Parents and residents of Cape Cod are expressing worries about a proposal to relocate a homeless shelter to a spot just a block away from an elementary school.
The Housing Assistance Corporation, in partnership with Catholic Charities, plans to move St. Joseph’s House from its current location at 77 Winter Street to 460 West Main Street in Hyannis. This new site would be just 150 yards from Hyannis West Elementary School.
This Massachusetts school is home to approximately 300 students, ranging from kindergarten to third grade.
Proponents of the relocation say the new location would enhance safety and provide opportunities for additional programming, though it would not increase the number of people the shelter serves.
Despite these assurances, local residents and parents have raised concerns about the safety of students, particularly during school pick-up and drop-off times and around the school premises.
Tara Ann Broadhurst, a Barnstable resident, told the Daily Mail, “People do need help, but not at the expense of children and residents.”
The stunning seaside Cape Cod town of Hyannis is synonymous with the Kennedys, with President John F Kennedy using the family’s three-house, six-acre compound on the harbor as his so-called summer White House.
The elementary school has been supported by the JFK Hyannis Museum, which is a non-profit that seeks to preserve the former president’s legacy. As part of its after-school programs, the museum has taught students about JFK’s love for the water.
Housing Assistance Corporation and Catholic Charities want to relocate the St Joseph’s House homeless shelter (pictured) to a new site at 460 West Main Street in Hyannis
Though the relocated site would be in Hyannis (pictured), Cape Cod’s 15 towns are being asked to contribute financially to the project
Barnstable Police officer Jason Sturgis and Jeanne Challis, right, check for homeless dwellers in a camp off Yarmouth Road during a tour of homeless camps in Hyannis in this 2015 file photo
The homeless shelter would serve 50 individuals, meaning that it would not raise its capacity, but the move has been defended as necessary to expand programming and improve safety. A file photo shows a homeless person on the Hyannis Village Green by the visitor’s center just off Main Street in this 2021 file photo
Barnstable native Tara Ann Broadhurst told the Daily Mail she was worried about the homeless shelter forcing people out at 7am and said the proposal ‘was not done to help anyone’
Broadhurst added that she was concerned about how the homeless shelter ‘pushes people out’ at 7am, which is when students are going to four schools in the area.
‘We are not talking about helping locals, this is regional and other towns our pulling together funds to get rid of their homeless and push them into one of the most thickly settled residential areas in Barnstable,’ Broadhurst told the Daily Mail.
She added: ‘There are many locations that are not on top of schools and thickly settled locations. Locations closer to jobs and amenities. This was not done to help anyone.’
The Barnstable School Committee has voted to send a letter to the project’s leaders raising their worries about the relocation.
‘A central responsibility of the school committee is the health and safety of the students in the town of Barnstable,’ Andre King, a committee member, said, per the Boston Herald.
The relocation proposal was also panned on social media, with one local writing that it was a ‘ridiculous idea.’
‘Not only will this not solve anything, it just makes it worse,’ he added. ‘People are getting a lot of $ to move a homeless shelter that doesn’t even increase that numbers of beds but turns the shelter into a regional shelter,’ he added.
The homeless shelter would not serve more people after relocating, continuing to serve 50 individuals at a time.
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Should children’s safety or community support for the homeless take priority in this neighborhood?
The Hyannis West Elementary School has about 300 students enrolled that attend from kindergarten through the third grade
Police survey a homeless camp in Hyannis in this file photo. The homeless shelter in the town serves 50 people
Hyannis is perhaps best known for homing the Kennedy compound. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is pictured playing baseball with Edward Kennedy while on vacation in June 1953
Another local said that the suggested relocation ‘makes no sense.’
‘What additional services do the unhoused get in this location? Are they changing the daytime policies or providing daytime respite/ shelter?’ she wrote.
The shelter presents a stark contrast to the ritzy image of the town that the Kennedys familiarized, with the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Edward Kennedy having been photographed there while on vacation.
Others said they were worried that the homeless shelter would drive customers away and hurt the area’s bottom line.
One local said: ‘No businesses want homeless wandering around their neighborhood.’
‘No way with school and busnesses [sic],’ another added.
John Kimball, the owner of Steve Sue’s Par-Tee Freeze on Hyannis’ Main Street, said that he had looked to make the area cheerful.
‘My job is to make people happy, and we have the mini golf, and we have the ice cream, what better environment to make people happy in?’ Kimball told Boston 25 News.
John Kimball, the owner of Steve Sue’s Par-Tee Freeze on Hyannis’ Main Street, said he was concerned about what the homeless shelter would mean for his business
Rick Brigham, who worked at St Joseph’s for 27 years, said it was problematic that the shelter’s hours would force homeless individuals back on the streets by 7am every day
But he admitted to now being concerned about what the homeless shelter could mean for him and his community.
‘I worry about not only the business… but then you start getting into and understanding the program, and I start getting concerned for the area,’ Kimball said.
