SHARE:  
Facebook  Twitter  Instagram  



December 20, 2024: Issue 24

Offering hope and help to those impacted by opioid misuse in

Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region.

UPCOMING EVENTS

See what's happening at OTF this month.

COVID-19 RESOURCES

Explore OTF's COVID-19 Resource Guide.

MASSACHUSETTS SUBSTANCE USE HELPLINE

Hope is here. Get help.

413Cares
Resources for Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region. Click here.

NQCC'S RESOURCES

Resources and upcoming events in the North Quabbin Region.

Click here.

CONNECTIONS #85

Find local resources in this issue.

Emergency Services Resources for Unhoused Individuals

The PACES CONNECTION

Click here for resources.

Grayken Center for Addiction

Training & Technical Assistance

Click here to view and/or register for trainings.

GCC Community Engagement and Workshop Events

Click here to view and/or register for trainings.

Rural SUD Info Center

Click here for resources.

“I hope you realize that every day is a fresh start for you. That every sunrise is a new chapter in your life waiting to be written.” 

~Juansen Dizon

Giving and Living - Reflections During the Holiday


Messages of cheer abound this time of year. Clothing, food, and toy drives, as well as year-end fundraising appeals, are common. 


As we all contemplate our good fortune at year’s end, I hope you will consider joining me to support the 3rd Annual Gear and Goods Drive, an effort that “Gives the Gift of Living” for those unhoused around us as part of The Humanity, Understanding, and Belonging (HUB) Project. 


Individuals can purchase from a list of much-needed items found here or make a financial donation of any size via the Interfaith Council of Franklin County. Please click here and choose "Opioid Task Force Gear and Goods Campaign" in the Fund drop-down menu.


Why is the Gear and Goods Drive happening? 

Data from the 2024 Point-In-Time (PIT) Count, conducted annually by the Three County Continuum of Care (CoC), reveals that homelessness more than doubled from 2023 to 2024, rising from 115 to 252 individuals in Franklin County. These numbers are believed to be underreported because the PIT Count is generally conducted on one night, primarily in the larger population centers of Greenfield and Montague. Since Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region comprise 30 communities across nearly 1,000 square miles, conducting the PIT Count in every community is challenging. (Note: These numbers do not include Athol, Petersham, Royalston, and Phillipston because the Worcester County CoC serves these communities.)


This data is alarming and reflects national trends. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, “A record-high 653,104 people experienced homelessness on a single night in January 2023. This is more than a 12.1 percent increase over the previous year.” 


Further, they reported that “...from 2019-2023, the number of people who entered emergency shelter for the first time increased [by] more than 23 percent; and …in 2023, a record high 256,610 people, or 39.3 percent of all people experiencing homelessness, were unsheltered. More than 50 percent of individuals experiencing homelessness were unsheltered.” Source: State of Homelessness, National Alliance to End Homelessness


Why do individuals become unhoused or housing insecure?

It is human nature to seek straightforward explanations, but the answer to this question is complex and multifaceted. It primarily lies at the intersection of supply and demand, where market forces can dictate interest rates on mortgages and new construction loans, which can spur or stymy movement in affordable housing and rental markets.


Housing costs have increased dramatically in nearly every state. Only 36% of Americans have the income to afford a new home, a decrease from 59% in 2019. 


According to Statista data, Massachusetts residents must earn $44.84 per hour to afford a two-bedroom home. This is just below California, which had the highest per-hour rate in the nation at $47.38. The Massachusetts minimum wage is $15.00 per hour; in California, it is $16.50. 


The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Massachusetts Report calculates that an individual must work 98 hours per week to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment at fair market rent in the Commonwealth. 


It is not surprising to learn that evictions are increasing due to these competing forces. According to data from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, between April 2024 and September 2024, “over 3,000 households have been served with eviction notices, up from the 2,600 pre-pandemic norm,” with non-payment of rent as the primary cause of eviction. 


Their report cited, “Research from the Congressional Joint Economic Committee released this past July [which] found that the average household in Massachusetts is paying roughly $1,153 more per month to purchase basic goods and services—such as groceries, housing costs, transportation, and energy—since January 2021. Moreover, according to the latest available data from 2024, rental vacancy rates in Massachusetts are the lowest in the country at 2.5 percent, with the third highest median monthly rents ($2,264) out of all U.S. states, according to new research from Construction Coverage.”


