The PIP Shelter on Main St. offers hot meals, an overnight emergency shelter, as well as amenities such as showers and laundry. The PIP has case management, housing and employment searches, and a day program with an educational component. The PIP is coded for 88 beds, including 20 stabilization beds, half for men and half for women.

The PIP serves any clients that agree to work to improve their lives, and to follow the rules of the shelter. Clients can be under the influence upon entering services, so that they can access people who are normally turned away from programs. As a result, the shelter operates at 120% capacity. 45% of the clients are chronically homeless. The average stay at the PIP is 10 days, before being referred to a more stable situation such as a temporary housing program. There are a smaller percentage of clients that remain in services for several years. On an annual basis, 1,500 individuals are served at the PIP shelter. The winter is the busiest time at the PIP, serving 136 individuals in the colder months. Annually, 86% of the clients are male, and 60% are between the ages of 35 and 55. Annually, 24% of the clients are classified as disabled and 26% have had some college or received a BA degree.

The PIP Aurora program is a first step program that includes 14 units of temporary housing and 14 units of permanent housing. This program is very structured, individuals must have 30 days sobriety, must attend meetings, be working, doing community service, or school. It is a strict environment that has a high success rate of moving people into stable housing. Individuals can stay in the Aurora program for a maximum of 2 years.

The majority (55-60%) of the clients at the PIP were introduced to homelessness by drug and alcohol abuse. The next largest factor is mental illness, followed by being released from prison, and then single traumatic incidents. The most prevalent barriers keeping people from moving out of the PIP are the lack of affordable housing, employment, CORI checks, and insufficient public transportation.

David McClosky, director of the PIP Aurora program believes that on-demand housing needs to be more readily available to the public. Homeless people need “Housing First” models to make sure that no one has to sleep on the street at night. The model has no barriers for a client to find housing, and once in housing, services will be provided. Services are important, and supportive housing programs actually cost less (between $22 and $28 per bed per night) than emergency shelter beds ($30-$32 per bed per night).

The goals of clients in the PIP are to become sober and in recovery, find a job, and be placed into housing. While the success rate is about 30%, they do have several success stories about individuals who get good jobs, own their own homes, and reconnect with their families.

David McClosky is developing scattered site housing in different neighborhoods and towns, which will allow people in recovery to move into a new environment to focus on themselves. These programs have much higher success rates because they remove individuals from some of the triggers of an addiction. The scattered site program in Framingham has been successful, and the only roadblock in the way of this development is the areas that refuse to allow this housing to be located there. Supportive housing programs such as these actually are known to help out the neighborhoods they are located in, such as reducing crime and increasing property values, but many neighborhoods still are against them.