Devens residents continued to react with dismay this week to word that the state will open a facility at the Bob Eisengrein Community Center to temporarily house homeless people in need of emergency shelter, while officials sought to allay fears and provide more information concerning the facility’s layout and operation.
Key members of MassDevelopment’s staff at Devens attended Monday’s monthly in-person meeting of the Devens Committee, the elected board that advises MassDevelopment of the concerns of residents. But committee members as well as the half-dozen residents present objected, at times angrily, to the process by which the location of the facility was chosen, especially the agency’s failure to involve residents in preliminary discussions of its suitability.
Acting Vice President for Devens Operations Meg Delorier, effectively the community’s town manager, assured the gathering that the arrangement was temporary, no more than four to six months, and that her staff would do all they could to minimize its impact. However, she said, the center will be operated by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and overseen by the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, not by MassDevelopment. No representatives from either organization were present Monday night.
Because the community center is a state-owned property the state has the authority to use it, Devens Enterprise Commission Director Peter Lowitt told attendees. However, Devens regulations require that anyone using a Devens property obtain a permit from his agency. In an email to the Press he confirmed that the DEC expected to issue a change-of-use permit later this week that will allow the facility to accommodate overnight guests. A list of conditions will be attached, he said, including a limit on the center’s use to six months, along with other requisite language suggested by the DEC’s legal counsel.
Preparation of the intake center for MEMA’s use does not entail major construction, so Lowitt has the authority to issue the permit without the more formal permitting process stipulated for projects such as the Commonwealth Fusion Campus.
Shower trailers and fencing to be added
Nevertheless the facility must pass plumbing, electrical, and fire inspections, and MEMA also needs a plumbing variance from the state because of plans to install a couple of “shower trailers” at the site. The trailers will be tucked into the corner of the building where the Devens Eco Efficiency Center used to be located and where they will be hidden from the view of residences on Elm and Walnut streets. Lowitt said the permit would also stipulate that a privacy fence be erected behind the building.
If the intake center weren’t a state use, Lowitt said, then any of the abutters would have been notified and there would have been a public hearing. “You would have a process in which you could participate and comment to a decision-making body that would take your local knowledge into account” before issuing a permit. “But that’s not going to be the case in this particular instance.”
At Monday’s meeting, Delorier and Devens staff answered questions about the people who will be temporarily housed at the facility. Attending the meeting in person were Devens Fire Chief Tim Kelly, DPW Director Shane Melone, and Lt. Reid Bagley, state police station commander. Delorier and Lowitt attended remotely.
Delorier said there would never be more than 125 people in the building, including staff. The clients who will be processed at the Eisengrein center will “primarily be women and children and pregnant women,” she said. She didn’t know whether migrants would be among them, but the temporary occupants would be homeless people who had been vetted first through the Department of Housing and Community Development and then brought to Devens. “We’re not anticipating a plane landing from Texas or Florida,” she said.
Largely Massachusetts residents
Fire Chief Kelly said that he had been told in a briefing by MEMA that 90% of the people coming to the center would be Massachusetts residents. “I think a lot of people heard what was in the news and thought, ‘This is immigrants coming from other states or other places.’” But, he continued, “These are homeless folks from the commonwealth of Massachusetts who have no place to go. When they present themselves to an emergency room or some other shelter, and they say, ‘I have no place to sleep tonight, I need help,’ Massachusetts by law has to provide them shelter.” Kelly said the center is a means to do that in an organized manner: “Take them to an intake shelter and get them the services they need, and get them into a long-term shelter.”
As for the facility itself, Kelly said that while the main ballroom of the community center has a capacity of 324 people, MEMA had determined that there is room for 100 cots, with 30% of the room still available for dining and a play area “where people can sit and play board games and that sort of thing.” His department and the DPW have confirmed that the sprinkler system, fire extinguishers, and fire detectors all meet code, although his department would need to install carbon monoxide detectors because people would be sleeping there.
Lt. Bagley of the Devens state police unit told attendees that MEMA would provide unarmed round-the-clock security, and that he had been assured someone would be present in the building at all times. Clients, he said, would be free to come and go during the day. He said his units planned to increase their patrols of the area.
‘It’s frustrating’
At public meetings over the past several days—first the Devens Enterprise Commission, then the Harvard Devens Jurisdiction Committee last week, and finally the Devens Committee on Monday—residents have been forthright in criticizing MassDevelopment’s decision to volunteer their community center to MEMA without consulting them. Monday night, Devens Committee members and the half-dozen residents in attendance made clear their discontent was not directed at the municipal services—police, fire, public works—that MassDevelopment provides, but their sense of disenfranchisement when it comes to major decisions like the commandeering of the Eisengrein center for state use.
“I think this is more about residents of Devens not having a say or control in what’s going on in our community,” Devens Committee Chair Tracy Clark said to Delorier at one point during the night’s discussion. “I think that’s the underlying issue and frustration that you’re hearing. Things are going on and we have no handle on it. And even if it’s something that we would have liked to do, or wanted to do, and is OK to do … we never even had the option to do that. It’s frustrating.”
Delorier said MassDevelopment had received offers of help from residents as well as offers of community space from towns that abut the community. MEMA will hire a community resource coordinator, she said, who will tell Devens residents and businesses and others so inclined what they can donate. Nothing is being collected until that person is on board at the end of the week, she said.
What’s next
Although MEMA hoped to open the intake center on Dec. 5, Delorier and Lowitt said the opening would likely be at the end of this week or early next week. The DEC has asked MEMA to hold a public forum for residents, but so far the agency has not agreed or set a date. Meantime Delorier said she was available by phone or email to personally answer questions. MassDevelopment has also created an FAQ and webpage (devenscommunity.com/news) where the agency will post the latest information as it becomes available.
