City Council - Regular Meeting

My marble coming. Hey, hey, hey. pain. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey. They're coming.

The city council committee on health and environmental affairs will now come to order. Cler, please call the role. here. Here. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made, whether perceived or unpersceived by those present, and are deemed acknowledged and permissible. Do we have anybody for citizens input signed up? Okay, we'll move on to the minutes for the December 9th, 2025 meeting. Motion to approve.

Motion to approve has been made. I'll second it. All those in favor?

I opposed. That passes. Next is a resolution to convene with the administration and relevant service providers to review and report on the data related to shelter demand and capacity estimated unserved population and reporting which was adopted on January 13, 2026. We have some guests to bring to the table. Welcome. Happy Earth Day, everyone.

All right, if you can just state your name and your title for the record, please. Michael Dion, uh, director of community development for the city. Nikki Fontaine, director outreach services, city of F River. and I'm Rosa Tvas. I'm the director of homeless services at Stepping Stone and O'Neal Soua, interim city administrator. Thank you.

And we had as part of this resolution, I asked for a number of data points and it looks like uh that has been provided here. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We got a lot of data for you. Um 2005 if you want it. Good evening. Um I figure I start off this evening. uh and uh we have some very knowledgeable people here with us tonight about the homeless uh uh homeless population in the city. I want to go over a couple of um uh information with you. Um what you have in front of you in the long long papers and uh 11 by17 is our um three shelters that we had uh this uh this winter. Um you had the overflow shelter which is the tomato center. Um, as you can see, uh, we broke down by month. Um, the people that were in that, uh, facility, uh, if you look at December, uh, on the 25th was the first day that it started. Okay. So, if you look at the 25th, um, we've gone with a capacity of around 25 to 30 people per month, uh, per day, I mean, uh, in beds. So if you're looking at the 15th day of December, you're looking at a capacity of 25 people. Uh overflow shelter placement was 10. The vacancy was uh the bottom line which was 15.

And out of that 15 uh out of the 10 uh four were um reserved but no show. So, as you can see from the four months, the closest that we became to having the overflow shelter filled was on the 27th of January, which I highlighted in yellow, um, with a capacity being 25 and with an overflow shelter placement of 24. So, I would like to let everyone know, the public know um that uh there was not one day during the cold winter months of December, January, February, and March that our overflow shelter was full. Um there are some days where you're looking at capacity that was very high where vacancy was, you know, 11, 16, 15 beds. Um, so that's very important in terms of how the homeless uh homeless move uh through our shelter system. All of our homeless are um uh uh interviewed and and intake at Stepping Stone. from the stepping stone location. Um if stepping stone is full, then they go to uh and they refer it to the tomato center for the overflow that like I said has 25 to 30 beds. Um Stepping Stone has 50 beds. Um so we have a total of about 75 to 80 beds in in the uh cold cold winter months. On the second sheet, you'll see here, um, we ran a cold weather shelter down at Stepping Stone. It used to be at First Baptist Church. Um, the lady on the right of me, Nikki

Fontaine, was the one that spent a lot of her time, most of her time, uh, running that cold weather shelter. And as you can see, um, that cold weather shelter down there, uh, had a capacity of around 45 people. Uh, we originally did the capacity around 52, but it was just too much, um, with, uh, serving meals and and, you know, needing additional space for the operation of the shelter. So, if you're looking at December, uh, you'll have the stats December, January, February, and March. We were open five times during December. you'll see that there was uh a capacity of 45. Uh December 4th it was opened. We serviced 20 people and we had a vacancy of 25 people. Uh on the 8th of December, you'll see there was a a capacity of 45. We serviced 48. So there was actually we went over that night. and that is uh um uh related to the good work of stepping stone allowing us to put uh other people in certain areas of their shelter. So, not only did the 50 uh uh upstairs, but we also had um on those dates downstairs in their conference room. You'll see uh it was opened up many days in January. I want to say 15 or 16 days. um again in February and one day in March. So you can see there what the capacity was, the number of homeless people that we serviced and what the vacancy was um on those cold weather nights. Um we also, if you go to the third page, we also this year applied for uh we also applied for state grant and we received um about $265,000 uh dollars. Part of that was um our

ability to rent uh motel rentals at the Capri Motel. So again, gave you the stats from uh we started that in November. Gave you the stats November, December, January, February, and March. Um as you can see, uh we utilized uh the hotel rooms quite often. Um we utilized it for many, many reasons. A lot of it was capacity, but also um you know, you're getting phone calls all hours of the night. Uh you're getting uh calls when it's really really cold out. Uh so we it was really nice to be able to um have those additional beds available to us. Um we tried not to um we tried to make that available to everybody. Um you'll see uh in the month of December there were some turnaways. Uh the reasons why those turnaways happened was we had somebody that was on 123 COVID positive so we told them to stay in the hospital. On 127 um they the the uh clients lived far away so we told them to stay put. On 129 there was somebody from a medical facility in Holio. We told them to stay in Holio. uh 1214 they were there were people living in the shelter and they wanted us to place them in a hotel. We had elderly parents coming from Indiana living in New York. We gave them New York resources. Um we had father, mother and child stating delivering arrangements were too small but we we advised them to stay where they were located. And the last two um these two clients needed a place for detox and we decided that the motel was uh very unsafe for them to be in. Um so you have the uh you have the uh stats for those three um that were done. Um I

also provided to you uh and I'll open up to Nikki and and um uh Rosa to answer any kind of questions. Um I gave you the shelter point in time counts for uh last year and this year. Uh last year um you'll see on the uh left u left hand corner it'll say fall river 2025 point in time count. Um and then the other one will say 2026 point in time count. In the 2025, we had uh listed 215 homeless people that were out on the streets. It'll give you their ages. Um 96 of them were chronically homeless, which means that uh there's a really a definition of chronically homeless. Uh depending on which one they met, that's what they were they were brought in. And there was one veteran that was homeless in 2025. Um, if you go to 2026, we had 151 people that were homeless. Now, this uh point in time count just happened to happen on a night that was very, very cold. Um, we actually delayed it because of the blizzard that we had. So, um, that count is, uh, uh, a little smaller at 151. Um there was more than 151, but the people that uh HUD does not allow you to count people that are in a shelter. So at that night there were people in a cold weather shelter. So that what that's why that number is is less than uh I I believe what it should be.

