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Date: 8/30/2021
HOLYOKE – Reminder Publishing recently reached out to the seven mayoral candidates and invited them to respond to a series of questions regarding issues presently facing the city and residents.
Previously, the first of three separate articles with candidate responses was printed. The following responses are the second part of the three-part article series.
Candidates, listed in alphabetical order by last name, are resident Gloria Caballero Roca, Blandford Town Administrator Joshua Garcia, resident William Glidden, resident Christopher Kosinski, City Councilor Rebecca Lisi, School Committee member Devin Sheehan and City Councilor Mike Sullivan.
Reminder Publishing (RP): What are some ways in which you would work with state and local officials to ensure the safety and quality of life of residents at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home?
Caballero Roca: I would actively liaison with all responsible parties for the running of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, in order to stay abreast of the quality care provided there in order not to repeat the failings of the past in this regard.
Garcia: The state was slow to react to – never mind prevent – the terrible tragedy that claimed the lives of so many American heroes during the early days of the pandemic. What’s more heartbreaking is what we learned after the tragedy: that the Soldiers’ Home was overcrowded and had inadequate support from the commonwealth to keep up with their services. Holyoke has an excellent Health Department that I look forward to supporting so that it can achieve its purpose “to enhance public health … [by providing] prevention, protection and educational resources to ensure the highest quality of life.” We also have an excellent Veterans Department who are skilled and are strong advocates for the needs of our veterans. When I am elected mayor, I will ensure that our own Health Department as well as our Veterans Department has the resources it needs so they can be at the table with state and regional officials at every discussion and strategy session involving the Soldiers’ Home ensuring the greatest safety possible for our heroes.
Glidden: The tragic loss of life at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home last year was devastating to our community – and made more so by the fact that much of it was avoidable. Our veterans deserved better.
While the mayor has no direct authority of the Soldiers’ Home, the mayor does have something as important: direct relationships with the Holyoke community, including with the residents of the Soldiers’ Home and their families; with organizations like the Soldiers’ Home Coalition, a local group of veterans, their family members, veterans’ services representatives, and concerned citizens whose involvement and collective expertise was instrumental in shaping the commonwealth’s plan for the new Soldiers’ Home facility to be built in Holyoke; and, critically, with our elected officials in Boston. As mayor, I will be in a unique position to be aware, on an ongoing basis, of how well the Soldiers’ Home is serving the needs of our veterans.
As mayor, I intend to use those relationships to stay current on the situation at the Soldiers’ Home and to ensure that officials with the power to act are equipped to deal with fixable problems as they emerge. I will be a strong and effective advocate for the Home’s needs.
Kosinski: We have always treated the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home as a beautiful gem in the city. We are blessed to have a place for those men and women. It is the least we can provide for their sacrifices made for our country. The news from the Soldiers’ Home was usually positive and it existed the way it always had, sitting proudly overlooking our city. Since the pandemic, the devastating and numerous loss of lives brought to light that there was a serious need for upgrades and oversight. I am glad to see the state bonding to build a new Soldiers’ Home and I’m glad it will remain in Holyoke. However, a big state run facility is outside municipal jurisdiction. I propose that the mayor or his or her designee be a non-voting member of the board of directors. This would allow a free flow of information regarding all aspects of running the facility and insight into day to day operations, cost analysis and of course programming and quality of life standards for our veterans.
Lisi: The Soldiers’ Home Board of Trustees is our local voice and representation at a state-run facility in our city. Accountability requires clear, consistent, and transparent communication. We need to ensure that the board is communicating regularly with the city and also communicating to the state the needs of our residents and workers at the facility.
Regular communication protocols between the facility and the state must be established and followed. I support the recommended shift in reporting and oversight from the Department of Veterans Affairs to Health and Human Services since we are dealing with vital health and safety protocols. Our residents also deserve a process for how patients and their families can raise issues and grievances that need to be addressed.
The state reports on the Soldiers’ Home crisis both point to significant staffing deficiencies and poor labor relations that had been long identified, but never addressed. To provide high-quality, compassionate care for our veterans, we need to make sure that nursing staff and caretakers have the training, resources, work environment and compensation that will allow them to excel at their jobs. I support state legislation for nurse staffing ratios that would ensure that individual patients are appropriately cared for.
Sheehan: As the son of a veteran and as mayor of Holyoke, I am prepared to advocate for our Soldiers’ Home residents as well as all our veterans in the city. We must ensure the care that is provided to our veterans is the highest quality. As mayor, I would work closely with our state representative and senator to guarantee that the Soldiers’ Home has the budget it needs to operate a safe and caring environment for our veterans. In March 2020, we unfortunately witnessed what happens when there is a complete lack of oversight, care, and commitment by state officials to our veterans when more than 70 veterans died because of COVID-19. It is critical that our city’s Health Department is aware of any infectious disease outbreaks that occur at the Soldiers’ Home. This ensures that our local Board of Health reports any concerns to the state. I would also work with our Veteran Services officer to elevate concerns to the Governor’s Office and State Department of Veterans Affairs. We must do better. It is an honor for the City of Holyoke to host the Soldiers’ Home and we must ensure that its residents are protected.
Sullivan: As mayor, I will work closely with our state senator and state representative to make sure there is a consistent focus on providing veterans with the highest possible quality of care. As a former member of the Air National Guard, I understand the sacrifice our veterans make to serve our country. There is no way we can ever make whole a wounded warrior, but we must do everything we can to provide comprehensive and multifaceted healthcare to our veterans with honor and dignity.