How does this translate in Franklin County and the North Quabbin? Below are the alarming eviction filings for our 30 municipalities between April 2024 and September 2024. This translates to 174 households at risk of being unhoused in just a six-month period.


  • Athol - 40 eviction filings
  • Buckland - 1 eviction filing
  • Charlemont - 2 eviction filings
  • Colrain - 1 eviction filing
  • Deerfield - 5 eviction filings
  • Erving - 1 eviction filing
  • Greenfield - 72 eviction filings
  • Montague - 19 eviction filings
  • New Salem - 1 eviction filing
  • Northfield - 1 eviction filing
  • Orange - 19 eviction filings
  • Petersham - 1 eviction filing
  • Phillipston - 1 eviction filing
  • Royalston - 1 eviction filing
  • Shutesbury - 1 eviction filing
  • Sunderland - 6 eviction filings
  • Warwick - 1 eviction filing
  • Whately - 1 eviction filing


(Note: If a municipality is not named, it had zero eviction filings. Also, note that an eviction filing differs from an executed one.)


While a crucial tool to keep people in their homes, housing assistance programs such as RAFT, the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program, and Section 8 need more resources to meet the demand. Research conducted by The Boston Foundation found that of the “approximately 585,000 Massachusetts households eligible for rental assistance, less than 50% of the financially eligible people receive it.” 

Because of these factors, family and individual shelters are bursting at the seams with wait lists at nearly every shelter in Massachusetts. Individuals live in tents, their cars, or couch surf because they have nowhere else to go.


Promising, long-term efforts are underway in our rural region to alleviate this housing and shelter crisis. Still, at best, these solutions are two or more years away from fruition.


What can we do in the meantime? 

Despite the housing crisis and its related impacts, Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region are drawing on their culture of collaboration and grit to address this issue through The HUB Project. This region-wide effort is responding to the needs of the unhoused through a combination of resources and partnerships, such as gear and goods, mobile outreach, daytime warming centers, and an overnight warming center in Greenfield. 


To learn more about these efforts, please refer here to the 2024-2025 Franklin County and North Quabbin Winter Response Resources Guide. It will be updated monthly, with the latest edition shared at the monthly Franklin County and North Quabbin Emergency Services for Unhoused Individuals Task Force meeting. You can also join this task force, which meets on the second Monday of each month from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM. 


If you want to know what is happening in Western Massachusetts to address homelessness, please sign up for the terrific Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness blog, which is here.


It can happen to anyone.

Other traumatic and life events can contribute to becoming unhoused or housing insecure. Addiction, domestic or partner violence, mental illness, medical emergencies, job loss, natural disasters, divorce, death of a loved one, loss of a household primary wage earner, and more. Becoming homeless or housing insecure can happen to anyone, as no one is immune from these circumstances.


As we celebrate the upcoming holidays, let us contemplate how humanity exists for everyone and consider how you can support efforts to address the needs of our unhoused neighbors.


Thanks so much and wishing you and yours ease and peace this holiday season,


Deb


Debra McLaughlin

Coordinator

Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region

OTF Members in the News

"Advocates Speak to Methadone Stigma"

Greenfield Recorder (12/6/24)

Advocates from the National Coalition to Liberate Methadone discussed the stigma associated with methadone treatment and recommended ways to expand it during a virtual event hosted by the Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region on Thursday afternoon.

The discussion kicked off with an overview of methadone treatment to curb opioid addiction, as well as methadone’s history of regulation and restriction. Caty Simon, a member of the National Coalition to Liberate Methadone and the National Survivors Union, explained that although there has been a “small dent” in the opioid crisis in recent years, overdose deaths are still rising in some parts of the country, particularly in minority communities.


Simon noted that although methadone restrictions eased slightly during the pandemic, many municipalities throughout the country neglected to take advantage of this.

“Pre-COVID, less than 20% of people diagnosable with opioid use disorder were accessing methadone — the purported gold standard with a decades-long evidence base behind it — because of rigid federal regulations dating back to the Nixon era,” Simon said. “These regulations were temporarily relaxed early on during COVID, but many states’ opioid treatment programs did not take advantage of these relaxations.”


The National Coalition to Liberate Methadone, a roughly 100-person organization founded in 2022, is comprised of a diverse array of individuals from across the United States, including people who once struggled with addiction, health care physicians and researchers.


