Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify the number of people who responded to Craig’s Doors’ survey and to better reflect how the Fare Access Program is run.
Ever since Craig’s Doors started purchasing bus passes from the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority to give to homeless and low-income individuals in March 2023, it has distributed over 9,000 daily passes and helped over 475 people.
And the results are in: the nonprofit said a recent survey of those transit riders show the passes have notably improved their lives, allowing them to get jobs, attend doctors appointments and seek legal help.
In Amherst, Craig’s Doors, which has been serving adults experiencing homelessness with shelters and other resources in the Pioneer Valley for 13 years, began a Fare Access Program — the first of its kind in Hampshire County.
The program allows Craig’s Doors to provide free Pioneer Valley Transit Authority bus passes to shelter guests and to members of the community in need of transportation.
“Fare-free transit plays a huge role in helping low income and marginalized people get back on their feet,” said Jack Myers, director of programs at Craig’s Doors. Myers said the transit authority has been supportive of the program.
The agency issued a report which found that the one-year-old program was a success with guests.
“People have said this program has been life-changing,” Myers said. “Having access to transit allows people the privacy, autonomy and security they deserve.”
Between March and November of last year, at least 340 people received a bus pass from Craig’s Doors. Of that number, 48 people responded to a survey about the program: 16% said it helped them gain employment; nearly three-quarters said it impacted their path to housing; and 20% said it helped them travel to work.
The program also aided with mental, physical, and financial health outcomes, improved access to food, and impacted access to social supports, the report said.
“This program is such a critical part of providing support services to our guests,” said Myers.
The funding for this program has been sourced from both the support of Amherst and the state.
In 2023, when the program began, Amherst’s Community Responders for Equity, Safety & Service department provided a $25,000 grant to the agency to provide bus passes to guests, Myers said.
Then, due to the program’s success, state Rep. Mindy Domb, D-Amherst, secured $40,000 of the state’s budget to help Craig’s Doors continue to serve participants receive free transit through the rest of 2024, Myers said.
Other than the transit program, Craig’s Doors offers free community breakfast, showers, case management, tents and cold weather gear, clothes and laundry services.
Through August, the PVTA will be offering fare-free travel to all riders to celebrate the transit authority’s 50th anniversary of operation and last week, the Pioneer Valley Project, a group that works for social change, said it is advocating for rides to be made free permanently.
Last month, Senate’s Ways and Means Committee in its recommended fiscal year 2025 budget proposed that $40 million should go towards ensuring year-round, fare-free access to transit at all Regional Transit Authorities statewide.
“Lower income communities rely on public transit to get to where they need to be,” Myers said of the funding in the budget proposal for free transportation. “This would be an investment into the community.”
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