Committee hears plea to preserve transitional wellness center as city faces ARPA and federal funding cliff

Vice Mayor McGovern called the Cambridge City Human Services and Veterans Committee to order to review services for people experiencing homelessness and to provide an update on opioid settlement funds. Assistant City Manager Ellen Simonoff and Liz Mengers of the Human Services Department described a recent expansion of permanent supportive housing but warned that pandemic-era ARPA funding is ending and several federal and state revenue streams that sustain shelter and housing supports are uncertain.

The committee heard that the Transitional Wellness Center (TWC), a temporary non-congregate shelter created with COVID relief dollars, is scheduled to close in June. “The TWC shelter was a critical resource that enabled compliance with CDC recommendations to reduce crowding in shelters,” Liz Mengers said, adding that the site is expensive to operate and that the city intentionally invested in permanent supportive housing to mitigate the expected loss of beds.

Why it matters: Cambridge has invested heavily in eviction prevention, street outreach, and permanent supportive housing in recent years, but staff said a mix of one-time ARPA allocations and at-risk federal grants could force difficult budget choices. Officials warned the city may face reductions to Continuum of Care (CoC) grant funding and to Emergency Housing Vouchers, both of which support people exiting chronic homelessness into stable housing.

Assistant City Manager Ellen Simonoff framed the budget challenge: “In Cambridge, we are in a situation that we have not been in in a long time when we actually have to make some pretty difficult choices about what we can continue to fund in the next couple of years and what we…