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 can't.” She and other staff said the city spent most ARPA dollars on direct services rather than rolling them into the general fund, which leaves a sharp ‘‘cliff’’ as that funding ends.

Staff review and recent housing additions

Mengers and Simonoff summarized three city priorities: prevention and tenant support, crisis intervention, and expanding permanent supportive housing (PSH). Staff noted Cambridge now hosts among the highest numbers of individual shelter beds per capita in the Commonwealth and that the city has added PSH units in the past year, including Harvey Street (conversion of single-room-occupancy units), 16–18 Wendell Street (22 PSH units acquired by the Cambridge Housing Authority), and 116 Norfolk Street (about 62 studio apartments for people exiting chronic homelessness).

Mengers said PSH retention in Cambridge is high—historically 95–98 percent—making it the primary long-term investment staff favor to reduce shelter reliance. She also noted that many beds counted in the city’s shelter inventory include seasonal and overflow capacity and that when the TWC closes that peak capacity will fall.

Funding risks and projections

Staff presented budget figures and program totals: roughly $15.9 million in homelessness- and housing-stability investments in the FY25 budget (excluding ARPA), more than $6 million in competitive CoC funding supporting PSH, and a series of ARPA- and COVID-era programs that the city now must decide whether to continue. Mengers told the committee the city is monitoring a possible loss of about $6.5 million annually in CoC grants and roughly $4 million in Emergency Housing Voucher-related supports—funding that could expire as early as 2025 or in 2026 depending on housing authority reserves.

On the question of the TWC specifically, staff said the shelter opened as a temporary pandemic mitigation measure and has operated for nearly five years. Mengers told the committee that Bay Cove, the TWC operator, is working with city staff on exit planning; at the time of the presentation she said 22 residents did not yet have an exit plan in place. She added that the city is in active conversations with partner agencies about bringing additional beds back online at other sites but warned the capacity and model will differ from the current TWC setup.

Public comment: Spalding residents urge continuation

During public comment, multiple residents of the Spalding/Spаulding wellness program told the committee the facility provided stability that helped them pursue work, health care and benefits. Galen Larkinsford, a Spalding resident, said the program gave him a path to independence and urged the council to “think about how you're actually investing in the future of the city here.” David Heath, another resident, described medical care received on-site and said the shelter allowed him to reunite with his son: “It's allowed me the luxury of being able to be well presented so I can see my son again,” he said. Several other residents, including James Gelden, Angelo Cooney and Abhinash Raman, echoed similar personal accounts about stability, medical access and pathways into housing.

Council discussion and next steps

Councillors asked staff how the city weighs the relative roles of non-congregate shelters, congregate shelters and PSH and pressed for detail on long-term pipelines for PSH development. Staff said 116 Norfolk is newly complete and that other major PSH projects are complex and not yet guaranteed in future years, though the city is leveraging one-time investments, housing vouchers and Medicaid-reimbursed services to lower ongoing city operating costs for those units.

Multiple councillors said they wish the city could both preserve the TWC and expand PSH but acknowledged the budget constraints and uncertainty about federal funding. Council members also discussed whether the council should transmit a policy order to the Finance Committee and the city manager asking that continued funding be considered; staff noted that if the council were to direct funding to extend TWC operations, that would reduce the city’s budget flexibility for other priorities and for potential backfill of expiring federal grants.

A procedural vote to adjourn was taken at the end of the meeting. The committee did not take a formal funding vote on TWC at this session; councillors said further discussion and possible motions will appear on upcoming agendas, including the regular City Council meeting where a policy order regarding TWC funding is scheduled.

Ending

Staff urged continued work with PSH partners, housing navigators and operators such as Bay Cove and the Cambridge Housing Authority to move residents into stable placements where possible. Several councillors and the city manager highlighted that Cambridge’s choice to spend ARPA dollars on direct services left it with limited carryover to sustain those services and that the coming months will require hard budgetary choices. The opioid settlement update was not completed at this meeting and staff indicated they will schedule a follow-up presentation with the opioid task force.