Officials with Gov. Healey’s administration last week announced that a coalition led by Boston Medical Center (BMC) has been awarded provisional designation to develop a recovery campus on the existing 13-acre Shattuck Hospital site on Morton Street at the edge of Franklin Park, where plans call for more than 400 units of supportive housing and 120 emergency beds.
A request for proposals (RFP) went out one year ago this month calling for about 100 units of supportive housing and substance use disorder treatment services within the vision of a “recovery campus” that would result from the demolition of existing hospital buildings and construction of new facilities.
The Commonwealth is in process of relocating Shattuck Hospital services to the East Newton Pavilion in the South End. Construction of a new facility there is expected to be completed in 2026, allowing for the hospital to move out of Franklin Park. Any construction timeline for the Franklin Park “recovery campus” project remains to be ironed out.
Proposals were due last August, and after nearly a year-long review, BMC and its six partners were chosen last week.
The winning proposal far exceeds what was called for in the RFP.
“The vision for this site was developed with our partners in the community, the providers on the front lines of our housing and health care systems, and leaders in this cross-agency collaborative effort,” said Mary Beckman, senior adviser to Healey’s office of Health and Human Services. “This project will ensure that this campus improves connections between patients and critical care, particularly for the chronically unhoused and those struggling with substance use disorders.”
BMC added that it’s leading a “first of its kind” coalition with plans to “transform the existing hospital site into a comprehensive behavioral health and housing community.”
The provisional designation now allows the BMC team to refine and sharpen its plans, including coming up with a timeline for construction.
Said Mayor Wu: "The Shattuck campus is a critical health resource for Boston residents inside a treasured park. We are grateful to BMC and the providers who submitted the application and look forward to reviewing the proposal alongside our state partners."
During the mayoral campaign in 2021, Wu favored a plan to put these services and housing in the MBTA’s adjacent Arborway Yard property.
BMC’s plans include two facilities with 326 treatment beds, 200 units of permanent supportive housing managed by Pine Street Inn, 205 units of family supportive housing managed by Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC), 120 emergency housing beds, more than seven acres of open space, behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment services, and a wide range of supportive services that include job training and financial education.
The development team slated to build the housing and facilities includes JPNDC and The Community Builders (TCB).
“The co-occurring crises of mental illness and addiction that often result in homelessness are taking a painful toll on our families and communities,” said Alastair Bell, president and CEO of the Boston Medical Center Health System. “BMC is proud to be part of this unique, highly experienced coalition of providers, who all care deeply about our communities and have envisioned a new model to tackle this crisis through a fully integrated continuum of care.
“We applaud the Commonwealth for advancing a transformative vision for a behavioral health community that we believe will become a model for the nation.”
Fatima Ali-Salaam, chair of the Greater Mattapan Neighborhood Council (GMNC) said that regardless of the population on the site, the GMNC has always felt the land at the Shattuck should be returned to green/open space for Franklin Park – as was the original plan. That said, she noted that the proposal was much bigger than the vision in the RFP.
“The original vision put forward did not account for 400-plus units of housing,” she said. “That vision was 75-100 units. It’s a lot more, but it is what it is. The responsibility now of all is to ensure it fits properly within an existing public space as well as being in line within existing surrounding neighborhoods like Roxbury, Mattapan, Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain.
“The goal is not to make the people who live there pariahs,” she added. “The goal is to make sure everyone that’s there is successful.”
Karen Mauney-Brodek, president of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, a non-profit that advocates for open space in the parks of Boston’s Emerald Necklace, called the news disappointing. She said the process has been run poorly, and the plan lacks creativity. The Conservancy has backed alternative sites, including at the Arborway Yard.
“This seems like a fait accompli,” she said. “There has not been a community process involving Roxbury, Dorchester or Mattapan…BMC and the other organizations are wonderful organizations, and the work is needed. But it’s unfortunate they are being saddled with a public site never truly discussed with the public in a meaningful way and a process that was extremely flawed from the start.”
Other partners besides JPNDC, Pine Street Inn, and TCB that are aligned with BMC on the proposal include Bay Cove Human Services, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, Health Care Resource Centers, and Victory Programs.
Some other plan details include:
•Both supportive housing models provide residents with case management, job training, life skills, counseling, transportation, and other support services. Residents will be tenants who sign a lease and pay rent.
•Inpatient and outpatient clinical services, including primary care, mental health, and substance use disorder treatment in new clinical buildings that complement the surrounding park and its healing, natural environment.
•Emergency housing services, like those already provided on the site.
•Additional accessible green space adjacent to the campus, for a total of more than seven dedicated acres of green space, and new pedestrian, bicycle, and public transit connections.
The BMC team said that with the provisional designation in hand, they will begin working with the state, city officials, neighbors, and other community stakeholders with a goal of earning final approval for what they described as “a new model of care on the 13-acre Morton Street parcel.”
State Rep. Chris Worrell, who represents Franklin Park, warned against repeating the mistakes of "Mass. and Cass," the intersection that has become known for homelessness and substance abuse issues.
"Nearly a decade ago, a well-intended but misinformed public policy decision sowed the seeds for the crisis that exists today at “Mass. And Cass,” he said. “This has forever impacted the lives of residents of Lower Roxbury and the South End and brought unthinkable harm to people suffering from substance use disorders. It is imperative that this same mistake is not made again for neighbors in Dorchester, sadly, another part of Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain."
Franklin Park Coalition, an advocacy non-profit for the Park, said it “is concerned about the scale of the proposal and did not expect the project to serve such a large number of potentially active substance users.”
The Coalition said one of its members, Mike Carpentier of Dorchester, participated in several visioning meetings, and the project wasn’t thought to be this large.