{shortcode-93efccb522d9857d7c781de99209e506dcfb132e}

A City Council meeting intended to focus on how Cambridge could better support homeless residents turned into something of a public reckoning as resident after resident accused staff at shelters operated by Bay Cove Human Services of abuse and mistreatment.

During a Wednesday meeting of the Council’s Human Services and Veterans Committee, five residents of Bay Cove’s three Cambridge shelters used public comment as an opportunity to detail negative experiences ranging from small disputes between residents and staff to negligence that contributed to the death of one resident.

Two advocates shared similar testimony from other residents who did not themselves speak at the meeting.

Kevin J. Merrill, a resident of one of Bay Cove’s shelters, accused the organization of failing to secure medical care for a friend of his who had been bedridden with a medical condition. The friend later died of sepsis, and Merill brought his remains to the Wednesday meeting.

“I had my best friend lay in a bed every eight hours, checked on by staff members who had no idea what they were checking on,” Merrill said. “There’s nobody to make a decision.”

Bay Cove declined to comment on specific allegations, citing privacy protections, but said that “we take complaints seriously and attempt to resolve complaints to the extent possible, as some issues are brought to us that are outside of our control.”

The organization added that its staff are trained in first aid, CPR, and overdose reversal, but are not medically trained and cannot provide medical treatment.

Bay Cove has been contracted to operate shelters in Cambridge for a decade, a partnership that will continue despite the mounting allegations of mistreatment.

“We are taking the complaints expressed seriously and will continue to partner with Bay Cove to find ways to better support their operations and hold them accountable for ensuring a professional and caring environment,” Cambridge spokesperson Jeremy Warnick wrote in an email to The Crimson.

Jeramy Dalpe — a former resident at the city’s Winter Warming Center which is staffed by Bay Cove — claimed that all of his valuables were stolen during his time there. In response, the staff “laughed at me and my loss,” and “never addressed the lapse of security” within the shelter, according to Dalpe.

“Homeless individuals deserve safe and healthy living conditions, dignity and respect,” Dalpe said.

John C. Mulhern, a resident at Bay Cove’s shelter on 240 Albany St., reaffirmed Dalpe’s account of his experiences with the shelter, alleging that staff are “willfully indifferent and apathetic” to frequent incidents of theft, assault, and drug dealing.

“As someone previously mentioned, they laugh about it as if human suffering is somehow enjoyable and something to be kidded about,” Mulhern said.

Maureen Cunningham, a senior project manager for Bay Cove who spoke at the meeting, did not directly address many of the specific allegations raised by current and former residents. She said staff who are found to violate policy are disciplined and sometimes terminated.

But she conceded that high turnover can lead to an inconsistent quality of care.

“Even when we feel confident that we have provided sufficient training for people and are able to then continue to work with them through supervision, the staff leave and then we’re bringing in new staff who we need to again train and continue to support,” she said.

During the meeting, councilors said the city needed to do a better job of tracking and responding to allegations of mistreatment, which were not just limited to Bay Cove shelters.

“As difficult as it was to hear those stories, if we don’t put the stories out there so that people can hear them and know about them, we can’t get better, right?” Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern said. “And this is all about wanting to get better.”

“It’s very, very complicated, and there are many layers to it, but that cannot be an excuse for us not to do better,” he added.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart or on Threads @laurel.shugart.

—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.