Yeah, there was 53 low. They came to our emergency shelter for the one night.

So we're looking at the point in time count being about 204 205 people for 2026. Uh it'll break down the ages of those people. It'll also break down um uh who's chronically homeless. There's 59 of them. We had five veterans. Um and this this is done uh on a yearly basis. Um it is uh taken very seriously. Nikki and the group of outreach workers uh go out and they go through the encampments. They go through people living on on the streets. Um, I would say that those numbers are good numbers. Um, you know, we don't get everybody, but we believe they're good numbers.

Well, I made a mistake. Mary, even though we had 53 in the shelter that that night, Mary Camarra was at 191, so we went down 40 to 151. She had some already out of the count.

So, um, those are our point in time counts um that we have uh have done in the last two years. Um, you have the statistics. Uh, I'd like to turn it over to Nikki um to give you uh uh an aspect of what we're doing for our street homeless encampments, what we're doing. So, one of the things I really want to say though is that the 191 that we had this year um compared to the 215 of last year, what I notice is that with the EWE program, we placed 105 people. And out of this 215 names, only eight or nine of the people were failures of EWE. So, that means almost 100 people, we had a over 90% success rate. So over a hundred of the chronically homeless that were on this list are placed and did not return to the streets of Far River. What I'm seeing is no matter how fast we place them, and I'm sure Rose is going to attest to this as well, more people are becoming homeless at the same rate or just, you know, very similar rate. Um, and we're seeing that from sober houses, MASH certified sober houses that have a statewide database that anyone can search where they want to go and see that Fall River has six sober houses. They're coming here. They're letting allowing them to get a Fall River ID even if they're here for a few weeks and then kicking them out and they're stuck on the streets. I'm seeing that also from Star and different other places. I know we've worked on it together with Stepping Stone um to try to get these people back where they're coming from because if they're coming for treatment, we should be sending them back, you know, whether especially if they're not successful. Um but I do believe EWE was one of the most successful programs we've had. But to Mike's stats, the fact that Tameo Center never filled up ever once in the winter because every single

night that we held that cold winter emergency shelter, we offered the beds and out of the 30 times we opened, I think three people in total took it and then they leave. And it is what it is. But um even the numbers that he showed you for the emergency shelter, we were at like 64 people, even though the capacity was 40, in the worst nights, they were still leaving, you know, and we'd check them back in and they could come back. But the people that are out there, unless they're brand new, have been offered it and offered it and offered it. And I told um Councelor Canuel the last time we met, I think the only time that we have a shortage of beds is actually summertime. new people become homeless that we haven't been able to offer. Um, winter we all go above and beyond. They don't want any more help, you know. But summer, unfortunately, there is new people that just become homeless and we're full because we already have all these other people, you know, but I think there isn't another possible thing that could be done to keep the people alive or getting treatment in the winter and spring and fall. I'll

go to council pickle. All right. Um, if I had to ask you just from jump, if we had to solve the homeless problem within the city, what would you ask for?

First, I would say don't take anyone else that hasn't been homeless. Um, I do think that we need more affordable housing because we can get them into the shelter. We can get them into sober living. And I know we have a tremendous percentage of affordable housing in Fall River. um you know, but it's just like the people that we're dealing with and getting them to the next step, right? Because we don't want to just throw them in PSH and free for life and all those things. We want them to get a job and and stop working. So really transitional housing and rooming houses is what I mean.

Right. I asked that because obviously and you know firsthand, I deal with this from a family perspective. I just had to reach out to you a couple of weeks ago. Um, and I'm in a position now where I can say that I'm sick of the revolving door of no help. Um, you guys do phenomenal. You do a phenomenal job at everything you guys do. But unless we ask for help here, we're never going to get to the end of this. There's going to be no I hate to say this, but we're never going to solve this problem. Okay. Um, I've watched my family members bounce from program since I was a child. my uncle, my brother's program to program, seven days here.

We section 35 of them. He goes away for seven to 30. I worked at Massac. I watched it. So, you got these people that they're shown what the clean life is is uh is like after 30 days and then we open the door and we say, "Okay,

have a nice day." Um there's no like a home type version of a planning system. We just say, "Good luck." And unless I'm I'm going to say this and at the end of this uh section of the meeting, I I'm going to request that we finally call the state delegation, including the governor's office, to the table, um the state representatives and Senator Rodri's um to help us combat this. I'm going to tell you that the night before the blizzard, I was looking for the numbers on here um because I had the opportunity to help you out in the shelter. Um, I think we had 50 carts and I get there and thank God for your staff and the pastor of the church up the street because you guys were setting up carts. Three people setting up 50 carts at no fault of your own. We just don't have the money to allocate to this. We have been burdened in this city, this state, and this nation with such a problem that us we're not going to figure this out. We have to demand help from the state government. I would go to the federal government, but we know what that's like right now, right? Um, you either agree or disagree, but it just says what it is. The state of Massachusetts, right, in their infinite wisdom, created this problem. We have shoved thousands of people into this city over the last few years and given them apartments and money and food and assistance and health insurance while our fall rivers were still sleeping in in tents.

Okay, that is asinine to me. So whatever I can do as a counselor to assist in this and give you any help that I can, I am going to um at the end of this direct depending on the direction motion to uh table and I would like the state delegation to ultimately come down here and give us what their plan is for the future to rectify this because they are burying these cities. I yield. Thank you.

