Milford Churches To Open Homeless Shelters This Winter

MILFORD, MA — Several temporary homeless shelters are set to open in Milford this winter to help unsheltered people escape cold, snowy conditions. At least three local churches are trying to open shelters, supervised by several town departments and police.

Trinity Church, The Way, and St. Mary’s are all in the process of getting town approval or have already received it, according to city officials. The shelters would open at those locations when the temperature drops below or feels like freezing.

The Way Rev. Eric Rodriguez said the three churches have noticed an uptick in people asking for shelter. Some are asking to be put up in local hotels, but the churches wanted to find a more sustainable solution.

"We're finding that homelessness in Milford looks different from more urbanized cities," he said. "what you'll find here are people couch surfing, and some we've discovered are pitching tents in wooded areas and that's what they're calling home."

The Milford Buildings, Fire, and Health departments are overseeing the approval process for the shelters. Milford police may also be on hand on nights that shelters are open, according to the Milford Board of Health.

Rodriguez says his church will be able to accommodate about 20 people. The church will be divided into areas for men, women, and families, if needed. The shelters will be low-barrier, which means that people will not be turned away for any reason.

Milford does not have any temporary overnight shelters presently. Many of the larger facilities are far away in cities like Framingham and Worcester.

There were about 1,800 people living homeless in Worcester County, according to the 2018 Worcester County one night point-in-time homeless count by the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance. About 170 of those people were living outdoors, and almost 1,200 were counted living in an emergency shelter, according to CMHA. That data was not broken down into individual cities and towns in the county.

In 2018, there were over 20,000 homeless people living in Massachusetts, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That's more than 14 percent higher than in 2017. However, Worcester County's homeless population dropped between 2017 and 2018 by about 200 people. Point-in-time counts are just a snapshot, and likely underestimate actual figures, social services organizations say.