Plan to relocate Mass and Cass homeless to Shattuck Hospital detailed

Eighteen candy-colored temporary sleeping shelters are coming to the former Shattuck Hospital campus in Jamaica Plain to house the homeless from the Mass and Cass encampment.

Attendees at a Wednesday morning Public Health Council meeting got a glimpse of the renderings and more details to house the homeless before winter hits.

“We’re really trying to ensure that this is not a short-sighted stopgap measure that just gets us through a period of time,” said DPH Director of the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services Deirdre Calvert. “This is really an effort that is truly fleshed out and helps people transition on.”

Since news broke last month of the plan to house Methadone Mile residents in JP, Calvert provided more detail on the timeline and services being offered on-site.

She estimated that the site, provided by Washington state-based Pallet, will be up and running before Christmas, and will house up to 30 individuals. Of these 18 sleeping shelters, 13 will be 65 square-foot one-bed shelters, and 10 will be 100 square-foot two-bed shelters designed for couples.

Two of the larger units will be wheelchair accessible. The temporary housing community will also be home to three hygiene shelters, complete with accessible restrooms, showers and laundry facilities, a 400 square-foot community room, a security cabin and a shared outdoor gathering space.

Commonwealth Care Alliance, in partnership with Eliot Human Services, will oversee the site and will provide services including behavioral health services, long-term housing search support, medication-assisted treatment, security, and on-site clinical, substance use disorder, and nursing support.

CCA’s President & CEO Chris Palmieri said in an email that the organization is well-positioned to assist with the Mass and Cass crisis, having helped the state develop and manage a program early in the pandemic to provide shelter in hotels for over 3,500 COVID-positive unhoused residents.

Calvert added in the meeting that the state has already placed 45 individuals, including 38 from the Mass and Cass area, in low-threshold housing across the state. An additional 32 people per month will be moved in December and January.

City Councilor Frank Baker brought up the Shattuck plan at the end of Wednesday’s council meeting, advocating for putting more people there in an attempt to decentralize services from Mass and Cass. He railed against the plan, as first reported by the Herald last week, to put people in the vacant Roundhouse hotel right around the corner from the tent encampments.

“Why can’t we as the state go and say ‘Let’s put everyone at the Shattuck?’” Baker, who represents much of the Mass and Cass area, said.

He said the powers that be should work on moving people out of the Mass and Cass area to break up the encampment there, and shouldn’t just put people into the hotel building nearby because, “There will be violence — there will be ODs,” he said.

City Councilor Andrea Campbell backed him up, saying, “The decentralization piece is critical, and Roundhouse doesn’t answer it.”