Councelor, um I think you've already you might have not been a counselor, but the council has helped us out tremendously. She talked about the EWE program and we took some of the opiate abuse money for that program and it's been a successful program. Um, we went to every encampment. We've been to every encampment. I believe we've offered anybody that has a alcohol or substance abuse problem to go through the detox program to do the step down. We pay what 6 months of uh sober house. Six months of rent for a sober house. And we've had, like I said, 94 90 94 to 96% of the people uh uh have been successful at it. Um we have some great great stories of people who are now driving trucks. They're they're contractors there. It so it's working and and I want to thank the council and thank the administration because the administration we've done more for the homeless during this administration than I've done and I've been here 30 years. Um uh but I want to thank the city council for standing behind us. We're going to come down probably round one has been done. Uh we've been, like I said, we've been successful. We're going to do hopefully a round two. Um we're going to ask you guys to support it again. Um and and keep it going. Um you know, there are some hardcore people out there. I've seen it. I've I've I've been at the shelters. I was at the cold weather shelter. Um, uh, they the people that were at the cold weather shelter, if Nikki, correct me if I'm wrong, were more like to to be users and and and and like to, uh, um, use the drugs. We had a drug problem in in one of the, uh, uh, one night.

Every night we had a drug problem.

They both asked, "Oh, is there anything else?" Because you guys were both great. You were the only two that came from the city council. Thank you both for your help. But they both asked when you were leaving, you know, is there anything else we can do? I was like, "Unless you want to come at midnight and see because it turns into just bedum every single night because unfortunately we have the most mentally ill and the substance abusers." Um, but I do think we never know when the day is that that person is going to change their life just like me or whatever. Um, you know, so we don't give up hope and we're not saying we stop trying. We continue to offer it. But I I do think EWE was so far the most successful program I've seen um in a very long time. So I would like to continue that. And then we realized we had a problem with not being able to help the ones without substance use that were just mental illness or whatever. Um so we did try to expand it to rooming houses for them as well. So I think continuing to do that because with the funding also came month one you had to have a recovery coach by um and first of all you went to training with Mass Hire for two weeks um to get a bank account and all those things learn how to build a resume then you get a coach or an RSN and by month three you had to prove some ability to save some money for yourself. So we continuously checked in and tried to set them up. So, I think more of that is what's needed. And, you know, tomorrow it could be the the three people that overdosed out our emergency shelter asking for help. You know,

I I ju I just want to say one other thing, too, that um you know, all of this is done with grant money. It hasn't c it hasn't gone against anything with the city budget. Hasn't hasn't uh um is not a line item in the city budget. So, we've all done what we've been able to do with grant money, which is, uh, yman's effort, which is awesome, I think. Um, uh, there's a lot more work to be done by the stats, but, uh, you got a good group of people that are doing it, you know. Yeah. So, to your point, um, I'm sorry.

Thank you. To your point, um, I agree, right? I agree. We all care. City cares. I won't take anything away from that, but this is bigger than ours. That's the point I'm getting to here. We could have a couple of people that are success stories. My uncle's been clean, I think, 32 years this year. Greatest man I've ever met in my life. Um, they are success stories. Let me ask a question. Out of the homeless in the city of Fall River, if you had to put a percentage on the addicted homeless population, what would you put it at? I say about 75. I was going to say

75%. Now, if you took that 75% and you had to just guess because I know that you're not um you couldn't answer this um factually, but if you had to hypothesis, what would or hypothesize what would your estimate be for the amount of those addicts now that suffer from a mental health disorder? All of them. Good. So, um we can sit here and do everything possible. We can jump off the sixth floor wearing capes that say a homeless cape crusaders and care. We're never going to we're not going to solve this. Correct. We're not going to um it's we're coming to a point where the rotary on President Avenue is now flooded and we haven't we haven't

typically and this is just historically the tents in the city have been in the south end. They just it's just how it is. I'm seeing them up on the on the rotary. So people coming into the city of Fall River and it's hitting them right in the face. So what we need in the city of Oliver in my opinion is less of the injection kits, less of the of that type stuff and more of the mental health. We sink all this money into keeping the addicted addicted and comforting them in the process and we do help a select few along the way, but we also enable them in the process. I know you're going to have a rebuttal.

No, no, I don't. I don't actually because the fast team, we don't give out any of that. We don't give out food. We don't give out clothing. We don't give out tents. We don't give out

safety kits. Just we do give out Narcan because we want to save their lives. For the FAST team, it's all about if you want help and how can we help you? I know there's a lot of agencies in the city that are doing outreach like you just said, you know, and providing those basic necessities. And for me, I do believe that there's a line that we can't continue to enable them. That there has to be some tough love. And I think that at least under Mike and this administration that they've allowed us to try to walk the tight rope, right? Like we don't want people to die starving out there or die freezing out there, you know? So, we try to offer the supports that are going to get them to the next step. And sometimes that does mean just having a conversation with the person for a few months until they they're ready, you know. But I do agree that we can't go too far on either spectrum, right? we can't just say let's arrest them all and pretend that it doesn't exist and we also can't enable them right so it's walking this balance and I think that the fast team really tries to focus on that alone um but I do agree that other agencies we don't have any control of what they're giving out you know what I mean um

I give food intents because I I see that as a um essentially of course I put so just for clarification on my point I have a I had up until recently I don't know if you remember a box in front front of my house with food. I used to stock it with canned goods and pasta for the home. Like that's totally okay. What I was getting at with that is from the state level. I agree with you. Money needs stop spending money on these safe injection sites and safe injection kits and keep everybody high because look what it's doing to society.

Not only with that, but you know, like as a housing provider, having to stick to just housing first philosophies only to me has been really difficult because I work for Stepping Stone. So, you know, a housing first model means that I can't I can't evict them for using and um when we first started our housing programs, they were um housing programs where, you know, um staying sober and clean was a requirement and we would support them in maintaining their recovery and moving along with goals towards self-sufficiency, income um you know, increases and moving on to independent living. So, unfortunately, some of the funding sources in order for us to get those housing programs require that we provide housing first models. Um, I've been talking for years about we need sober living options as well. Um, and and this is part of what Nikki's doing and what we also hope to do. I we've um I'm looking for uh opportunities to be able to do that as an organization. Um, I've always looked for those. But, um, but the problem, like you said, is so huge because it not only entails numbers, poverty, you know, people just becoming homeless because they can't afford a home. I mean, look at the crisis we have with our housing.

