The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (HLC) is working on a statewide needs assessment in an effort to better understand systemic and regional gaps in their effort to address homelessness among households without children. To that end, it has scheduled a series of virtual listening sessions that will focus both on geographic region and specific types of programs.
Western MA specific sessions are:
Hampden County – Oct. 24, 2-3 pm
Rural Counties in Western MA – Nov. 14, 2-3 pm
All are welcome to attend any number of sessions (but no need to repeat the same comments in each session!). HLC will record the sessions for later viewing as well. Each session will begin with a a few specific questions and then allow time for general comments. The feedback from these sessions will inform HLC’s conclusions and proposed strategies.
To attend: please email Director of Individual Homelessness Systems Gordie Calkins at Gordon.Calkins@mass.gov. He will forward you the virtual invitations to the specific sessions you are interested in attending. Feel free to forward this to others who may be interested.
| Regional Based Sessions | Date | Time |
| Hampden County CoC | 10/24/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Worcester County CoC | 10/31/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Northern Worcester County | 11/2/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Rural Counties in Western MA | 11/14/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Metro Boston | 11/27/2023 | 1:00 to 2:00 |
| Quincy / Weymouth / Plymouth County | 11/28/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Cape and Islands | 11/30/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Essex County | 12/6/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Upper Merrimack | 12/12/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Balance of Middlesex and Norfolk Counties | 12/14/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Bristol County | 12/19/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Focus Area Based Sessions | Date | Time |
| Emergency Shelter | 10/26/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Outreach | 11/1/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Rapid Rehousing | 11/7/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Permanent Supportive Housing | 11/9/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Warming Center and Day programs | 11/15/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Diversion / Triage | 11/29/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| CoC and ESG | 12/5/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Elders | 12/7/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Youth | 12/13/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
| Veterans | 12/20/2023 | 2:00 to 3:00 |
