After 2 years living in the woods, Worcester couple takes tentative step to shelter

By Mike Beaudet

Click here for updates on this story

    WORCESTER, Massachusetts (WCVB) — On a damp, chilly day in January, an outreach team from Worcester walked up to Hilltop Park and headed into the woods on a narrow footpath, not a person in sight at first.

After a few minutes walk, a tent came into view.

“Good morning, homeless outreach!” one of the members called out when the group was within earshot.

Gary and his wife had been living in the tent for about two years, and conversed easily with the visitors.

“Hey, how we doing, Gary?” said Ezekiel Collazo, a former user who now does outreach for the city.

The outreach team checks on people living in encampments around the city multiple times a week, offering the services that are available for anyone who wants to take them.

“What we do is try to build up a rapport with them and at least continue to visit them every week, at least to see how they’re doing,” said Collazo.

Ezekiel Collazo, right, a recovery specialist, heads into the woods to check on a couple who has been living in a tent for about two years. This day, they have along with them Dr. Matilde Castiel, commissioner of health and human services for the city.

“I’m Dr. Castiel. How are you?” she said to Gary.

“I’m pretty good,” he replied.

“Listen, we will find you a bed,” Castiel said.

Despite the cold and squalor, it’s not an easy sell. But this day is a good one, and with the help of Castiel’s persistence, the couple agrees to leave.

Dr. Matilde “Mattie” Castiel, right, locks pinky fingers with Gary, outside the tent he has been staying in for about two years. They walk out of the woods and into a city vehicle that takes them to an emergency winter shelter run by Open Sky Community Services.

There isn’t a free bed, but after some negotiation between Castiel and the shelter staff, Gary and his wife have a place to stay.

“We have been full pretty much every single night since we’ve opened. And every time we have somebody who does end up leaving, we have a waitlist of people who are wanting to come off the streets and get a warm bed,” said Ryan Johnston, vice president of integrated care at Open Sky Community Services.

The 60-bed shelter opened on December 19th and was full four hours after it opened, Johnston said. It’s planned to close at the end of March.

“We’re hoping by that point that we found (for) most of the people that are getting support here more permanent long-term housing if that’s what they’re looking for,” Johnston said.

“We don’t know what makes a person want to change their behavior and want to access treatment. But we want to make sure that we’re there when that time happens,” said Evis Terpollari, Homeless Projects Manager for the city. “This couple has been out there for years. And essentially recovery is a multi-step process. So that’s why we make sure that we’re there on a consistent basis.”

Homelessness goes hand in hand with the overdose epidemic where the drugs being used are no longer limited to opioids.

“Overall it’s opiates, but we see polysubstance use,” said Terpollari. “Addiction doesn’t care. It’s very brutal, so it tends to drive the motivation around daily life. And 10 years could go by real fast when you’re in addiction.”

“When they say ‘Yes,’ you have to do everything that you can to be able to bring them in,” Castiel said in an interview.

At the end of last year, the state touted in a press release a decline in opioid-related deaths during the first nine months of 2022 compared to the same time in 2021.

But it’s not the case for all communities. Some cities told 5 Investigates that overdose deaths rose in 2022.

“It’s not getting better,” Castiel said. “We’ve seen mortality increase.”

“I think we really need to look at the whole system,” she said .”And what else does it need?”

Housing is probably the most important thing, Castiel said. But that’s not all.

“They need to know you care. We all need somebody to care, right?” she said.

Speaking soon after Gary and his wife agreed to go into the shelter, Castiel had high hopes.

“In my dreams, I want that to be that this is the last time that they’re living outside,” she said.

But reality does not have a clean storyline. By the end of the day, Gary and his wife had left the shelter to live outside.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.