The organization, Simon explained, works to draft and advocate for policies that facilitate access to methadone treatment on a national level. In addition to conducting a pandemic-era survey that reached drug users and methadone patients nationwide, the organization focused on creating opioid addiction treatment practices that were informed by those directly impacted by the epidemic.


A large part of the coalition’s work, according to member Dr. Noa Krawczyk, of the Grossman School of Medicine at New York University, was advocacy for the Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act. If passed, this bill would allow pharmacies to provide people suffering from opioid addiction with prescribed methadone to take home. Currently, methadone patients can only access the treatment through on-site use at a clinic.



Krawczyk said bills like the Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act, introduced by U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, in March 2023, aim to destigmatize methadone treatment and instead, treat it similarly to any other medical treatment.


“The overarching goal of our organization … and a leading North Star in terms of everything that goes into methadone 

treatment, is the practice of normalizing methadone treatment as health care,”

Krawczyk explained. “It’s really this overarching idea of moving methadone into health care and out of the criminalization and stigmatization so that the system is built in grounding methadone treatment in person-centeredness.

"New Offices for Legal Services"

Greenfield Recorder (/24)

After decades working out of a satellite office on Federal Street, Community Legal Aid has found a new home in downtown Greenfield.


Community Legal Aid, which provides free civil legal services to low-income and elderly residents in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester counties, officially welcomed the public to its new home at 14 Hope St., Suite 104, on Nov.

19. The same building also houses the Greenfield Recorder offices. Following renovations to the building, Community Legal Aid finally has a full office in Franklin County. It had operated out of a satellite office on Federal Street for about 30 years, working on 387 cases with more than 1,000 residents just last year, according to Managing Attorney Jennifer Dieringer. The new digs on Hope Street, she said, will serve as an opportunity for Community Legal Aid to expand its offerings to Franklin County residents.

“This is the first time in about three decades that we have a fully staffed and fully opened office. We’ve always served Franklin

County, but now we are really able to expand our services and have a full-time presence here, which is really exciting,” Dieringer said in an interview in her new office. “Historically, folks working out of our Northampton offices served Hampshire and Franklin counties, so what we’re doing now is building out the office here so we’ll basically double our resources for Franklin County.”


The new office is currently home to four attorneys — who specialize in family law, fair housing and disability laws, alongside Dieringer — and a receptionist. In March, the organization will welcome attorneys specializing in employment, elder affairs, general housing and Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI)/re-entry.


“We knew we wanted to be in downtown Greenfield. … Being close to the courthouse is super convenient for us and also for folks who are looking for us,” Dieringer said. “And we needed a space big enough to grow, and this really seems like the perfect spot. We love the historic Recorder building. We love the sort of industrial vibe that we have down here, which is pretty great, but really, it was about making ourselves as accessible as possible to the public.”


It also keeps Community Legal Aid close to partners like Community Action Pioneer Valley, which shares an alley with the Recorder building. “For the smaller counties, it’s really important to have a physical presence,

where you feel like you’re part of the community and you’re available and accessible to people,” Dieringer said. “There are so many social service organizations here that we work with constantly and this will just, I think, deepen those relationships in a really beneficial way.”


Community Legal Aid’s office is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Folks are asked to access it using the alleyway between the Recorder and Stone Soup Cafe, which is housed inside All Souls Church. For more information about Community Legal Aid’s services, visit its website at communitylegal.org.


(STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ)

UPCOMING OTF COMMITTEE & WORKGROUP MEETINGS

Virtual: Treatment & Recovery Committee

January 3, 2025

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

Zoom details here.


Virtual: Education & Prevention Committee

January 8, 2025

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM

Zoom details here.


Virtual: Harm Reduction Workgroup

January 8, 2025 (1st Wed is a holiday)

11:00 AM - 12:00 Noon

Zoom details here.


Virtual: Healthcare Solutions Committee

January 10, 2025

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

Zoom details here


Virtual: Emergency Services for Unhoused Individuals Task Force

January 13, 2025

9:30 AM - 10:45 AM

Zoom details here.


Hybrid: Sexual Exploitation & Trafficking Workgroup

January 13, 2025

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Franklin County Reentry Center

106 Main Street, Greenfield

Zoom details here.


Hybrid: Public Safety & Justice Committee

February 3, 2025

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Franklin County Reentry Center

106 Main Street, Greenfield

Zoom details here.


