LOWELL — The Lowell Housing Authority is on the front line of the city’s homeless crisis. For more than a year, the agency has devoted staff, money and other resources to protect its residents and property at its South Common Village from the disorder crimes of vagrancy, trespassing and drug activity plaguing the Back Central neighborhood.
Executive Director Tha Chhan said the nine-building complex that mostly serves the housing needs of elderly and disabled residents is at the “epicenter of and overrun by the homeless population” in an area that City Councilor Corey Belanger called a “mini Mass and Cass.”
“We recognized the increased homeless population within the vicinity of South Common Park early on since 2023,” Chhan said by phone on Friday. “Then, in 2024, we started to see an increasing number of homeless population come back within the surrounding area to the South Common complex.”
The surrounding area, also called the Jackson/Appleton/Middlesex urban renewal neighborhood zone, is a magnet for at-risk populations due to the numerous resources available to support their needs, such as the Eliot Church Day Center on Summer Street, which is directly across from the park.
The church, with St. Paul’s Kitchen, runs a day program that offers homeless people food and daytime shelter Monday through Friday, utilizing its Fellowship Hall and kitchen from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The church does not offer overnight shelter.
On Appleton Street is the newly opened Project Kompass, a nonprofit that provides wraparound services to create a path toward greater independence and personal well-being for at-risk clients.
One block from there is the Lowell Transitional Living Center on Middlesex Street, the largest homeless shelter and support organization north of Boston.
And over on Jackson Street is the Lowell Community Health Center, which provides health care to wide range of people.
The LHA’s yellow-brick buildings also sit across from Jay’s Food Store on Gorham Street. The convenience store and parking lot is in an area known to be a hot spot for disorder crimes such as prostitution and drug offenses. Multiple shell casings were found in the area of the store following a 2024 Thanksgiving weekend shooting. More recently it was busted by Lowell’s Inspectional Services Division for selling “crack pipes” and drug paraphernalia in violation of the city’s ordinance.
The multistory complex of almost 900 residents backs up to South Common Park, a 22.5-acre historic green space that continues to attract transient crowds during the day. Loitering in the park is prohibited at dusk.
Since 2023, at the direction of the council and City Manager Tom Golden, the Lowell Police Department and other city departments cleared people from dozens of encampments scattered around the city. Many of those displaced homeless people set up camp at South Common Park, one block from the LHA’s largest housing complex.
Then, in November 2024, the Lowell City Council passed an ordinance making it unlawful to camp on public property in the city. According to leadership at the LHA, when South Common Park was subsequently “swept,” many in the homeless community decamped to the South Common Village complex — breaking into common areas such as laundry rooms and basements to seek shelter.
“[W]e were overwhelmed at South Common Village when they pulled down the camps in the park and threw out all the homeless,” Management/Facilities Director Dennis Mercier told the LHA Board of Commissioners in May. “So, they found a new home right across the street.”
In response to resident and councilor complaints, Chhan said the agency increased staff, dedicated more money and worked with the LPD to mitigate the quality-of-life and criminal issues that plagued the complex. The LHA increased it policing and patrol budget from $120,000 to $150,000.
The complex already boasts nearly 36 exterior cameras, internal cameras in the lobbies and elevators, and the property is posted with numerous “No Trespassing” signs.
“We have 127 buildings throughout the city,” Chhan said. “That is the only area that we continue to face issues.”
The LHA also staffed the property with weekend custodial employees who can respond immediately to fix doors and windows that were broken to gain access to the property.
“We added more staff,” Chhan said. “South Common Village used to be managed and run by seven people and we increased that to 10. The plan is to increase that to 13.”
The quasi-state agency, which receives the majority of its funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is facing fiscal constraints due to federal budget cuts and increasing costs. Chhan said focusing resources on South Common Village takes time and money away from its other residents and developments.
The LPD’s new crime dashboard, launched this month, shows its promise as an online tool to track the impact of public policy on community policing.
Data from 2024 is not available, but the arrest data dashboard is archived from January 2025, and shows trends on enforcing trespassing and drug activity in the South Common Village area.
“If someone was on the property and they had a no-trespass order, they weren’t just sent away with a warning, they were arrested and brought to court,” Mercier told the board in May. “I think it comes out to about 126 people that have been arrested.”
Ninety people were arrested in September and 66 in October. But what might be individual data points in the database may not be 156 individual people. One person may be arrested multiple times in one month with each arrest logged into the database.
The high number of arrests may also reflect the catch-and-release aspect to the judicial system at Lowell District Court for trespassing arrests, a practice that has long bedeviled city leadership.
“Unfortunately, when they bring them to court, they pretty much just bail them out with $5 bail or they release them on personal recognizance,” Mercier said, indicating that the trespassers — homeless or not — return to LHA’s South Common Village. “But we’re hoping the more we bring them in, the judge will say enough is enough.”
Based on the dashboard, arrest in all categories were at an all-time high in September and October, at 380 and 318 respectively. In general, an arrest record can prevent an unhoused person from securing housing, creating a vicious cycle of housing insecurity, criminality and public disorder.
“We’re arresting the very people we need to help,” Chhan said. “But at the same time, we also have to worry about the health and safety of our residents already there. It might be the only option, but it won’t fix anything.”
Ultimately, Chhan said neither the city of Lowell, the LPD nor the LHA can solve this homeless crisis alone, which he called a “nationwide crisis.”
“We need a comprehensive plan that is specifically designed for homeless individuals who could use treatment including mental health and substance abuse, stable housing and other supportive services that will lead to successful rehabilitation and reintegration into the community,” he said. “We can see the positive impact of our efforts, but it’s just a temporary fix.”