Rick Brigham, who worked at St Joseph’s for 27 years, lauded the shelter’s impact as ‘tremendous’ but called for its relocation to be executed differently.
He pointed to how the program would only allow homeless individuals to stay overnight, effectively forcing them back onto the streets by 7am every day.
‘They’re out on the street trying to survive,’ Brigham told the outlet. ‘It’s not only problematic for the community, the business owners, the residents, it’s problematic for the neighbors in need.’
Locals fear that the potential for issues to arise will be magnified if the shelter is moved within 300 yards of the elementary school.
As a whole, relocating the St Joseph’s House homeless shelter is estimated to cost between $4.8 million and $6 million.
The site would be in Hyannis but Cape Cod’s 15 towns have been asked to help fund renovations at the new facility ‘in order to create the modern, dignified shelter that our region needs.’
John F Kennedy, then a senator, and his then fiancée Jacqueline Bouvier, chat with Patricia Kennedy, at the wheel, while vacationing at the Kennedy compound in June 1953 in Hyannis
A picture of the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port. The six-acre waterfront site is made up of three homes
Each town has been requested to pitch in with $100,000, which some have already started discussing.
In January, the town of Sandwich’s community preservation committee approved the $100,000 outlay.
‘We’re making the same [request] of each of the 15 Cape towns, because this facility, though located in Hyannis, currently functions as a resource for every town and first responders throughout the Cape,’ Rob Brennan, Housing Assistance Corporation’s chief legal officer, said.
To date, Housing Assistance Corporation has received $3 million in federal pandemic relief funding, which was used to gain site control of the property, per its website.
The company also received a $354,000 state grant to be used for multiple capital projects.
Project leaders have said the move is necessary because the current shelter on Winter Street was ‘never designed as a shelter.’
‘It’s not ADA‑accessible, lacks adequate bathrooms and space, and posed major COVID‑era health risks,’ the project plan’s website said.
Planners said the aging homeless population in the area also required a ‘safer, one‑floor facility with proper ventilation and adequate room for programming.’
The proposal to relocate the shelter said the current property on Winter Street (pictured) was not ADA-accessible and ‘posed major COVID-era health risks’
Housing Assistance Corporation gained site control of the new property (pictured) using $3 million it received in federal pandemic relief funding
They acknowledged the existing concern among neighbors and parents regarding what the relocation could mean for the nearby school and community.
‘It’s important to know that our current location at 77 Winter Street is already within a similar distance of several schools serving preschool and elementary-age children, and there is even an elementary school bus stop directly across the street,’ the planners said.
They added that they were ‘not aware of any incidents involving students or school operations’ in the past.
The project leaders added that ‘safety remains our highest priority’ and that they would work to ‘address concerns promptly and maintain the high level of safety the community expects.’
In January, the town of Barnstable’s building commissioner Brian Florence determined that the relocation was protected by a Massachusetts state law called the Dover Amendment.
The law exempts ‘high-priority land uses’ from some local regulation if they are used for broad religious or educational purposes.
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office agreed with the ruling in March, saying the project ‘fits easily within that scope’ of the amendment, according to the Boston Herald.
The office added that the ‘support of homeless individuals is a value of utmost importance to the Commonwealth.’
A group of Barnstable residents filed an appeal to the building permit which will be evaluated by the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals on June 10.
The group, Neighbors Advocating for Neighbors in Need, said on its website that the shelter should not be moved because it ‘releases homeless population on the street at the same time students from four area schools travel West Main Street.’
Residents added that they were concerned the site would allow ‘homeless to congregate and loiter, including school properties.’
It said the program ‘allows shelter access to anyone’ in the neighborhood, though they ‘must leave drugs, alcohol, weapons, and paraphernalia outside.’
Housing Assistance CEO, Alisa Magnotta, and Catholic Charities Diocese of Fall River CEO, Susan Mazzerella, told the Daily Mail in a statement: ‘The shelter has operated in Hyannis since 1984. While we remain committed to working with school officials and neighbors of 460 West Main Street, it is important to place concerns about school proximity in context.
The current location of St. Joseph’s House is 0.3 miles from Sage Montessori, 0.4 miles from Barnstable Innovation School and the Hyannis Youth and Community Center, and 0.6 miles from Sturgis East Charter School.
There has never been a single complaint or incident involving shelter guests impacting students, and the shelter – and the people it serves – have never posed a safety risk.’
The project leaders added that the new shelter ‘remains within the same downtown corridor and will enhance safety through a purpose-built facility.’
‘This shelter serves only 50 of the approximately 550 individuals experiencing homelessness on Cape Cod,’ the statement continued. ‘Addressing homelessness is a community-wide responsibility, and we encourage continued focus on collaborative, solution-oriented efforts.’
The Daily Mail reached out to the Barnstable School Committee, Hyannis West Elementary School and Neighbors Advocating for Neighbors in Need for further comment.