Virtual: CAM Workgroup

February 11, 2025

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Zoom details here.


Virtual: Methadone Workgroup

February 13, 2025

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Zoom details here.

.

Virtual: Housing & Workforce Development Committee

February 14, 2025

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

Zoom details here.


Virtual: Building a Resilient Community Workgroup

February 19, 2025

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Zoom details here.


Consult our website or Facebook Page for updates. Please email us with any questions!

FEATURED EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

here Post-Opioid Overdose Outreach Services

Ideas For Managing Holiday Stress

Save The Dates: April 16 & 17, 2025

Together For Hope: Shaping the Future of Addiction Care

Click here to be notified when registration opens or to receive updates.

Time Sensitive Announcements

December 20 Giving Back Together - Community Support Needed

December 20 Story Time

December 20 Cookie Decorating!

December 20 Queer Family Night Solstice Edition

December 21 Greenfield Farmers' Market Winter Market

December 21 Stone Soup Cafe Menu

December 21 Solstice Party

December 21 Winter Spectacle Workshop

December 21 Santa Comes to Leyden

December 21 Gingerbread Houses

December 21 Five Village Santa Tour

December 22 Fright Before Christmas

December 27 Santa-mental Holiday Party

December 31 All-Abilities Social New Year's Eve Painting Party

Beginning January 7 - Nurturing Fathers 13-Week Virtual Class

January 10 FunHub Action Park Fundraiser to benefit Community Network for Children

