Greenfield proposes lockers for homeless, support for food pantry with unused CDBG funds

Published: 07-01-2025 1:48 PM |
GREENFIELD — Of the approximately $1.65 million provided to the city in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 through the state’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, officials are proposing two separate projects aimed at helping Greenfield residents who are facing food insecurity and struggling to secure housing.
The Community and Economic Development Department presented the two CDBG projects — a $10,000 allocation to install storage lockers for the city’s homeless population and the transfer of $33,000 in excess infrastructure funds to support the Center for Self-Reliance Food Pantry — during a public hearing on Monday.
“What we’re proposing is to take $33,000 that was unexpended from a sidewalk replacement budget,” Community Development Administrator Anna Oltman said of the food pantry funding. “We had some projects come in with bids under our original budget, so those remaining funds are currently unallocated and we’re going to reallocate them to the Center for Self-Reliance Food Pantry on Main Street, which is a project of Community Action Pioneer Valley. This is an ongoing project, so they’ve already received funds under this grant. They’re already obviously operating at full capacity, and the goal here is just to bridge them over so that they don’t have to reduce their staffing until they can receive their other funding in January.”
Another proposal for the unallocated funds, Oltman explained, is a $10,000 project to install public storage lockers for homeless individuals. She said the idea, which would be further explored by the Unhoused Community Committee, draws inspiration from a similar program in Northampton, in which the city purchased the storage lockers and a social services agency was contracted through a memorandum of understanding to administer them.
Oltman clarified that the selection of a site for the lockers would be decided by the Unhoused Community Committee in conjunction with Mayor Ginny Desorgher. She further explained that although a social services agency would be responsible for administering the lockers, the funds would go toward the units themselves, and not to pay the agency.
“Presumably this will also involve an agreement, if it’s placed on private property, with the city that they must be maintained,” Oltman noted. “Or that if something happens to them, that the property owner is responsible.”
In FY24, the city was awarded roughly $112,500 in microenterprise assistance funding, which assists low-income residents with starting small businesses, $236,487 for housing rehabilitation, $185,000 for social services, and $201,751 for water main infrastructure and design.
The city submitted a funding request for the FY25 Community Development Block Grant cycle — $227,000 for housing rehabilitation, $207,375 for sidewalk improvements and $170,000 for social services — to the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities in April and expects to be awarded the funds in early October.
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This year’s projects are expected to begin in January 2027 and are slated for completion by the end of March 2027.
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.