failed to pay legally mandated overtime

The employees filed a class action lawsuit and Optiline certainly was found to have intimidated workers, threatened them with immigration work with the ICE and so on. So to sum it up, OptiLine Enterprises was banned from taxpayer funded and tax subsidy projects in Worcester in June 2025. We've already done that. but they're back on the scene for some reason that I think the Attorney General had something to do with and I don't think the attorney general has auspices over our responsible development ordinance. but they were banned in Worcester in June 2025 under the city's RDO due to documented, not accused, documented labor wage theft and employment law violations. So my question in this wordy order, Mr. Chairman is why are they back on the scene? Should they be back in the scene I say no

Worcester and the developer can do better than having a company, Optinline Enterprises that have been charged with these and found guilty you know, certainly even by the Attorney General and by the City of Worcester back in June 2025. So I would ask the administration and the law department if they could respond to my concerns that this company working over on Franklin Street on that big project, 364 units should be working there with all the charges against them. Thank you Mr. Chim.

I think I missed that, sorry. I want to know why they're back on the project if Worcester banned them in June 2025 because I don't think they should be.

I'll let the solicitor give a little bit of better explanation on the legal components. I'll give an explanation of how they came back to the project. Initially, back in June of 2025 when there was a developer that was looking to hire this contractor to do some work. we were notified of that possibility. And through our evaluation and review with the Attorney General's office in what was happening currently in legal proceedings with this company, We then issued a memo to the developer letting them know that they would be they would be ineligible, that contractor will be in eligible to be working on that site and so they chose not to pursue in contracting that company. Most recently here, our Chief Development Officer actually went to one of their site visits and had realized that the developer had chosen

this particular contractor for this particular site. When we realized that decision was made, we then quickly did an analysis of are digging the research of what happened, why was he brought forward? Why were this contractor selected? Who selected a contractor in terms of the partnership with that development. What was the outcomes from the AG related to this contractor? And then working with the solicitor in terms of providing guidance to the developer about whether this contractor is still ineligible or has the opportunity to work back on the site. and so that's where, that's how we were notified. We then when we were notified by that we contacted different parties

to let them know that we had just received notification or we had been aware that this company was selected as part of being the contractor for this development. But I'll let the solicitor explain a little bit further on the legal matters, our position initially and what changes currently are in place based on our discussions with the Attorney General's office.

Through the Chair to the Councilor. So in June of 2025, this city issued a determination letter based on a citation that we received that Optaline was found to have violated retaliation law. So there was actually no findings on wage theft or any of that, but it was the Attorney General's Office conducted an investigation, found that Optiline retaliated against the employee and issued a citation. Based on that citation, the city determined they were not eligible to be a contractor on the project Fast forward about a year later, we received a settlement agreement saying that Opgeline has no liability and no wrongdoing whatsoever. So based off of that, you would think they were eligible because that negates all liability and wrongdoing.

We talked to the Attorney General's office and they've clarified their amended citation and settlement agreement only applies to the civil penalty. So, the underlying violation in alleged conduct of retaliation is still valid So earlier today, we've issued a letter saying that our 2025 determination is still valid and OptiLine cannot be on the project.

Through the chair to the city solicitors. So whose final decision is it? We've recommended to the developer that Optinlight Enterprises not be on the project, but supposing the developer does not enforce that, does not agree with us. Is it our decision or is it the developers' decision through the chair?

Through the chair, if the developer keeps them on the job then it would be a breach of the tie agreement that they have and they'd lose their fund tax credits.

Okay, so through the chair to maybe back to the manager. Can I assume that Opterline soon will be off the job on Franklin Street?

Mr. Manager?

To share to the council, that's something I will report back to the Council based on my conversations with the developer. There has been no indication to me of that but that would be something that I would discuss with the developers.

So you should know that soon?

Yeah, this was submitted to the developer this afternoon right shortly before the meeting. And so that would be a conversation I would have with

Okay, so since the manager and the solicitor will have more information later this week I'd like to just hold this for next week so we can get an answer public answer. Are they on the job still or are they off the job? I'm assuming they're gonna be off the But before we know that, so let's just hold it for next week.

Thank you. Just to hold under privilege, Councilor King? Thank you Mr. Chairman.

I want to thank my colleague for this opportunity Order, as it relates to all of this. I had a couple of questions. My understanding is that they were to be banned or prevented from doing work in the city through 2027. Is that correct?

Madam Solicitor?

Mm.

Through the chair, so it violated. The citation was issued from the Attorney General's office in December 2024, so for three years they cannot work on any projects.

Thank you. And how was that through the chair communicated to potential developers? and other current developers as relates to the work that's being done here. Is there any sort of broadened information sharing as it relates to that from the city stating, hey I just wanna let you folks know This particular subcontractor is prevented from working in the city through 2027 based on XYZ, through the chair.

There is no mechanism for us to be able to communicate that. We have not done that in the past. Oftentimes, that is left to the responsibility of the developer seeking proposals from multiple contractors and subcontractors. And they're required to then look through any department lists, any violations across and then they're also required to review our development ordinance, and then do a cross analysis of the actual list from the AG's office or department. So oftentimes developers, they hire contractors or consultants to do that work for them. To do that evaluation and analysis of what contractors are in good standing based on our RDO because every community's Development Ordinance, or Responsible Development Orders may be different. And so they have to then work among them. But currently our offices are economic development team

does not inform or give any notice to prospective developers. It is on their responsibility to do that due diligence.

Due chair to the administration, what are the titles of the two positions if we still have them that provide oversight

Through the Chair, there's a Contract Compliance Manager is one position that does that type of work.

That is correct. One of them is a contract compliance manager. There's another one, right? Yeah, there is not. I just don't know the title. Okay.

I appreciate that. I'm just wondering by way of emotion if we could explore I don't know how many developers we have here in the city. It can't be 2,000 is a finite number. If there's a way we can communicate our decisions to those folks and the folks who are coming in like, hey is our can't fly zone as it says. So I'll be by way of an order. Mr. Chairman, I just want to point out that the allegations Actually, the findings that we're talking about here. Before we go on, just to suspend the rules? Oh, we got three minutes. I'll be done in three minutes and then we have to stop at midnight. Okay, you have three minutes on that clock, okay. Yeah, we gotta stop right? I don't even know what I was saying now. Yeah, we gotta stop at 12. It's 12 o'clock. Two minutes!

No, 12.

Mr. Chairman let me wrap up here. It says it's 12 O'clock So Mr. chairman, I'll just say this real quick since this is our last item Again, the judge found that the Bolduc brothers or one of the Bolducks were making threatening and intimidating statements and threats about immigration status and coercion. and in addition to that Wade stuff. Mr. Chairman, it's my understanding there was a report of Wade stuff I'm not sure what was followed through on so I can make a motion that we get a report back on that from the city if any information they had relative to any concerns regarding wage theft as well pertaining to Optiline. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Roll call on that and roll call on the adjournment. I'll hold the other items under privilege

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King. I did your motion.

Just point of order, doesn't this continue next meeting? The other stuff doesn't have to be held. We continue the meeting? Just a point of clarification.

Clarification is if the manager's gonna bring his calendar you cannot continue. You have to hold it so everything's put on with his calendar. Metra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey