Stark divides remain over scale of Shattuck Hospital expansion plan during City Council hearing
“This is a topic that we recognize people feel passionately about,” Robert Koenig, vice president of strategic programs at Boston Medical Center, said at Thursday’s hearing. Boston City Council committee hearing revealed deep divisions over the scale of a $550 million expansion plan for Shattuck Hospital in Franklin Park, which aims to expand treatment programs for people with mental health or substance abuse issues and provide additional supportive housing. The project was initially planned for 400 clinical and shelter beds and over 400 permanent supportive housing units for individuals and families in recovery, but was later revised after some park and neighborhood advocates objected to the project's original scope. The initial $550m expansion proposal had more than 400 beds, about 40% of which were for people in need of emergency shelter or in residential substance use treatment programs. However, the Healey administration later stated that the original plan was too big and expensive for taxpayers. Despite this, residents expressed concerns about the potential for increased substance abuse treatment programs and supportive housing, many also expressed concern about the safety and environmental impact of the project.
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Officials from Boston Medical Center (BMC), the project’s lead developer, at the same hearing sought to assure councilors and residents their feedback would be incorporated into a modified plan for the site, which they intend to release in the coming months.
In a marathon five-hour Boston City Council committee hearing Thursday, community members alternately aired concerns and shared support for the project, which officials last year announced would be scaled back after some park and neighborhood advocates balked at the project’s original scope.
Residents living near Franklin Park remain deeply divided over an ambitious plan to redevelop Shattuck Hospital to expand treatment programs for people dealing with mental health or substance abuse issues, and provide additional supportive housing.
Though the Shattuck hospital is state-owned and the City Council does not have jurisdiction over the project, Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson said she filed the hearing order to gather information, get testimony on the record, and provide constituents with a platform to give feedback. Once BMC and the state agree on a final proposal, they will still need to go through the zoning and permitting processes with the city planning agency.
The initial $550 million expansion proposal included more than 400 clinical and shelter beds and just over 400 permanent supportive housing units for individuals and families in recovery. But the Healey administration later said the original plan was too big and pricy for taxpayers, after which BMC and its coalition agreed to revise their plan. Officials said Thursday said the next iteration will be smaller in scale, and could include changes to the mix of housing.
“This is a topic that we recognize people feel passionately about,” said Robert Koenig, vice president of strategic programs at Boston Medical Center, at Thursday’s hearing.
Shattuck Hospital, which is owned by the state, currently has 414 beds, about 40 percent of which are for people in need of emergency shelter or in residential substance use treatment programs. The remainder of the beds are used for state-run inpatient hospital services, which will be relocating to the South End in 2026.
The state’s request for proposals for the site redevelopment listed requirements including a minimum of 75 to 100 units of permanent supportive housing, the continuity of the existing opioid use program which treats 300 to 400 people per day, behavioral health services, residential services, and the preservation of the residential substance abuse treatment beds and emergency shelter beds that have been at the site for decades.
On Thursday, Boston Medical Center officials outlined their vision for the site, where patients would be able to access a comprehensive continuum of care with both inpatient and outpatient services, dual diagnosis support for individuals in recovery that are also suffering from mental health issues, and supportive housing.
“More than 70 percent of the individuals seeking substance use treatment in Massachusetts are experiencing homelessness,” Dr. Christine Pace, primary care physician and addiction medicine specialist at Boston Medical Center, told the council committee. “Housing has to be a part of that solution, so we really sought to co-locate housing and longer term outpatient programming to improve outcomes.”
But while everyone agreed on the significant need for increased substance abuse treatment programs and supportive housing, there was vast disagreement Thursday about whether the location and scope of the project is appropriate for Shattuck Hospital in Franklin Park. Residents who live near the park expressed concern about the drug use and safety issues that already exist at the current site, and said that its expansion could invite the problems seen at the former homeless encampment at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard.
Rory Coffey, a Jamaica Plain resident and member of the Stony Brook Neighborhood Association, said he has spent countless hours cleaning up hundreds of needles from the park since an experience two years ago, when he had to stop his toddler son from running up to a group of people injecting themselves in the park.
“For them to say that there’s not going to be increased needles or impact in the area seems absurd, absolutely absurd,” said Coffey. “That just shows how little vision they have for what this could be doing to the community and the fact that there still isn’t a safety plan, still to this day.”
Many, including Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, also expressed concern that the project in Franklin Park, which is a crucial and beloved resource for Black and brown communities, could place an inequitable burden on neighborhoods that have already suffered significant racial and environmental injustice.
“People want treatment for people, and I’ve been very clear that I really want to see a beautiful, high quality, holistic facility ... that creates this ecosystem, this canvas for treatment, and we should be intentional,” said Fernandes Anderson. “I really want to see that work for this community. But in particularly if you’re gonna put it in District Seven, the most historically disenfranchised district in Boston, then give quality and also think about how that impacts the residents already there.”
But the projects supporters, including several people currently in recovery programs, argued that the project is essential given the vast need for substance abuse treatment services.
“We have to acknowledge and recognize that the people that we are talking about are already our neighbors, so it’s important that we let them stay in their neighborhoods so that they can get the treatment that they need,” said Darrell Hamilton, the executive pastor at First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain. “I know there’s a lot of concern about the scale of this project, but my sense is that the scale of the project is designed to meet the scale of the crisis ... and frankly is not even able to fully do that because the need is so great.”
Pace, of the Boston Medical Center, shared a story of a patient she worked with the previous day, who has alcohol use disorder, very severe depression, and is also currently homeless. She said after she treated his condition and eased his withdrawal symptoms while he was in the hospital, he expressed the desire to go into another inpatient recovery program to continue his momentum.
“He was really worried that if he returned to the shelter it would be incredibly hard to remain sober, so we called nine programs yesterday afternoon to try to get him a bed, and every single one told told us they didn’t have capacity,” said Pace. “One specifically told us there were 70 patients waiting for their beds right now and another told us he would have to wait for six to eight weeks. We have to do better for our community.”
Niki Griswold can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @nikigriswold.