Second meeting scheduled for Shattuck Hospital relocation

The state has scheduled a second meeting for the Shattuck Hospital campus planning project for Jan. 16.

The meeting will be held at the Golf Clubhouse at Franklin Park from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The state said the meeting will give updates on health needs and services assessment and discussion about potential programmatic and service opportunities, site layout and possible ways to integrate the site with Franklin Park.

Earlier this year, the state decided to merge the Shattuck Supportive Housing proposal with the overall Shattuck Campus Master Plan. The preliminary proposal for supportive housing at the campus was submitted more than a year ago, in July 2017, before the public knew of plans to move the Shattuck Hospital to the South End, which were revealed earlier this year.

The Newton Pavilion building in the South End will be renovated before the Shattuck Hospital beds are moved over there, which should be by 2021. In the meantime, the state will have a 12-month planning process for the future of the Shattuck campus, which started in the summer.

A deeply contentious public hearing about the supportive housing proposal was held in May with conflicting priorities being expressed from the community. Residents argued at the hearing that the planning process for the land should be more inclusive of the community’s concerns, that the Shattuck campus should be returned to parkland, or that supportive housing was necessary.

The proposal is to lease up to two acres of the Shattuck Hospital campus to a not-yet-identified developer in order to build supportive housing. Supportive housing is permanent housing which combines affordability and supportive services for people that were previously homeless. It’s usually built by nonprofit developers and includes 24 hour staffing.

For more information, visit mass.gov/shattuck-campus-planning.

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