Um, but it also involves a lot more complications with substance abuse. The drugs that are available to to people right now is insane. Um the combinations are insane. Um there's a lot of trends happening just in in the substance abuse world that make it a lot more dangerous for them. And the mental health, I mean, people have always struggled with mental health, but because they're using more, they're developing more and more um diagnosises with mental health, too. It causes a lot of anxiety. It causes script, you know, it causes a lot of things. So that's why I touched upon the mental health aspect because in my opinion after working at Massac and I worked at the Bridgewater State Hospital. So I've seen section 12s, I've seen section 35s.

There's it's we take them, put them there. You know what I'm saying? We hold them like I said 7 to 30 days and we we send them elsewhere. Um I just want to touch upon the tough love because I agree. I wrote down Holio, New York. We just I've heard a family from Florida that was sent there and then

they decided to get a ticket and come back. Enough. like no, we can't take care of care of our own people. I was upset enough again and I'll touch upon it when we moved all of these new people into the city of Fall River without a plan. So even our infrastructure, we don't have enough police, we don't have enough fire, we don't have enough our water infrastructure, that's going to sustain some type of hit in the future. Our trash, nobody thinks of this. So if anybody thinks the budget's going to stay the way it is, it's not. It's not. That's a fallacy. So it once, and I've asked the mayor this directly, we don't know what the city population is. I've asked the state. They don't know what the city population is because everybody came through on a HUD homebased program. So, we really don't know the amount of people that live here. So, it aggravates me to know that we still have the same people over the the last few years because I was at the homeless shelter. I ran into people that I knew from 2020 and 2021.

Um they're still out there. Where's their mental health help and their um you know, mass help? Where is where's all their assistance? We give them what we can give them and it's it's nothing. Please don't take any disrespect but Trump change compared to what the state could do and I will ultimately go on record in saying that the state caused this problem, right? The state needs to step in and fix this problem for us. So hopefully in the future after this is tabled we can get some state representatives down here in the delegation and we can come up with a plan of how we're going to combat mental health first. This is out of control every day. Well, we close all the mental health facilities in Massachusetts and then we wonder why we have a problem. We do have a major problem with that.

Yes. So, we do have to be tough. I learned that firsthand. I've watched my father for the last 30 years. My brother's walked out that door and my father would look at me and say, "I don't know if he's coming back. What do I do?" Okay. So, I get it. I get the tough love, but we got to do it. And the tough love starts with we only treat Fall River people. I don't know who has if you need a pre-recording on a message, I'll say it

because we can't afford send them back. I don't know. I guess the running line a few years ago was send them back to Cumberland. I'm fine. If they're here trying to get homeless help and whatnot from Cumberland or Holio, right, send them back because we don't have the resources to take care of our own people. And if anybody takes offense that diversion has been has been something that we've all worked with like we we we hear their story where they're from where they're connected and we always try to get them back to where they're going. We've paid we've paid a trip to Las Vegas for somebody to go. We've done it before. Yeah. So flights, bus tickets, everything.

I won't I won't go off on a t this long tangent here, but unless we reach for outside help these meetings here, we're not going to do much. We can give you everything we're given. The city council can give you all the support in the world. Um, we can promise the world. We can find people for living places. We can do all that, right? None of that's going to work. We need the state's help. We need the state's money. We need people to come up with a plan to combat the mental health issues, right? Because a lot of people self-medicate with the drugs to take care of their mental health issues. So, if we take care of the mental health issues first, this isn't rocket science. We all know this, right? Both. Yes. So if we can get them at the state level to understand this as well that we're not just we sinking money into safe injection sites and stuff doesn't work.

The mental health aspect of this and curing that first is going to help and then you're slowly going to see your numbers come down. All right. But we also have

administrator. Can I just wanted to say that we have had assistance from the state delegation. We have had meetings put together by our state representatives with DH. We have had um the mayor's office has reached out to the um developmental disabilities because as Nikki and Rosa mentioned a lot of people with mental health um have we found they've already been in programs like DDS facilities but then before they get assigned and they just go through intake they disappear. They don't have the ability to follow up with what's needed for them to provide to those agencies to be able to get the service. So, we were working on that and trying to get people, but like other governmental agencies, you know, they don't have somebody on the street working with our street outreach team, something like that. When you have someone right there and they can do intake forms, they can get people what they need and then possibly get them into a group home or something like that makes a really big difference. Elliot mental health at one point um worked at um right beside us at the shelter and that was instrumental in maintaining um and getting people access to the mental health services and they've reached out and they're coming back. So um we can incorporate that that that person to go out with the outreach team.

Council, so yes, I um I have nothing bad to say about the mayor's office's approach. I know that early on quite a few years ago, I was back and forth with them. U but he was out there. I've seen him out there. I've seen Nikki working with them. I have no complaints with this. Again, the city has done everything it can do. Um at some point, like everything else I've said recently, enough's enough. So, you have to put your foot down. I think what the state has done so so far has been more of a pacification than anything else. Um but it's time that we get them down here and we make them tell us what the plan is. And if they don't have a plan, then we tell them to go come up with one because at some point we can't do this anymore.

The only thing that we're not doing that like some of the other bigger metropolitan areas are doing it or some best practices that I've heard about in like by going to the uh Washington homeless conference annually is that they do have shelters that are not that are that are considered wet shelters. It's a hard term,

but when you when you think about what that type of shelter would do to the population that were struggling getting uh help is that they're um that they're in a safe place. Um, it's not that they're using in the shelter, it's that they're allowed to box up their This sounds a little far-fetched and a little maybe of enabling too, but it would take people off the streets and allow them um the opportunity to engage with professionals about consideration their team emergency shelter. Yeah. Yeah. So, I know that uh I know that they lock everything up

and I know that's an issue, too. So I know and this is going to go back to tough love. So the they go to a shelter and this is a problem. So we know that a lot of the homeless um will shelter jump, right? Either because they have a warrant so they got to stay in for seven days and the warrant the court can't touch them while they're in a program. So not our shelter. I'm just saying in general, not yours, but in general that's what happens. So, we have our homeless. They'll bounce around. And

