First semi-permanent shelter beds to open this week

By adamg on Tue, 01/13/2015 - 7:44am

WBUR reports on city efforts to turn an old sign shop in Newmarket Square into a replacement for all the shelter space lost when Long Island was shut in October.

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Comments

needs more resources

By Hyde Parkish
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 9:17am

It would be a good idea to do more than just provide housing for the homeless here...the area already has the methadone clinic and is one of the most blighted areas of the city. Without job placement, substance abuse, counseling, education, etc....you are just contributing to the further decline of the Newmarket area :(

That's the eventual plan

By mg
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 9:59am

They prioritized emergency beds to start with, but plan to move in more services once the replacement beds for housing those who would have been at Long Island are in place.

Across 93

By ElizaLeila
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 9:31am

How would / Could this affect the idea of the stadium at Widett Circle?

I have to say the area is going through an interesting time.

Widett is going to be part of

By kvn
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 10:34am

Widett is going to be part of the train set , there already is a stadium, White Stadium. Do it up! Speaking of trains, maybe they can seize the old Naval Air Station Weymouth from the non performing developers, and make it a satelite Olympic zone, run a dedicated Olympic train shuttle.

I think

By Jim G
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 11:59am

I think the White stadium is over in Franklin Park on Seaver Street (?).

I believe the putative Widett stadium would be accessible from Frontage Road, i.e., the bridge that goes above 93 on the opposite side from the Food Bank.

Yes i know, Widett was

By kvn
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 2:13pm

Yes i know, Widett was invented to replace Newmarket. i'ts distribution , not meant for a playground. White Stadium had plenty of surrounding land , get off fthe train at Egelston walk up. Play ball , or whatever they do at Olympics

Conveniently located next to

By anon
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 9:40am

Methadone Mile!

Seriously - this is the worst

By southbostonjoe
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 10:04am

Seriously - this is the worst possible place to put this. When addicts are new to an area and want to cop - guess where they go? Its a known fact among addicts that the safest place to cop if you don't have a hook-up is outside a methadone clinic. Let's put recovering addicts outside a series of clinics, not to mention down the street from the meth clinic at BMC and all the riff raff that is the intersection of mass ave and melnea cass.

Where would you put it?

By adamg
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 10:53am

The city proposed the old Radius Hospital and the BPHC campus in Mattapan. Neighbors said bu. Your proposal?

I would put it in the old

By kvn
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 11:00am

I would put it in the old Mattapan State Hospital and its surrounds , that area is desolate , or was . Thats if I were King of the forest. Forget about Long Island , that is being postured for bigger and better things.

The State Hospital grounds

By cw in boston
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 12:52pm

now have the Boston Nature Center (Audubon) and a lot of new housing, with more to come, I think. There may also be a medical lab there now too.

I wasnt aware of that, was a

By kvn
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 3:50pm

I wasnt aware of that, was a desloate area. Nearby on American Legion and Morton was a huge shaft to the water supply. Well , Plan B , the Lemuel Shattuck hospital , plus the old nursing school barracks next door. That's still there , isn't it's?

Readville

By Sheckie
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 2:58pm

Old Stop & Shop warehousing could be converted. Plenty of room for services. Easy to public transportation, Nice and quiet. Healthy surrounds.

Should just rename it now...

By Tommy Jeff
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 12:58pm

The John Fish Island Resort & Casino

If it weren't for haters

By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 10:44am

... there would be no "methadone mile" because methadone would be available where the vast majority of addicts reside ... which is everywhere.

Methadone

By anon
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 6:08pm

Is like the lobotomy of drug treatment. It's addictive and very easy to misuse.

Suboxones should be avalible and distributed similar to a needle exchange. It's a safer alternative and more cost effective way to address MAs growing issue. Administrating methadone requires a larger facility and greater staff than handing out medication in pill form.

Terrific news for Andrew Sq.

By Tommy Jeff
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 9:43am

Lol.

Just when the square was getting marginally better, now this.

Can't wait to meet the new roster of zombie panhandlers.

When is Boston

By anon
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 9:48am

going to say it will no longer be the defacto center / groundzero of the homeless problem of Greater Boston, Massachusetts, New England? The state, local municipalities (aside from places like Boston, Cambridge and a small handful of other municipalities who do more than their share) jails and prisons, and federal government need to get their shit together on this social problem. Too many others dump problems they don't want to deal with, like homeless and drug addicts, on places like the City of Boston. And this is a big part of the reason these folks gravitate towards Boston.

I hope they act quickly because of the brutal winter weather conditions and these folks need somewhere to go, but this shit has gotten ridiculous.

How dare you ask the wealthy

By anon
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 10:16am

How dare you ask the wealthy towns to care for their own rather than deporting or outright exiling them to the city.

It's not the wealthy towns.

By Felicity
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 12:44pm

It's places like Springfield and Worcester. The down and out come here because they know there are more resources available.

Nope

By anon
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 2:47pm

Nope

During the recession many towns conveniently shut down their homeless shelters "for budgetary reasons" and never reopened them. Wellesley, Weston, and Lincoln have been happily shoving tramps on the first cart/train/trolley/bus to Boston since the 1800s. Chronicle even had a piece on it because of the old poor houses being converted to pricey condos.

The burbs dumping their problems on the cities and keep updating snob zoning and lawsuits against 40b whenever "the problems" from the city start migrating back to them.

Don't worry, I am sure Gov

By anon
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 11:08am

Don't worry, I am sure Gov Baker is already working to build a homeless shelter in his tony suburb in Essex County, as well as affordable housing, since he is such a man of the people.

Baker proposed regional

By anon
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 2:49pm

Baker proposed regional homeless centers his 2nd day in office and an expansion of affordable housing. But keep drinking the hateraid.

Transportation is part of the problem

By jillian
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 1:52pm

The further you get from Boston, the less public options there are.

Services usually spring up where the people who need them are. And people are not going to stay very long in places they cannot get to or around in easily.

The City of Boston Transportation Department...

By jonbowen
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 10:42am

was removed from its permanent home which was located in that building at Newmarket Square with extremely short notice. I think it had about a week to vacate. The article mentions that the building was "disused" but that's inaccurate. Underutilized? Maybe. The employees of the Transportation Department were kicked out to another shitty building in the Seaport District. Do I feel bad for them? A bit. A modicum of respect for your employees, union or not, showed be de rigueur. Do I think the City of Boston could've planned better for the inevitable bridge problems at Long Island? Absolutely.