FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2025
Dear Cambridgeport Neighbors —
Thank you to everyone for being so supportive of the state's move to open a Rapid Track Family Shelter at a vacant office building on Sidney Street by Tudor and Emily Streets. And thank you to Rebecca Bowie for getting the conversation going on the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association listserv and for establishing a very welcoming tone!
Cambridge prides itself on being a Sanctuary City, and Massachusetts can take pride in being the only state in the nation to offer a right to shelter to unhoused families — and I am so grateful to represent a community that lives up to these values everyday.
The state's Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) has been in contact with me on their planning efforts over the past several weeks, and in turn I've been in touch with the City Manager and our Housing Liaison, Maura Pensack, and I also provided an update to Cambridge Day earlier this month to help get the word out about the new shelter.
Yesterday, I was given a tour of the building and the new set up by the administrator in charge from EOHLC. City staff were on site performing a building inspection; it is thought that all local permitting will be completed and families may start arriving as soon as today. The initial group will be the remaining 100 or so residents (roughly 30 families or so) from a 200-person family shelter in Lexington that is now scheduled to close. It is important to keep in mind the shelter program isn't just for new arrivals, it also can accommodate longtime Massachusetts families that have fallen into homelessness due to the ongoing (and ever-worsening) housing emergency.
As someone who worked with state and city officials on the set up of the family shelter that operated inside the Registry of Deeds building from December 2023 through December 2024 in East Cambridge, the first thing I will say is the facility on Sidney Street is a lot nicer. Unlike that other shelter, where rows and rows of cots were laid out in a congregate fashion on a wide open floor, this shelter places families in individual rooms, with 3 or 4 cots in a typical office room. It's just a few blocks from Central Square, and there's a beautiful park across the street.
Also notable is the fact that the former tenants of this office building left behind a number of game room items — multiple foosball tables, a 30' long table hockey game, arcade-style basketball hoops, a ping pong table, etc. The layout includes cots set up in individual office rooms around the perimeter of the floorplan, with common areas having games in the middle, and cubicles set up in other locations for support workers to help these families navigate their next steps. Two dining rooms have been set up, one on each floor. A large shower trailer has been brought into the parking lot, and screens are being erected so folks can walk from the building to the shower in private.
The two biggest questions I've heard over the past couple of weeks have to do with schools and with how to offer help and support to these unhoused families.
Regarding schools, the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act guarantees that unhoused children and youth have equal access to public education — this means for the first group of arrivals — many are expected to continue with their schooling in Lexington, especially given how close we are to the end of the school year, with bus transportation being coordinated with the Town of Lexington. Others may even be attending schools in Boston or other municipalities if they've elected to continue previous schooling in those communities under McKinney-Vento.
Regarding our collective desire to support these unhoused families — I will admit, it can be very frustrating, because the state doesn't readily accommodate drop-offs or donations. I can appreciate how this may be counterintuitive — but it was stressed to me yesterday there isn't space to receive donated items, systems have to be built into the shelter program to accommodate everyone's basic needs anyway, and the goal of the shelter is "rapid rehousing" so the idea isn't for shelter residents to gather additional belongings, it is to try to move them into permanent, stable housing as quickly as possible (even though that is very difficult).
It's also been pointed out to me that family shelter is nothing new in Cambridge — we have the Hildebrand family shelter, Heading Home family shelter, and others — so the city's approach is to not think of shelter residents as "the other" — but rather to recognize that shelter residents have been here all along and are incorporated into our community as anyone else would be.
The refrain I've heard over and over again from state and city officials is — if people want to help — then please support organizations that have been doing the work, such as Cradles to Crayons, CEOC, the Cambridge Community Center, et al. All that said, I think it's great that folks are coordinating a call with Maura Pensak today; and in my conversation with shelter officials yesterday, they did keep the door open on finding ways to accept mutual aid.
In closing, I just want to reiterate that as State Representative, my number one priority continues to be affordable housing. We are living with the results of unprecedented wealth and income inequality and decades of insufficient housing policies. Ultimately, we need a universal right to housing in this state and in this country — the same way we established a right to education and universal programs for health care. I remain committed to doing everything I can to make our insufficient, broken systems work better for folks right now while at the same time continuing to do the work of advancing a vision of guaranteed Housing for All.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions or concerns on this or any other matter. For specific constituent issues, it's always best to email me at the State House via [email protected].
Thanks again for being so welcoming and supportive and for living up to our Cambridge values.
Yours in service,
Mike
