Dana’s Fields, a community that will include affordable rental housing and 10 single-room occupancy units for formerly homeless individuals, is being challenged by neighbors. Pictured is a rendering of the planned apartment building.
Supporters of an innovative housing community for homeless people on Cape Cod are anxiously waiting to hear whether a court will reject an appeal seeking to block the proposed project.
The Sandwich Zoning Board of Appeals granted a comprehensive permit to the Housing Assistance Corp., a Hyannis-based nonprofit organization that operates shelters, last October to build a total of 70 housing units – including 10 single rooms for formerly homeless people. Plans for the project also call for a community facility, horse stables, a greenhouse and farm stand as well as on-site business and job training services for the residents.
But days after the permit was issued three neighbors filed an appeal in Barnstable Superior Court. Residents have expressed concerns about public safety and security, saying that the community might house formerly homeless people with violent criminal backgrounds. Some are also worried about how the community will affect their property values.
“We’re still adamantly opposed to it for the same concerns of safety and property values,” said Deb Karas, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit and a member of the Sandwich Family Association, which has fought the proposed development.
Karas declined to comment further because the case is still in litigation. But she said that homeowners in the neighborhood who have tried to sell their homes in recent years have not been able to because when prospective buyers learn about the proposed housing they lose interest.
Mary Kelly, a Sandwich resident who directly abuts the proposed development site, questions the viability of the proposal.
In an e-mail to Banker & Tradesman, Kelly wrote, “The proposed Dana’s Fields is a social experiment, to be funded primarily by taxpayer funds. The targeted clients will be single individuals who have not found success through the multitude of programs that already exist. Let’s be clear right away that this project has nothing to do with being ‘one paycheck away from being homeless,’ and it provides no help [to] the potentially or existing homeless family.”
William C. Henchy, an attorney representing Karas and the other plaintiffs, did not return calls by Banker & Tradesman’s press deadline.
Revised Plans
The project has a lengthy history. Housing Assistance Corp., or HAC, announced its intentions to create an experimental farm community for homeless people almost seven years ago. Called Dana’s Fields, the community is modeled after a poor farm in Denmark that has housed homeless men and ex-prisoners since it was established 94 years ago.
Originally, HAC wanted to build 50 rental units for formerly homeless men and women on a 48-acre site in Sandwich and have them work and get on-site training in the culinary arts and catering, building maintenance and landscaping and farming.
In its first attempts to secure a comprehensive permit about two years ago, HAC was granted a permit for only 10 units. HAC appealed the decision to the state Department of Housing and Community Development’s Housing Appeals Committee, arguing that a 10-unit project was economically unfeasible.
After several hearings, HAC continued to negotiate with Sandwich town officials, eventually revising its proposal to include mixed-income rental housing and fewer units for homeless individuals.
The ZBA issued a permit in October of last year to HAC for 20 one-bedroom and 35 two-bedroom apartments, 10 single-person occupancy units, and five market-rate single-family homes for staff.
The idea behind the revised plan was to create a community that mirrors society and includes residents with a mix of incomes, explained Livia Munck Davis, a HAC employee who serves as the director of Dana’s Fields. All of the housing in the community would be affordable to those earning 80 percent or less of the area median income.
“This gives us more opportunities and more options to offer folks with this configuration of housing,” said Davis, who plans to live at Dana’s Fields with her family.
HAC has partnered with Cape Cod Community College, which plans to run a hospitality program with an emphasis on culinary arts at Dana’s Fields.
James Miller, director of the college’s Zammer Hospitality Institute, said he met with Davis about five months ago and talked about creating a kitchen to train residents in culinary arts. They also discussed the possibility of creating an incubator kitchen, where recipes could be tested and food could be produced at a greater volume, which would be open to the public, Miller said.
“We’ve got a very strong hospitality program with employment opportunities here,” said Miller. But Miller noted that entry-level employees do not earn a lot of money and struggle with living expenses, including housing, so it’s difficult to retain them and get them settled on Cape Cod.
“Dana’s Fields will be providing a bridge to be able to do that,” he said.
Supporters of the project contend that it will have positive financial and social impacts on the town, and will provide employees for local businesses.
And Davis said the concerns that have been brought up by the abutters who filed the appeal in court have repeatedly been addressed at public hearings. HAC has taken many steps to address neighbors’ concerns, said Davis.
“We’re obviously not giving up,” said Davis. “We believe it’s a better way to deal with homelessness. We believe that putting people in housing is the way to end homelessness.”
Davis said a decision on whether the appeal will be dismissed or proceed to trial is expected as early as December.
