To the editor:
Your article "Social service agencies: We fill a critical need" (The MetroWest Daily News, March 9) did a good job laying out the arguments the social service industry makes for their concentration in Framingham, but their arguments don't hold water. For instance, when Jeanne Ryan of Wayside said, "they're your neighbors. They're your family members. They're not criminals," she neglects to point out that many of them ARE criminals. Witness, for instance, the sex offenders living at the wet shelter, SMOC's contract with the DOC to house arsonists, and the recent brawl at Wayside.
And when "officials said they are meeting needs in the community," they neglect to point out that a large number of their clients ARE NOT FROM our community, and are only our "neighbors" because they came here for social services. Witness the recent PILOT forum where every single SMOC client who spoke said they had come to Framingham only recently. They are here because SMOC, Wayside, etc., choose to conglomerate here.
Perhaps the reason Framingham has "city issues" is because of the high concentration of social services here, not the other way around.
Peter Adams
Framingham
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