Shattuck Hospital Relocation and Redevelopment | Jamaica Plain

Growing coalition voices opposition to Shattuck plan​

Neighbors say city unable to manage current drug use in park​

Shattuck-Morton-Street-campus-rendering-1024x553.jpg


“Five years ago, when state officials were developing a request for proposals for the redevelopment of the Shattuck Hospital site in Franklin Park, Louis Elisa was a lone voice speaking in opposition of the plans, which evolved into a call for 75 to 100 shelter units for people experiencing homelessness and addiction.

Now that a group of nonprofits, including Boston Medical Center, Bay Cove Human Services, Pine Street Inn and the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation, is calling for an 800-unit campus with outpatient programs to serve at least 400 people per day, opposition to their proposal has expanded.

Activists say the coalition of groups opposed to the Shattuck proposal now includes 30 community groups representing the neighborhoods around the park including the Coalition for Region-Wide Services Beyond Franklin Park, which organizers say has more than 400 members.

“In the last month or so, I’ve seen people from Mattapan, Dorchester and Jamaica Plain asking, how could this possibly work?” Elisa said.

State officials and representatives of the nonprofits advancing the Shattuck plan faced pointed questions from the coalition members as they sought support for the proposed 800-unit development during an Oct. 23 meeting in the auditorium of Brooke High School on American Legion Highway.

Asked about particulars of their plans — How would they manage the crimes and nuisances stemming from outpatient drug treatment programs? Is it effective to concentrate so many people suffering addiction in one place? Has the state considered siting housing and addiction services on any other publicly-owned parcels? — proponents provided few answers.

Abi Vladeck, director of public/private development for the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, was asked how a request for proposals calling for 75-100 units of supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness and addiction morphed into an 800-unit proposal. Vladeck noted that the proposal now under consideration was the sole response to the RFP.

“We thought in totality that provisionally designating the (nonprofit partners) was the right plan,” she said.

Built in Franklin Park in 1954, the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital has served patients in state custody for decades. While the building is no longer used as a hospital, the site currently offers emergency shelter beds for up to 120 homeless people and has 12 stand-alone shelters that were erected on a parking lot there.

The proposal being advanced now would include 450 beds for people in treatment for addiction and 405 housing units available to people who are experiencing addiction, whether or not they’re in recovery. In addition, the plan calls for an expansion of outpatient services for people experiencing addiction, including distribution of methadone and suboxone and distribution of kits that allow people to inject heroin safely.

With the services at their current level, evidence of drug use is rampant in sections of the park near the Shattuck, including discarded needles, rubber strips from the injection kits and packets of saline solution in which heroin can be diluted for injection. Residents of the neighborhoods around the park say the city has not been able to manage the drug use in the park as it currently stands.

The coalition of community-based organizations opposing the Shattuck plan includes people opposed to the siting of any units in the park as well as some who want to see fewer units in the development plan….”

https://www.baystatebanner.com/2023/11/01/growing-coalition-voices-opposition-to-shattuck-plan/
 
stick n move said:

Growing coalition voices opposition to Shattuck plan​

Neighbors say city unable to manage current drug use in park​

Shattuck-Morton-Street-campus-rendering-1024x553.jpg


“Five years ago, when state officials were developing a request for proposals for the redevelopment of the Shattuck Hospital site in Franklin Park, Louis Elisa was a lone voice speaking in opposition of the plans, which evolved into a call for 75 to 100 shelter units for people experiencing homelessness and addiction.

Now that a group of nonprofits, including Boston Medical Center, Bay Cove Human Services, Pine Street Inn and the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation, is calling for an 800-unit campus with outpatient programs to serve at least 400 people per day, opposition to their proposal has expanded.

Activists say the coalition of groups opposed to the Shattuck proposal now includes 30 community groups representing the neighborhoods around the park including the Coalition for Region-Wide Services Beyond Franklin Park, which organizers say has more than 400 members.

“In the last month or so, I’ve seen people from Mattapan, Dorchester and Jamaica Plain asking, how could this possibly work?” Elisa said.

State officials and representatives of the nonprofits advancing the Shattuck plan faced pointed questions from the coalition members as they sought support for the proposed 800-unit development during an Oct. 23 meeting in the auditorium of Brooke High School on American Legion Highway.