at some point, though, the point I'm getting at here is the state needs to So, section 35 and section 12, let's have the state delegation look at those laws and see if they can be revamped. So, for instance, section 35 is if somebody um is in danger to themselves or other substance abuse type thing. Um same thing for a section 12, right? Without drugs. Without drugs. So, 12's without the drugs, 35 is with the drugs. Why can't we look at that and look outside the box? So, I think if somebody's living in the woods in July and it's 103 degrees outside and they have medical conditions, they're in danger to themselves sexually. At some point, we have to do that. Cannot go there, check on them

and say, "Okay, you're going to be fine." And then walk away because again, there's no rectification to that. Oh, and we're seeing the hospital release them even because a section 12 is only 72 hours and we're seeing them releasing them even before that where they were completely unstable because the hospitals are so overrun. So, I don't disagree with what you're saying. If you can get the state down here and get them to pitch in, you know, I think all of us here want to solve this. I don't think it's a lack of wanting to help or solve this. It's just we make miracles happen with peanuts. Like, we didn't have grants until what, four years ago? five years ago, you know, so it's come a long way, but there's we, you know, how can we grow and listen to each other and work together, right? Keep keep making progress. So,

that's a good that's a good entry for me where I just wanted to dispel two rumors or a lot of is said about funding. Okay. The shelters in the city get $125,93 from the federal government. Okay. Okay, write that down. I know that number. I've known it for many years.

And and we we give $51,53 to Stepping Stone to run that shelter. And that shelter costs probably about $40,000 a month. So, it's going to it costs approximately about 500 grand a year, 450 500 grand a year to run that shelter where we only give 51. The rest of it is is stepping stone. Okay. Okay. The next thing that I want to dispel also is um everybody says, "Oh, the city of for receives $2 million a year in homeless funding." That is correct. But that the majority of that money, I want to say 100% of that money goes to permanent supportive housing, which which means that when she talks about uh housing first, okay? You put somebody in permanent supportive housing, they live there forever. It's like a It's like a section 8 program. Okay.

People with disabilities, people with Correct. So, um and you're going to see a change in that. The federal government is changing where they want to do more transitional housing instead of permanent supportive housing. So, we're 95% in this city permanent supportive housing that we have. Okay. If that's changed to transitional housing, we are going to have a huge surplus of of homeless people in the city of Fort. So, we're working on that currently. The other thing I want to dispel, so there's no there's no $2 million going into a shelter program. Okay.

And and the last thing I want to dispel is is I hear a lot of people say, "Well, the city has a lot of vacant buildings. You can open up a shelter anywhere. Why don't we use one of those vacant buildings?" You got to realize what goes into having an actual shelter building. opening a shelter building, you have to have if if it's on a second or third floor, you got to have uh elevator access. You got to have fire suppression systems. It's got to have handicap bathrooms based on occupancy for a new shelter to be built. We spent what $3 million for our shelter on Dery Street and that was what, six, seven years ago. Yeah.

So I can just imagine what the cost is. So to to just dispel the rumor out there that you can open up anywhere, you can't. Mhm. So I just wanted to get those those two or three items out there for the general public to know in talking in talking with uh um uh councelor Canuel. I know he wanted to get that out there and I really wanted to get it out there to let people know.

Okay. Um and to your point, I don't want anything more here as far as resources. So that is a big part of our problem is the people are coming from Holio and New York and Florida and wherever, right? Because Fall River has the resources. We used to have pas it bus station stops up in Boston that said for affordable housing and whatnot. You can call the city of Fall River. Absolutely. And we're going to be putting together we talked about it just last week, a working group. We're going to uh uh have all the homeless involved. We're going to invite the uh um the hospitals. Um there's a big problem with the discharge planning policy.

Um we had one just recently. I think uh yesterday I got a phone call from Glenn where they discharged the hospital discharged the person to the street. They were sitting on the street. Okay.

You know, so the discharge planning policy has to be looked at and it's illegal to to to to do something like that. We also have to look at we talked about getting all of the sober housing and all of the uh uh nonprofit community um being seven hills being uh uh star uh stepping stone bringing everybody together because we're seeing a different kind of homelessness than we've seen in the past. In talking with a lot of homeless service providers, they've seen new people,

a whole bunch of new people. So um I think there is a major consideration of we got to look at you know why people are staying why aren't people going back because they need to go back to their location because they have their doctors there they have support systems there you know uh I believe personally that you know there there are people that are just being discharged and they got nowhere to go and they make Fall River their new home. Yeah. So it's part of it. Again, it's part of it.

The core of this in my opinion since 75% of the addict the homeless population is addicted, right? If we were to take care of that problem, if somehow the state could rectify that issue, it would turn for a step in in all of our services and into what they were meant for to house and aid a small percentage of our population that need services. Not a mass. We're bringing people in the masses. Just the fact that EWE placed 105 in our numbers didn't bat an eye. You know what I mean? Exactly.

Yeah. It's it's this is insanity. Um we need again we're not going to do anything about talking to them. Um one request that I do have and I I run this by the chair. Um, and if you're still okay with it, I would like to hear directly from if you could pick a couple of the people from the unhouse population that might want to speak to us directly and tell us, give us their input as to what they want to see done or what their thoughts are because ultimately I'm not an addict and I'm not homeless, right? I understand it because I've lived around it, but I'm ultimately that's not I may know what they need. I want to hear from them what they need. So, if you can pick two or three that you think would want to come down here and present to us what their concerns are, I would send them an invitation through you.

Yeah, I'll definitely pick a couple. I would just I I just chuckle because I know the number one request is I just want an apartment. Like that's what they all say and that's fine as long as you'll blow by that first response. Yeah, but that's that is in the list of their needs. Yeah. One big need is they just need a a pitcher ID. They have a problem getting a a a license. And this is these are all we rectified that. But again, if there was a state somebody from the state party here, the state delegation here, that would be a question we could just direct to them. Birth certificates are a problem. If if it's local, it's great. If it's from far away, if it's if the person was born in Puerto Rico, we got a big problem.

