The small cluster of cabins providing supportive housing at the state’s Shattuck Hospital campus could blossom into hundreds of units for families and individuals under a redevelopment proposal from Boston Medical Center.
Officials with the state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance announced Wednesday morning that they had accepted BMC’s proposal from an unspecified pool of submissions to an RFP process launched last year under former Gov. Charlie Baker.
BMC’s preliminary proposal would add 200 units of permanent supportive housing, 205 units of family supportive housing and 120 emergency shelter beds to the 13-acre site under a long-term ground lease with the state. Also included in the proposal: 326 treatment beds. State officials released no renderings or plans along with their announcement, saying the final development plan and designs would be further developed in consultation with state officials and “community representatives.”
A DCAMM spokesperson said BMC’s proposal would cost around $543 million to build if its final version is accepted, including a $207 million contribution from the state.
The site has a history as part of Massachusetts’ attempts to reduce homelessness. The Pine Street Inn operates a shelter on-site, and a methadone clinic also operates there. And last year, as her administration rushed to create more supportive housing units for people experiencing homelessness gathered in the “Mass & Cass” area in the city’s Newmarket industrial zone, city Mayor Michelle Wu worked with state officials to add over a dozen single-room cabins to part of the site.
The BMC proposal offers four times as many supportive housing units as the state’s RFP requested and comes as the state continues to grapple with a dire shortage of shelter beds and housing units with the kinds of wraparound services that can help individuals and families transition away from homelessness.
“The proposed redevelopment of the Shattuck site leans in to the Commonwealth’s commitment to utilize this space to improve public health,” Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robert Goldstein said in a statement. “The vision creates a multiuse campus that embraces housing first, promotes harm reduction, and meets people where they are and will effectively and efficiently provide the most vulnerable community members with the resources they need.”
Shattuck Hospital’s main functions – inpatient medical/surgical and psychiatric services for state prison inmates – will be moving to the East Newton Pavilion on BMC’s main campus in the South End in 2026, as the 1950s-vintage, 260-bed main hospital is in need of serious repairs.
The site in a corner of Roxbury’s Franklin Park is deed-restricted for public health use, but some neighbors had earlier raised opposition to concentrating homelessness services on the site, and the nonprofit that raises money for Boston’s “Emerald Necklace” parks had lobbied to turn the grounds back into park space. DCAMM’s announcement Wednesday said BMC’s proposal includes a nod to the latter concern, by setting aside around half the Shattuck parcel as “green and open space.”
“At BMC, we understand the compelling need to reshape how care is delivered to impact the complex crisis of mental illness and substance use disorders, and the resulting challenge of homelessness,” BMC President and CEO Dr. Alastair Bell said in a statement. “People suffering from these conditions require a new model of care – one that offers an integrated continuum of services, delivered by leading experts devoted to long-term solutions. We are proud to partner with esteemed community-based organizations on this novel healthcare-and-housing model.”
This story has been updated with information from DCAMM about the project’s potential total cost.