What happened last year with the COVID-19 outbreak and the decisions that were made is a heartbreaking tragedy. I grieve for those veterans who passed away and for the families who must now live with the consequences of those actions. As mayor, I will support the full disclosure of information related to any criminal acts found to have occurred at the Soldiers’ Home leading to the deaths of our veterans and will do everything possible to make sure tragedies like this will never happen again.
RP: Western Massachusetts is currently experiencing a housing shortage. Holyoke has and continues to participate and help fund affordable housing projects within the city. How would you continue this effort to increase housing access for city residents?
Caballero Roca: I would look for greater funding to make an even greater number of housing units available to the least well-off part of the citizenry of Holyoke. The housing has to be available, has to exist, and the selection process for that housing has to favor the most vulnerable among us of being left homeless.
Garcia: We are fortunate to have a positive and productive relationship with U.S. Senator Ed Markey as well as our state area delegates because state and federal assistance will be crucial to addressing our housing shortage. Sen. Markey and area representatives have visited Holyoke many times and taken a particular interest in our housing issues. To me, there is no question but that the solution lies in the many, many empty buildings in Holyoke. We have a demonstrated record of success in converting abandoned buildings into clean, dignified, and welcoming homes even for those with very limited incomes. As mayor, together with the Holyoke Building Department and other stakeholders, I will lead the charge to identify potential new housing opportunities and will work with our federal and state representatives to leverage additional resources to continue to convert old buildings for development of low-income and affordable housing balances with market-rate housing.
Glidden:?As mayor, I would urge our state delegation to support Gov. Baker’s proposal to put one billion dollars of the state’s American Rescue Plan funds toward home ownership and other housing priorities. I would also work to redevelop vacant properties in Holyoke for more housing options in our beautiful downtown wards – just as the city did in supporting the Chestnut Street Apartments project, among others. Downtown Holyoke is an underappreciated jewel, with stunning old buildings that could be redeveloped for housing, as the Winn rehabilitation of the old Farr Alpaca mill building shows. There’s plenty of room for infill where vacant lots exist now. And, with urban living increasingly popular, we can make room for new residents of all income levels while ensuring that no one is displaced.
We also need to take steps to make sure our fellow Holyokers are not being taken advantage of by absentee landlords. I would work with our state delegation to put in place a legal structure to allow the city to intervene when a landlord isn’t providing services to their tenants. And I would ramp up our existing receivership program, which allows us to place neglected buildings back in more responsible hands.
Kosinski: The state’s Chapter 40B law regarding Affordable Housing intends that every municipality has at least 10 percent affordable housing. Right now, over 40 percent of municipalities have zero affordable housing, while Holyoke is in the top 25 of most affordable places to live in Massachusetts. Each town reports the number of affordable housing units it has – the neighboring community of South Hadley has 1, Chicopee has 19, Easthampton has 4, West Springfield has 8, Westfield has 14. Holyoke has 36. While this may not meet our needs, we are still outpacing all of our neighbors. We need to work with our elected state legislators and other local municipal officials to ensure every town is being held accountable and contributing toward making affordable housing possible.
Lisi: Stable and affordable housing is a cornerstone of a strong city. We need to cultivate a diverse housing portfolio that can capture professionals moving west, while also ensuring that fixed-income residents are not outpriced or displaced from their homes.
Holyoke continues to benefit from the Smart Growth policies that I passed over a decade ago. In Holyoke, we have enough land and building vacancies to support in-fill development that will deconcentrate poverty and grow mixed-income neighborhoods without pushing or pricing out current residents from their homes.
To attract more middle-income residents to Holyoke, we need to invest in fiber internet and improve public amenities such as parks, sidewalks, and safe streets that everyone in the city will enjoy. Providing high-quality, public school education is the number one thing we can do to support people coming to and staying in Holyoke.
To increase the number of affordable units in the city, I will continue to support the rehabilitation of blighted buildings and homes through the receivership program and develop new units through partnerships with the Holyoke Housing Authority, Way Finders, and The Community Builders. I am also interested in creating a rent-control subsidy from one of the new cannabis revenue streams.
Sheehan: Access to affordable housing for all residents of Holyoke is important. The city has successfully worked with the Holyoke Housing Authority, OneHolyokeCDC, and Way Finders to assist residents with housing and in constructing new housing developments. As mayor, I would continue to actively work with our state and federal delegations to ensure that Holyoke is receiving funding assistance. Holyoke is also going through a real estate boom as we have seen homes on the market for a short amount of time with multiple offers. We also have many homes that have been neglected and ignored. The city has had success in the Property Receivership Program, which has helped developers rehab problem properties. I would continue this program and work with our Problem Property Group to identify properties that could be candidates for the receivership program. By redeveloping these problem properties, we can sell the homes for individuals to move into the city and place the property back onto our tax rolls. We can also utilize funds from the Community Preservation Act to help support the development of more affordable housing in the city.
Sullivan: Holyoke currently has the lowest median household income in all of Massachusetts. City leadership has repeatedly failed to create forward momentum for those who are living in poverty, a highly disproportionate number of whom are people of color. It will take a comprehensive effort across City Hall and through private industry and our school system to create the conditions for building household wealth and ending the housing shortage crisis.
We must shift to a new approach focused on building pathways to the middle class and toward homeownership. Developments such as the Churchill Homes are an example of how we can support low-income residents while giving them the opportunity to truly own their home, build wealth over time and pass that wealth onto their children.
Part one of this article can be found online at thereminder.com/localnews/holyoke/meet-the-holyoke-mayoral-candidates/
Part three of this article will be publishined in the Sept. 9 edition of the Holyoke Reminder.