Concern Over Number Of Out-Of-Town Homeless People At Quincy Shelter
QUINCY (CBS) - As homeless shelters see more people walking through their doors, there's some concern about who should be taking care of them.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karen Twomey reports.
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In Quincy, the police chief says he's concerned that many of the people arrested at Father Bill's homeless shelter are not from the area.
"I ran the last 18 arrests, and 17 of them were not local residents," said Quincy Police Chief Paul Keenan.
Chief Keenan stressed that he's concerned his resources are being strained.
"We're finding lately that there's a trend that a lot of the homeless people being drawn to Father Bill's from either out-of-state or out of the city," said Chief Keenan. "It was supposed to be originally set up as a catchman area for Quincy and a couple of the surrounding communities."
John Yazwinski, the president and CEO of Father Bill's, says the shelter has an open door policy to make sure people have a safe place to stay the night, but there is supposed to be a protocol to keep that system from being abused.
"You look at people or have them confirm their last known addresses, where they may be in the sense of employed, providing a past utility bill," said Yazwinski. "And if you come from other parts of the state, then we allow you to stay a few days and hopefully get you back to the community that you're from."
Yazwinski added that Father Bill's is like a lot of other homeless shelters. They are running at about 150-percent capacity.
"We're really struggling to make sure every man, woman, child, veteran, woman fleeing a domestic violence situation, has a safe place to stay tonight," said Yazwinski.