I think at some point we have to pass this to the to the state. I'm just going to keep saying that. We have to say enough's enough. We're passing this to you. What are you going to do to help us? That's it. and then see what they say because we can do everything in our power to to do the best we can. We're not going to get there without them. So, put the ball in their court, see what they do with it, and ultimately if they don't do anything, then they'll hold the bag for it. And I have no problem telling them that. So, I appreciate you guys. I really do. Thank you. I yield. Thank you. Uh, we have a new guest who's joined us. If you just want to state your name and title for the record, please. Meth Fence, chief of ENS. I apologize. I had my meeting ran over.

That's okay. Thank you. Uh I'll ask if there's anything you want to add to I know you guys are out there often every day uh out there assisting. I don't know if there's anything you want to add to this discussion.

Our community paramedics, our community medicine paramedics go out onto the rail trail and do some or wherever go into the homeless encampments and do some um clinical treatment for wound care. Um and things that we've found um have been preventative medicine to prevent them from um having some lethal effects of their um medical conditions. We do some preventative um hepatitis A vaccines to prevent the spread of hepatitis A within the encampments which can potentially um spread through other people's families and their own families. So, we try to do some of those core things. We do um do some 911 emergencies out of the encampments and relatively because we're in there frequently, we don't get the get an aggressive response from the homeless community, they treat us um we don't seem to get that response, which is good. Um but for the most part, that's pretty much what we do. We do the 911 emergencies and our community community paramedics go out into the um and do some wound care and um fee and things that they have because we found some people in tents that have been pretty sick that haven't gotten taken care of. And I feel those are just life-saving things that can be can be taken care of. And the hepatitis A um thing is pretty much a communic community thing, right? You want to make sure that you keep everybody everybody safe, right?

One of the other things I'd also like to say is um you know, every year HUD comes out with um published rental rates that um go to my office. And um that's what we get to charge in what we call affordable housing. And what I'm seeing is uh you know, if if we're going to do affordable housing, developers are going to come in. I got projects right now that are going on. Those rents that are being charged are affordable housing rents based on HUD levels. And you know that those developers are going to charge those, but those rates are not affordable to the homeless population or the regular population sometimes in the city affordable. So you're talking rents that are, you know, $1,200 to $1,400 for a two-bedroom. That's determined by HUD to be affordable housing. And that's not affordable housing to the to the uh that's not affordable housing to the residents of the city of Fall River. So there is a rental problem, but I don't know how to fix that. That's

Council Beckham. I think that's another invitee to that meeting. No, I'm being dead serious.

Um so we'll add HUD to that list as well. They also have a barrier to um health insurance because there are very few places in Fall River that have like an open door policy for them to get their health insurance and benefits. So if they did go and fill out their application to get their benefits, some sort of benefits that with that would include SNAP benefits and maybe some food benefits so they could take better care of themselves. But um I don't know what the consistent barrier is to that. But I do know that that is a barrier for them to be able to get nutrition and for them to be able to get some reasonable health care.

I just want to add one thing about the carrot grant. Obviously, you guys are aware that the state didn't end up giving any awards. Um they are putting it back out in May. And to your point, we recognize that mental health, you know, we've been able to decrease overdoses significantly in the city. It used to be over a thousand,500 per year and now we're down to about 3 400 non-fatals and the deaths are slowly coming down, but we noticed that mental health was skyrocketing. So, we wrote the DOJ grant, which gave us another clinician and a mental health peer worker. But the CARAR grant is really what we're hoping on because it not only links us with clinical services, it links us with South Coast Hospital to engage their homeless advocates and it links us with EMS so that they can provide antibiotics and more treatment right in the encampments, right? So, we're trying to close all these gaps that we recognize like you. Um, and the more that we can all partner and work together, we obviously see more success, right? But I don't disagree that uh at some point we do have to kind of stop the bleeding, right? Like the houses, the hospitals, they have to do their too. We need them to come down here and say it's on them. I mean, I can't tell you the amount of calls that come into the hotline just this week for people that needed like a rehab center or a nursing home and they're calling us for shelter, you know? So, that's one real target I would like to see fixed. Yeah,

that section process would be really helpful out there as well. Like we need to do that.

And I know I I've called you in the past because people have reached out to me for addiction help and a lot more needs to be done. a lot like again it's just we have if anybody if nobody has anything else um maybe a motion to table uh and at the next meeting we could uh invite the parties that I have recommended um and then start the discussion with them I don't care how many people sit at this table the more people the better because we'll get to a uh a resolution much quicker um so anything again I can do council can do to help or if you have any ideas, please feel free to reach out

help. Um, so yeah, motion I'll motion to uh table. Yeah, I want to thank everybody for all the the data that was provided. I found it extremely helpful in determining kind of where we're at. Uh, motion to table has been made. I'll second that motion. All those in favor? I opposed. Carries. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you guys need anything, just call. I need more paper. I'm judged by how many trees I got. I want to see what line item this comes on. Thank you guys. Thank you.

Struggling. Item four is a resolution to convene with the director of inspectional services and members of the administration to review and discuss current code enforcement practices is adopted January 13th, 2026. I've been advised that our hopeful attendees uh I think that we would like to attend or on vacation. Uh so I don't know if we want to take this. I'll motion to table this item. Okay. Motion so made the table. I'll second. All those in favor? I opposed. Passes. Thank you.

Thanks. And our final item on the agenda is a resolution to con uh convene quarterly to review and discuss the water supply and water filtration plant. Uh this was last tabled on 129 2025. This is a resolution that was filed uh back in uh 2022 by council Trotley uh to convene quarterly on this. So uh with that we have some invited guests. If you'd like to join us at the table, please. Motion to motion to wave the rules. Motion to wave the rules. Needs a motion to lift from the table. Oh, that's motion. I thought you said motion to wave. I didn't know if Mr. Terry wasn't from the city anymore.

