Work Group on Individuals with Sex Offense Histories
March 27, 2013
In attendance: Lisa Carabello, Amherst Community Connections, Carl Cignoni, Hampshire County Corrections/DOJ Re-entry program, Joe Critelli, Hampden County Corrections, Danielle DeBerry, ServiceNet, Hwei-Ling Greeney, Amherst Community Connections, Richard Hendrick, Elliot CHS Homeless Services, Jay Levy, Eliot CHS-Homeless Services, Sgt. Anne McMahon, Northampton Police Department, Pamela Schwartz, Network coordinator, Bill Toller, Hampden County Corrections
Report out on homeless count for Level 2 and Level 3 (thanks to Lisa Carabello and Hwei-Ling Greeney’s work on this):
Hampshire county: 18 out of 19 towns responded (95% response rate)
Level 2 offenders: 180
Level 2 homeless: 10
Level 3 offenders: 52
Level 3 homeless: 6
Franklin County: 18 out of 26 towns responded (70% response rate)
Level 2 offenders: 168
Level 2 homeless: 2
Level 3 offenders: 63
Level 3 homeless: 5
ServiceNet (Grove Street/Interfaith cot shelter): for Grove Street, a cap of 25% sex offenders at shelters (because so hard to find subsequent housing, very little movement). About 5 right now. No cap at cot shelter – first come/first serve.
Building bridge for support for those who enter housing.
If we know there is a place that accepts sex offenders already and we’re already thinking of designing a set of services a la HAP pilot, then we may want to include a package of services that could be offered or connected to new people as they move into a new place, e.g, Northampton Lodging. Something to consider as we move forward.
HAPHousing Outreach:
Still looking for a new date for meeting with Lorraine House.
SMOC Housing: Bill Toller spoke with Charles Gagnon, second in charge at SMOC, working in Springfield now while Alison Maynard is out on maternity leave. Pamela will reach out to him to meet with him.
Valley CDC connect again (they said they wanted to do this later)
Next meeting: will merge with Individual Services meeting on Thurs., 4/25, 9:30 -11 am.
