The fight against homelessness in Cambridge last week gained approximately $43,000 in city and state funds, but several shelter operators say city officials are not seeking real solutions to the problem.

Last week city officials announced plans to establish a new coordinating office that would match the needy with shelters and agencies at a cost of about $23,000. The office will use donated space at the former Off The Wall Cinema on Pearl St., which closed early this winter.

In addition, the Cambridge Department of Human Services recently won a $20,000 state block grant to help the homeless.

Assistant City Manager for Human Services Jill Herold said $15,000 will pay half the salary of a psychiatric social worker. The state's mental health agency has agreed to pay the other half. The remaining $5000 will be used to reserve beds for the needy at Cambridge's YWCA and YMCA, Herold said.

Although students and community activists who work with the homeless praised these projects, they also criticized a series of separate proposals for emergency shelters. They said the plans would provide immediate protection from the cold, but would not help homeless people return to jobs, homes and main-stream society.

Proposals

Proposed sites for emergency shelters include church basements and the disused armory on Concord Ave.

In addition, Councilor William H. Walshproposed that two empty floors in Cambridge CityHospital be used as shelter for the homeless. Thehospital has at least 30 vacant beds, but Walsh'ssuggestion has found scant support. On Monday, thehospital administration and Commissioner of Healthand Hospitals Melvin H. Chalfen released a reportdescribing "significant barriers" to the plan.

The report says Cambridge Hospital may need allof its space for patients in the future, and thatthe 30-bed unit might lose its state license for"acute care" if the city violates state healthcodes by housing homeless people there.

The report also said Cambridge Hospital wouldlose money by hosting a shelter because homelessguests would displace paying patients. It alsowarned that homeless people might contaminateother parts of the hospital with contagiousdiseases like tuberculosis.

Walsh said several doctors at the Cambridgehospital had supported his plan and cited aprecedent in the shelter at Shattuck Hospital inthe Boston suburb of Jamaica Plain.

City Councilor David E. Sullivan criticized theproposal, saying, "opening up an armory or ahospital and just dumping people is not reallyhelping them" because homeless people need morethan shelter to escape permanently from thestreets.

Sullivan said he would prefer the Council"lighten up" on restrictive zoning laws that haveprevented several organizations from openingshelters.

"Not In My Backyard"

City Manager Robert W. Healy is forming acommittee to consider possible sources of housing.However, he says one city's efforts cannot solvethe national problem of homelessness. "If you put200 new beds in here today, there's be 400 morepeople here as soon as the word got around," hesaid, adding that no city neighborhood wouldaccept a shelter without protest. "It's likeprisons and dumps--everybody wants them but `notin my backyard,'" he said.