To the editor:
Laura Tyrrell and Lyn Freeman recently wrote a letter to the editor encouraging Marbleheaders to participate in Lifebridge North Shore’s upcoming fundraiser. I wanted to shed light on this situation.
I live in the Salem neighborhood where Lifebridge is located. Our neighborhood and city have become the regional epicenter for homeless individuals. Fistfights, rapes, drug dealing, overdoses, assaults, and public urination and defecation are our everyday reality. Lifebridge has created a warehouse for the unhoused without providing the proper staffing and services they need, nor has it protected nearby residents from the volatile population it serves. Instead, it plans an expansion that will triple its size – further undercutting our quality of life.
People like Ms. Tyrrell and Freeman live in their pretty neighborhoods, located in wealthier cities, using tax write-offs to keep the mental-health and addiction issues that come with homelessness at a safe distance. They state, “as a community, we can come together to make a real difference.” Perhaps their own community could provide more than just disposable cash.
Why not a Lifebridge shelter in downtown Marblehead? Some tiny homes for the unhoused on those expansive lawns on the Neck? Lifebridge board members and officers live in communities like Marblehead, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Rockport, Beverly Farms, Newbury, and such – tied together by upper income levels and the fact that none have shelters or housing for the homeless. Coincidence?
I hope this is helpful. You can’t see any of this from Marblehead. All you see are good intentions sans the consequences.
Joe Cultrera
Salem