“The time is always right to do what is right.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Chicago 1966
I write to reiterate the deep concern many of us in the community share regarding the impending closing of the Transition Wellness Center. The center, which provides nearly 60 beds to some of the most vulnerable members of our community, is scheduled to shut down June 30. Should this happen, the City of Cambridge will exacerbate the already dire crisis – locally and across the state – of inadequate access to affordable housing and emergency shelter.
It is no secret that Cambridge, like many communities in Massachusetts, faces a severe shortage of affordable housing and emergency shelter. The Transition Wellness Center has been a vital resource, providing stability, safety and compassionate care to individuals – including longtime Cambridge residents – navigating homelessness, recovery and other challenges. If these beds are eliminated, the city will be directly increasing the unmet need all of us struggle to manage.
Some have argued that, in light of possible reductions in federal funding, the city must make “hard decisions” about where its resources go. But when those decisions result in stripping shelter and support from our poorest and most marginalized neighbors, we must question our values. Hard decisions should not translate into harsher consequences for those who are already suffering the most. At moments such as these our city must demonstrate its moral clarity and commitment to equity by prioritizing the safety and dignity of its most vulnerable residents.
With many other community members who provide assistance to our city’s poor and marginalized, I have sought for more than 18 months, without success, for meaningful engagement with the city concerning the closing of the center. We have, in meetings with the city manager and in City Council chambers, made the point that putting people back on the streets simply because it may be expensive to continue serving them is not a justifiable budgetary choice – it is a callous and shameful failure to live up to the values that Cambridge is known for. It is not enough to lament the human cost; we must act to prevent it.
As someone who has worked for 38 years with and on behalf of our city’s underserved, I urge the council to do everything in its power to ensure that the beds at the Transition Wellness Center are preserved and that the people who rely on them are not left out on the street. The health of our community is measured by how we treat those with the least.
Thank you the council for its attention and continuing service to the city.
Jim Stewart
The author is director of the First Church Shelter in Cambridge.
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Jim Stewart is on target when he advocates for saving the shelter. Trump is waging war on the poor and marginalized and is taking aim at Sanctuary cites, like Cambridge. Now is the time to push back! During the upcoming budget hearings I expect that City Councilors will ask hard questions about line items in the city budget that do not reflect the values of our resident. Hard decisions do have to be made, saving the transitional Wellness Center is one of them.
That “hard decisions” always seem to mean screwing the poor, rather than say raising taxes on the wealthy at all, shows these are not “hard decisions” at all but politicians taking the easy way out by forcing those least able to fight back to bear the brunt.