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Residents urge Watertown to open a warming shelter after winter exposure and housing shortages
Summary
Multiple speakers during public comment on June 17 urged the Watertown City Council to support a community overnight/warming shelter and described local cases of homelessness and housing-market strain.
Multiple residents and faith leaders urged the Watertown City Council on June 17 to create or support a community warming or overnight shelter to prevent cold-weather deaths and to fill a gap between emergency need and longer-term housing programs.
Reverend Dr. Christopher Ross, pastor at First Congregational United Church of Christ and a member of Building a Welcoming Watertown, told the council a public-private partnership proposal for a warming shelter has been submitted and appealed to the council on moral and scriptural grounds: “When anyone finds themselves in danger of freezing to death, that’s on all of us,” he said.
Barb Wyse, also speaking for Building a Welcoming Watertown, described the group’s concern that people were “kept in the cold this past winter” and said the community should “step up” without judgment to help neighbors in crisis.
Jeremy Schmidt, who identified himself as representing Building a Welcoming Watertown and as the organization’s pro tem treasurer, gave several specific examples of household homelessness and housing instability in Watertown: a single mother and child living in a vehicle during winter after fleeing domestic violence; a disabled woman who lost a lease when a household member moved to assisted living; a low-income veteran facing a 30-day notice after a landlord sold a unit; and other locally based cases of people living in cars or sleeping in public places.
Schmidt also described market pressures he said are exacerbating the problem: he reported steep rent increases in some locally observed listings and cited HUD fair market rent figures during his remarks. He said the Watertown Housing Authority has waiting lists — and he concluded by repeating the call for a warming shelter, saying it could prevent future tragedies.
Speakers framed their requests as a humanitarian gap-filling measure and asked the council to consider a public-private approach the group has proposed. The council did not take formal action on the shelter proposal at the June 17 meeting; the statements were made during public comment.
