The state is opening a “rapid track family shelter” at the end of April at what has been a vacant office building on Sidney Street in Cambridgeport.
The shelter is for up to 65 homeless families with children under 21 or pregnant members; they can stay for up to 30 business days while working with case managers to find and move into stable, permanent housing. Walk-ins will not be accepted, a city spokesperson said Friday.
A total 200 people could live there at any time, getting access to meals, showers, basic necessities and intensive case management services. It will be staffed around the clock by SOS International, working with Cambridge police and fire departments as needed, and a private security company, according to the city.
This is the second emergency assistance shelter that the state has placed in Cambridge; one was run in East Cambridge at the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds for a year starting in December 2023.
The placement of a second shelter in Cambridge – which has been grappling with budget constraints and the closing of a 58-bed city facility called the Transition Wellness Center – drew the attention of mayor E. Denise Simmons at a Monday meeting.
“Even though it’s state funded, we do have another shelter either opening or opened up that the state has asked us to serve the migrant community,” Simmons said, citing it as need for shutting down the Transition Wellness Center as planned: “We just don’t have enough bandwidth.”
Even if the children at the shelter attend school in another district, “make no doubt it will have some financial impact large or small on us, and that it’s something that’s been placed in our midst without us saying having a vote yea or nay,” Simmons said.
The shelter is not intended for migrants, city spokesperson Jeremy Warnick clarified. Families living there must show lawful immigration status, Massachusetts residency and the intent to remain in Massachusetts, along with another eligibility factor: age, pregnancy, lack of feasible alternative housing and income at or below 115 percent of the federal poverty limit and assets worth less than $5,000. It hasn’t been decided how long the new shelter will be open, Warnick said.
State Rep. Mike Connolly, after a briefing by officials from the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development as they were selecting the Sidney Street site, said he considered it “a favorable location.”
“It isn’t faced with the same limitations we had at the Registry of Deeds building, where a lot of efforts had to be made to deal with the limitations imposed on that space,” Connolly said Wednesday.
The legislator confirmed that while unhoused students can enroll in the schools where they live temporarily – like some at the East Cambridge shelter who attended Cambridge classes – they have the right to stay in their district of origin. Since this is intended as a “rapid rehousing” shelter, with families able to stay not much longer than a month, at least some school-aged kids may continue to go to schools from communities they are coming from, Connolly said.
Cambridge’s Office of Housing Liaison is coordinating between the city and state as the 24,700-square-foot building put up in 1910 gets upgrades and approvals from the city’s Public Works, Inspectional Services and fire departments. As office space, it was previously used by Altus Biologics of Texas and the local Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Residents, businesses or nonprofits in the city with questions can email housingliaison@cambridgema.gov or call (617) 349-7222.
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