“We’ve been pretty successful in bringing people into shelter,” said Jason Etheridge, president of Lifebridge North Shore, which operates a 50-bed shelter in Salem.Etheridge defended the city’s response to the encampment, describing months of work by police and outreach workers to encourage people to leave their tents and move into shelters.Lifebridge opened a second 50-bed emergency shelter to help meet the demand in Salem, and the city is using federal pandemic aid money to help fund it, he said. And his organization’s social workers have been at the site to help residents connect with services“No one has just begun rounding up people,” Etheridge said. “This is being done with a lot of care.” Click here for the full story. |