January 10 - February 28 Beyond Trauma: A Healing Journey

January 13 Greenfield Healing Clinic

January 28 All-Abilities Social Build a Bird Feeder

January 30, February 6 & February 13 Touchpoints Training

Febuary 6 Ski United

MONTHLY WORKSHOP CALENDRS AND WEEKLY STANDING MEETINGS/EVENTS

December at The Art Garden

December at The Brick House Teen Center

December at Community Action Family Center

December Events at the Erving Senior Center

December Programs at Franklin County Reentry Center

December Programs - Great Falls Discovery Center

December Greenfield Public Library Children's Programs

December Montague Public Library Programs

Fall Hours at NQRC

December at The RECOVER Project

December Riverculture (Montague) Holiday Event Calendar

December at Salasin Project

December at the Shea

December Events at Sunderland Public Library

December Union 28 Community Network for Children Program Calendar

SNAP Application Assistance

Always Open! Community Labyrinth in Greenfield

What's Happening at The NQRC

Weekdays All Recovery Meeting at The RECOVER Project

Monday/Wednesday/Friday

The Community Closet at The Franklin County Reentry Center

Monday - Friday

Movement Group with North Quabbin Recovery Center Peer Leaders

Mondays Breathwork Detox-Guided Group Adventure

Mondays North Quabbin Patch Parents' Council

Mondays Breaking Barriers at the Franklin County Reentry Center

Mondays Art Guild Meetings

Mondays Advanced Manufacturing Info Sessions

Monday Drug Court Alumni Group - North Quabbin

Mondays Community Yoga at Wildflower Alliance

Mondays at FCSO Reentry Center - Recovery Through Creativity

Mondays CNC Playgroup at the Erving Public Library

Second Mondays of the Month - North Quabbin B.R.A.V.E. Task Force Meetings

Mondays Alternatives to Suicide Group

2nd and 4th Mondays Parenting Together at the Brick House

Third Monday Alphabet & Allies

Third Monday Parenting With Pride

Mondays and Thursdays Hygiene Supplies Pick Up at the Brick House

Mondays and Thursdays The Brick House Food Pantry

Tuesdays All Recovery Meeting and Drop In Recovery Coach Support

Tuesdays Nurturing Program for Families in Recovery

Tuesdays Peer-Led Grief and Loss Circle

Every Other Tuesday - Housing Support Drop In Hours

First Tuesday - Dads' Group at Valuing Our Children

Tuesday Tea Time & Community Resource Drop-In

Tuesdays North Quabbin Recovery Center Coffee Hour

Tuesdays Greenfield Suicide Loss Group

First Tuesday - P.A.R.T. Task Force

Tuesdays Drop-In Knitting & Sewing Sessions

Tuesday & Thursdays Weekly Reentry Groups

Tuesday Men's Anger Management Group

Wednesday Women's Anger Management Group

Wednesdays - Wendell Library Playgroup with Sylvia

Wednesdays - Playgroup at the Leverett Library with Gillian

Wednesdays HEROES Study Hub at GCC

First Wednesday of the month Gentle Yoga and Breathwork with Jennifer

Last Wednesdays of Every Month Office Hours With An Attorney

First & Third Thursdays Parent Support Group

Thursdays Mens Group in the RPX

Thursdays Coffee Hour at the Brick House

Thursdays Beyond Trauma Group in Spanish

Second Thursdays -Peer Grief Support After Overdose Death

Fridays FreeWrite of Franklin County

First Friday of Every Month: Open Mic at the RP

Every Friday - The Garden Path

MassHealth Navigation Support

First Friday of the month 9am-12pm and Third Friday of the month 1pm - 3pm

Every First & Third Friday Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Support Group

Every Second Friday Chosen Family Night

Every Third Friday: Karaoke at The RECOVER Project

Open Positions at the RECOVER Project

RAFT Assistance

Re-entry Workforce Program

Homeshare Program with LifePath

Pathways to Advanced Manufacturing

Specialized HVAC Training

Specialized Information Technology Training

Support & Resources After the HEALing Communities Study

Learn more at HealTogetherMA.org

SafeSpot Virtual Overdose Spotting Hotline

CHCFC OBAT Same Day & Tele-Health Appointment Information

Free Clothes and Gear

Free English Classes

Free Meals and Essentials at Saints James and Andrews Parish Hall

Come Cook with Franklin County Community Meals Program

Family Self-Sufficiency Program Available

Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Program

Eviction Self-Help Booklets Available in Multiple Languages


MLRI has recently updated and translated some of our self-help booklets for unrepresented tenants facing eviction. While we still recommend tenants facing eviction seek legal help, we know resources are limited and many tenants have to represent themselves. We hope these booklets can be helpful to pro se tenants and their advocates.

You can see the full list of booklets below, or at MassLegalHelp. The booklets can help tenants prepare for court, outline their legal claims, and file court forms. There is also a booklet to help public housing tenants navigate the Grievance process.

Please reach out if you have any questions about the booklets and how they can be used.

What steps to take before going to court and what to bring to court.

An easy-to-use checklist that tells you what conditions violate the State Sanitary Code. You can also use the free self-help guided interview, MADE: Up To Code.

The Answer is a court form that tenants facing evictions can file with the court to outline your legal claims and tell the court your side of the story. You can also use Greater Boston Legal Services’ free self-help guided interview, MADE

How to ask the court to accept your Answer and Discovery forms late.  You can also use Greater Boston Legal Services’ free self-help guided interview, MADE.

A form with instructions for tenants facing eviction to get information to prepare for their trial.

A form with instructions for tenants in foreclosed properties to get information to prepare their case. 

A form you can file to transfer your eviction case from a District Court to a Housing Court.

How to get a new court date if you missed your court date.

If you lost your eviction trial and think you have a good case, you may appeal. This document tells you which Appeal form to use.

How to file an appeal from a case in Housing Court.

How to file an appeal from a case in District Court.

How to get time to stay in your home if you lost your case.

How to ask the court to pay for court costs. 

How to think through the terms you want in an agreement. Includes a worksheet and stipulation forms to use when you go to court. Read this booklet as webpages and watch the videos!

How to correct errors on your online court records. The Booklet includes the court form you can save to your computer, fill out, save again and print when ready.

A booklet for tenants in Mass. about the grievance process, including worksheets to help you prepare for a grievance hearing.



Update! Greenfield CSC New Hybrid Operations Change

Beginning Tuesday, 9.3.24, the Greenfield Court Service Center (CSC)services will be in-person and remote: Monday-Thursday, 8:30am-1pm; 2pm-4:30 pm, and Fridays, 8:30-1pm.


For ANY/ALL REMOTE REQUESTS, please contact the Virtual Court Service Center, M-F 9am -2pm, if you do not have an emergency. You can reach them for an intake, Monday-Friday, 9am to 2pm, by Zoom video or telephone as outlined below:


https://www.zoomgov.com/j/1615261140 or Dial (646) 828-7666. Enter the Meeting ID number 1615261140 and then press # #. 


If you have an emergency, and still need remote services, have the court department reach out directly to Greenfield CSC office by email for assistance at greenfieldcsc@jud.state.ma.us.

COMMUNITY JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region www.opioidtaskforce.org

Facebook  X  Instagram