No, he's very much. Sorry, I didn't hear it correctly. Motion to lift from the table. Oh, yeah. Motion to lift. Motion to lift from the table. Motion to lift from the table has been made. I'll second. All those in favor? Opposed? Passes. Welcome. Gentlemen, if you can just state your name and titles for the record, please. Yep. Good evening. Paul Furland, the administrator of community utilities for the city. Good evening. Uh Jim Tero, president with Tupper Water Board. Thank you, Chairman.

Thank you very much. Um you know, this has been going on for a while, quarterly updates. Uh started back when we were having issues with staffing uh down at our water treatment plant um for a number of years now. Luckily, we've been fully staffed down at our water treatment plant. Uh but we still uh enjoy coming down here giving you guys an update of what's going on and fielding any concerns or questions that you have. So uh just to start off um the uh South Tupper Pond right now is 30 in below full pond uh which is good going into the spring here. We have some freeboard for any uh any storms coming in. Uh the waterershed is still kind of pretty full so it is still draining. Uh the uh the gates uh are closed. Um so uh we're getting full flow from Stafford Pond and Saudi Pond. Uh Northwood Tupper Pond right now is 23 inches below full pond. Uh I would like to see a little bit higher, but we still have the rest of the spring to fill up. As I said, that wershed is still draining, so we're gaining on that uh on a on a regular basis. So uh as it stands right now, I think we're in good shape. Uh the uh drought control commission uh did lift the drought for our region. uh even though with the amount of water capacity that we do have uh we usually don't fall into drought conditions or haven't for uh a number of years a lot longer than I've been here. Um so uh we are uh in good shape so far this this year going into uh going into the spring and into the summer. Um so spring is here. Uh I think today actually is uh birthday isn't it?

Yeah it's birthday.

Yeah. Exactly. So, uh, just on that, wanted to mention a couple of things about the, uh, about the bio reserve that's going on. So, we had a nice, uh, uh, there was a bike race through the bio reserve this past weekend. Uh, coming up next, uh, next weekend, I believe it is, there is a, uh, trail race that's that's being held out in the bio reserve area. Um, coming up on May 30th, uh, we are having our annual open house at our water department property. So that it includes uh the water maintenance building at 1620 uh the 1875 uh tower uh which we allow people to go up. Whoever wants to climb the 144 stairs to get to the top is more than welcome. Just make sure you can do 144 stairs up and down. Uh also we'll have the uh 1873 pump station down the bottom of the hill. We'll have that open for people to be able to go in and tour and then tours of our current water treatment plant. Uh so we've been doing that for a number of years now on an annual basis in the spring. Uh and we'll be doing that on May 30th uh this year coming up. So uh last year was a bit rainy. We still had a good turnout of about 150 people or so. Uh the year before we had a great turnout. It was probably over 400 people there. So yeah, it was a beautiful day. Hopefully this year we have a beautiful day as well and uh um we're able to move forward. Uh so just on our staffing levels throughout the uh throughout the facilities as I as I said our water treatment plant we're fully staffed right now down in our water treatment plant uh administration we are uh short two clerks within that office uh which we uh advertised and we have some uh candidates to uh interview uh in our water maintenance division. We are down seven staff members uh and we're working to build that up right now. Uh, one thing that we uh that we are a bit low with in the uh water maintenance division is uh CDL drivers which us DCM we all deal with that problem as uh some of the count some of the counselors may know. Um we did set

up a uh internal training program for our staff a number of years ago which some staff has gone through and uh we're encouraging more staff to go through that internal training program to be able to get their CDLs. Very good. Council Beckham. So the only thing I wanted to add add was you were right. Um so council can picked today for this meeting because day. Yes. He's that logistically driven that the day had to match and that's not a joke. Um so everything looks good. The How about the uh the pumps up at the top of uh what is that? Bedford and Stone Haven. So So I remember there was one that was down years ago. Everything in there is up and running. Everything's fine.

Yeah. So, down at our treatment plant. Yeah. So, all of our finished water pumps uh three of them. So, this goes back to uh 201 19 maybe or 2018 where we had two pumps fail within uh two weeks of each other on our finished water. Uh we had to do temporary measures to be able to go through. Uh we fully rebuilt three of those finished water pumps. We have one more that needs to be uh fully rebuilt uh on our raw water side. So, there's four pumps on the finished water side, different sizes, uh, and there's four pumps on the on the raw water side. So, that's water that pumps it out of the pond through our plant. Uh, we had one of those go down last year, which we built, we rebuilt that. I had to get new uh new stems and new bowls. We rebuilt that with our own staff in house. Uh, we do have three other pumps uh that are definitely uh aging on that side that, you know, if one went, they were all installed at the same time. So, we're concerned about those. uh currently working a plan right now uh to come down to the council with uh using retained earnings to be able to uh fully rebuild all the rest of those pumps. So we'll be will be fully rebuilt on those. Um the one issue that we do have right now is that Copa Cut pump station. Uh so we have a pump station at Copa Cut Reservoir that pumps water uh up over the top into Blossom Brook and then it comes down into Northwood Tupper to uh help supplement that. Uh we uh were down to one pump out at that station. That one pump did let go probably probably uh three months ago. Uh we looked to have that rebuilt. Uh it was the shaft and the impella. Uh they were just too far gone to be able to uh re to be able to rebid those. Uh we went out, we got quotes. It was over the quote mount. So we put an uh a uh IFB out for purchase of two new pumps within that station. uh bid opening opening is actually tomorrow. So, we'll have an idea hopefully be able to get those pumps. Uh there is a bit of a long lead time uh on

those. Uh we have reached out to some rent rental companies. Um if we uh if we do anticipate a drought coming up, you know, if we don't get much more rain in the spring here and we feel that there's in issues, uh we may we have the ability to be able to get a rental pump, bring it in there, uh to be able to operate that station because there is long lead times on some of those other pumps, but we'll know more when we open bids tomorrow. Okay, I'm satisfied with that. I yield. Thank you. Y I don't have anything else, Mr. Terry. Anything to add? I'm sorry. anything to add?

