Emergency family shelter to be located in Concord. | https://www.concordma.gov/
Emergency family shelter to be located in Concord. | https://www.concordma.gov/
Emergency family shelter to be located in Concord.
Last week the Town of Concord was notified that the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) intends to establish an emergency family shelter at the Best Western in Concord, effective March 1, 2023. DHCD intends to lease all 105 rooms from the Best Western on an annual basis, with the first lease term being March 1 – June 30, 2023.
On Tuesday, Town Staff met with representatives from DHCD to discuss this shelter in Concord. DHCD explained that they are in charge of all state-run family shelters, that State-wide, there are only 3,600 shelter units in place, and that there is a critical shortage of shelter beds, particularly in our area. Currently there are 25 families from Concord and the surrounding area housed at an emergency shelter in Devens.
DHCD shelters meet two needs:
- providing temporary housing for: 3 to 5 days while more permanent housing is located; and for 2 – 4 months when more permanent housing isn’t readily available; and
- Providing temporary housing for pregnant women and infants.
Every DHCD shelter has an on-site service provider. In this case, the on-site service provider is MOC (Making Opportunities Count) https://www.mocinc.org/ The on-site service provider will have a 24/7 presence and provides clients with case managers and coordinating direct care. Representatives from the following Town departments participated in this meeting to evaluate impact on town services: Human Services; Library; DPLM (Building, Health & Planning); Police; Fire; RHSO; and TMO. Dr. Hunter also participated in the meeting. Governor Healey has made affordable housing her first legislative priority. She filed H.47 with the legislature which seeks additional funds for emergency shelters across the state. For those interested, more can be read about this here: https://www.wgbh.org/news/politics/2023/01/30/healey-emergency-aid-depleted-family-shelters-at-capacity, or her signing statement.Town staff will remain in touch with the appropriate staffers at DHCD for the foreseeable future and will be providing periodic updates as more information becomes available.
Original source can be found here
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