Asked about particulars of their plans — How would they manage the crimes and nuisances stemming from outpatient drug treatment programs? Is it effective to concentrate so many people suffering addiction in one place? Has the state considered siting housing and addiction services on any other publicly-owned parcels? — proponents provided few answers.

Abi Vladeck, director of public/private development for the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, was asked how a request for proposals calling for 75-100 units of supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness and addiction morphed into an 800-unit proposal. Vladeck noted that the proposal now under consideration was the sole response to the RFP.

“We thought in totality that provisionally designating the (nonprofit partners) was the right plan,” she said.

Built in Franklin Park in 1954, the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital has served patients in state custody for decades. While the building is no longer used as a hospital, the site currently offers emergency shelter beds for up to 120 homeless people and has 12 stand-alone shelters that were erected on a parking lot there.

The proposal being advanced now would include 450 beds for people in treatment for addiction and 405 housing units available to people who are experiencing addiction, whether or not they’re in recovery. In addition, the plan calls for an expansion of outpatient services for people experiencing addiction, including distribution of methadone and suboxone and distribution of kits that allow people to inject heroin safely.

With the services at their current level, evidence of drug use is rampant in sections of the park near the Shattuck, including discarded needles, rubber strips from the injection kits and packets of saline solution in which heroin can be diluted for injection. Residents of the neighborhoods around the park say the city has not been able to manage the drug use in the park as it currently stands.

The coalition of community-based organizations opposing the Shattuck plan includes people opposed to the siting of any units in the park as well as some who want to see fewer units in the development plan….”

https://www.baystatebanner.com/2023/11/01/growing-coalition-voices-opposition-to-shattuck-plan/
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I’m not necessarily down with the total opposition to rehab and homeless services (tho I understand that opposition nevertheless), but I’ve always thought it’s really unfortunate that the government, whenever it gets hold of a piece of land, even if it’s in a park, never gives it back. The only reason this complex is here is Curley, and it’s a scar on Franklin Park. As is the golf course, tho less so since at least it’s not buildings. A better plan would be to actually invest in services across the city and put them there, in places that already have an urban fabric. This benefits the people using them, doesn’t concentrate social ills, and overall makes more sense. The park should be given back to what it was designed for: a park. I know anytime anyone voices opposition to stuff like this for any reason, they get shouted down as being anti SUDs treatment and anti homeless but there are actually other sound reasons to not proceed with this entire development. I also know that will never happen. But, the right thing to do would be to close the whole thing and close the golf course and make the park what it was.
 
They need to do this stuff in Springfield or Fall River, not JP.
 
jklo said:
They need to do this stuff in Springfield or Fall River, not JP.
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Comments like this are not helpful; this is exactly the problem. There are valid reasons to actually consider where services benefit service users (interesting that you post this directly after my comment without engaging in anything I said), and whether or not what ought to be the city’s flagship park is the best place for such services from the perspective of the entire city. Sweeping aside all valid arguments and critical thinking on what an equitable solution is by cynically suggesting any and all opposition is simply due to affluent hypocrites (and that for this reason we should just go full steam ahead with the plan because fuck the rich people) is just the usual pseudoliberal dog whistle language that ignores engaging with these facts. Nobody wants rehabs, transitional housing, etc in their neighborhood. That alone does not mean that any place that just so happens to have available space is the best place that ought to be used for these things. That’s a copout and reflective of the very problems in society that need to be addressed. The concentration of poverty and construction of services that benefit the marginalized only in areas where nobody has to see them IS the problem. Affordable housing, transitional housing, and addiction treatment services should be low density, and spread across the entire city. That has nothing to do with the fact that nobody, regardless of whether they live in JP or Roxbury, welcomes things like this with open arms. That is all the more reason to distribute them equally and roll back the concentration problems that perpetuate the problems themselves.
 
Franklin Park should be the city’s flagship park with tourists from all over the world flocking to see it.

I don’t believe the proposed development gets us closer to that goal.
 
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FK4 said:
Nobody wants rehabs, transitional housing, etc in their neighborhood.
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With good reason... it's basically enabling druggies for profit. That's why instead of dumping it in the poorer parts of Boston, they should be dumping it in Springfield or Fall River and encourage the addicts to congregate there.
 
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