Uh I took a uh patrol through the uh watershed today. Um we suffered like many places uh with the uh blizzard, a lot of down trees and whatnot. The men have done a great job of clearing the fire lanes and the fire breaks which are very important out there. Um, no. Right now, uh, I agree with Paul. It's a pleasure working with Paul, I have to tell you. Um, the, um, levels look good to me. Um, keep our fingers crossed. This is a usually a dangerous time of the year. There are no leaves on the trees. Usually you get strong southwesterly, drying winds. Um, so far so good. Um, there's usually a strong fire danger this time of year. Um, right now the fire tower coput is manned, so that's a good thing. And um I um I feel very strongly that uh we're in a good position. Um very good position.

I well I I for one respect what you do, Mr. Tero. I do. And um I made it a point when I first was elected in 2020 to go out there with Mr. Labosier and drive around and see what was going on. And uh I'd like to get back out there too if we could set set up. I might love to get out there and see what the uh the progress is.

There's a lot of um there's a lot of passive recreation going on. We're seeing a lot of people um who are enjoying the bio reserve on on certain Sundays. You can go out there and you'll see the parking lots are almost filled. Um a lot of mountain biking um which is uh pro um allowed on the bio reserve sections. We don't allow mount u motorized biking but uh yeah it's it's it's really um it's it's providing a great resource for the people in the city. I mean, it's very few places have a watershed and a water supply like Fall River. Uh Fall River has an outstanding water supply. Um we're the envy of probably most every community in Massachusetts because we control water rights in two states. We uh we have extensive holdings and um we're, as I said, we're in really good shape. I'm I think you're going to see a wet spring. I do. Um and that's going to that's going to benefit us greatly.

I did uh read yesterday it looked like uh there was a preliminary ruling that National Grid will be able to build their high voltage line I think down from the Capagot and extending through there. Um do we have any concerns when it comes to our water supply out there about the quality of it or anything?

No. So you know the national grid has been down uh you know to the council and has been uh to uh all the environmental committees that that have needed to uh be able to uh develop the project that they're doing out there. So they're doing a uh a resiliency project uh in enlarging their lines to be able to supply uh us and other places uh in the state. So uh we worked with them uh on a mitigation um to make sure that there is minimal to no impact to uh to our wershed. They know our sensitive areas. Uh they know the spots uh the spots that we're concerned about. Uh and uh they've always been a great partner. uh whether it's just regular maintenance on their stuff uh you know whether it's uh trees down or or or gate issues or stuff like that uh they're very responsive and always very good to uh to work with us. So anything that we see out there uh we will you know jump right on but we don't expect any impacts on on our wersheds.

Do we have any baseline testing uh planned or any u regular testing after construction or anything like that? Well, it it doesn't it stays within the watershed. So, essentially, they're going from a brushy uh from a uh they're taking some forest land away, but they're adding in, you know, a low-lying brush area that will will be the finished product. Um, so there wouldn't really be any type of sampling for anything because we don't expect any there is no contaminants that would be introduced to our systems that that would require any type of testing like that.

Yeah, I'd just like to add that uh coput a lot of people don't understand the way Copa works. Paul alluded to it um when he said that we pump up to a certain point um that's off of Breman Path then uh the pipeline ends in the King Phillip swamp and it was designed that way originally so that the water from Copic would percolate through the King Phillip swamp then down King Phillip Brook and Blossom Brook and it's a natural filtration and buffering system. Um, long before the plant the new plant came online, they used to throw um they used to throw bags of lime in the streams and uh for buffering. We don't have to do that anymore. But the natural filtration takes care of most of everything that comes that way. And I agree with Paul. National grid has been a great partner over the years. Um they have been very proactive. We've gained a lot from them. Um, regarding gates and maintenance of fire lanes and fire brakes, so I'm I'm quite quite pleased with them.

Council pickup. Um, so is there a I'm sure I'm familiar with the National Grid site is um out. Is there like a plan that they gave the city as to what their intentions were? like an overall map plan because you said that there's now going to be a low-lying brush area instead of a forest within a certain section. Is that on a map that they provided prior to starting the work? Yeah. So, so they so they sat down with us a couple different times and provided us uh provided us map plans of the area that they were going to be working in. Uh as well as they have their full deta we didn't fully go through their full detailed plans uh of the work that they're doing. You know, it's on their property or within their easement. Okay.

Um, you know, that would be uh if it if it affects any wetland areas or anything like that, they had to go through concom where it would have had to have a uh, you know, regulatory review by uh, us, I believe, um, don't quote me, but I would imagine they probably had to go through the MEEPA pro program as well, which takes all state agencies uh, you know, distributes their plan to all state agencies that may have jurisdiction. natural heritage uh fish and game and everything and they all look at the plans and provide feedback and stuff like that as well. Okay, I thank you.

So, so just one thing you know and uh you know Mr. Tero talked about it but uh you know the spring here people wanted to get outside wanted to uh have a good place to go. Uh the bio reserve on the other side of the north were tougher. Uh it's about 14,000 acres of protected forest lands includes uh uh 5,000 acres of water department land uh that used to be you know prior to 2000 was restricted area but now we have a number of areas that are open. Trustees of reservation have uh thousands of acres out there uh in the Fall River Freetown State Forest. Uh there's uh hundreds of miles if not more of hiking trails out there. Um there's a 20 mile loop trail, uh mountain biking trails, uh all open to the public, free of charge, uh for people to be able to go out there, uh and enjoy. So, you know, that's one thing that uh that we do ask people. One thing we ask them to not do out there is go out there and dump. Um, you know, that's a whole another subject and I don't want to get into the minutiae on that, but if you see somebody driving with their truck out there full of stuff and coming back, snap a picture of their license plate. The EPOS's uh and our staff do a wonderful job tracking those people down uh and and finding them uh and uh even prosecuting them. So, um you know, eyes out there help us and help the police do their job as well. Uh so go out there, enjoy the area, uh respect the area, and have a good time.

Thank you. I got nothing else. Motion to table. Motion tables has been made. I'll second it. All those in favor? Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate there is no other items before us. Motion to adjurnn.

Motion to adjurnn is made. I'll second. All those in favor. Opposed. Passes. Have a good night. Thank you. Happy Earth Day. My over Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, you