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Morrissey Boulevard hotel could become affordable apartments aimed at helping people get out of homelessness

Rendering of proposed 900 Morrissey Blvd apartments

Rendering by BWA Architecture.

Pine Street Inn and the Community Builders have filed plans with the BPDA to convert the Comfort Inn at 900 Morrissey Blvd. into a 104-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail space.

All of the apartments would be rented to people making no more than 30% of the Boston area median income - for people trying to get out of homelessness. Pine Street and the developer - itself a non-profit - are currently building a 202-unit on Washington Street in Jamaica Plain in which 140 apartments will be reserved for "supportive housing" for people coming out of homelessness.

As in Jamaica Plain:

PSI will provide supportive services to the tenants living in the Project through a contract with the property owner that will ensure tenants have access to daily case workers on-site, with the goal of keeping people living stable lives in their apartment homes long-term.

Unlike in Jamaica Plain, however, where the main opposition came from a landlord across the street, residents and elected officials oppose the Morrissey Boulevard proposal. Councilor Frank Baker, while praising Pine Street in general, said he's worried about concentrating so many "high-risk individuals" in one place.

The proposal calls for 33 parking spaces.

The Community Builders hopes to begin 9 to 12 months of construction in the fall of 2023.

Read more.

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Comments

For all of you hoping for an MBTA station in Neponset.

This stretch of tracks right here was the best place for it. Not the rotary, not Victory Road, not Port Norfolk, right here.

Owing that the platform would be on the water side of the tracks, you would still need access and buses can't fit under Conley Street. This would have been the place for buses and drop offs and for elevators to the the platforms.

PS - This is the site of the last non-hotel Howard Johnson's in Boston.

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The best place, with the best walkshed from both sides of Morrissey is still the rotary. As for one here, this wouldn't preclude that. Again, the row is 100'+ wide. A station is less than 50'. It doesn't need to be a bus hub, it's a basic infill subway station like assembly square.

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Would that be less build out and more flexibility?

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A CR stop would be much worse in just about every way, and would wreck the old Colony Lines performance on an already constrained line that has to go single rail right after that. It would have to be high platforms anyways, and much longer.

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I agree CR would be worse, but - Red Line would have to be high platforms as well. No difference in that respect.

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I only point it out as maybe they were thinking a dinky mini-high would cut it or something. but, pretty sure it is much longer at like 800' platforms vs red line at 600'.

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What makes you think the NIMBYS would want poor people being able to get to their little enclave?

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Poverty makes you do desperate things. Like move next to the NIMBYS.

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Oh well, given the current state of the MBTA, like that was going to happen anytime soon.

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Councilor Frank Baker, while praising Pine Street in general, said he's worried about concentrating so many "high-risk individuals" in one place

They’re doing just fine on Mass and Cass, huh Frankie boy, you Republican scum.

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Frank Baker may be scum, but he had a Biden sign in his front yard in 2020 and he has a Ukrainian flag flying as well, so hardly Republican.

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Trump held a Bible a couple times, do you think he’s a Christian?

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You may have backed up Baker’s position with your comment.

I think Baker’s concern here is creating another Mass and Cass situation by again centralizing so many at-risk individuals to one area. I think it will quickly become just another predator’s (drugs and human trafficking) hunting ground.

Full disclosure - I live in Neponset and have what I feel are legitimate concerns. A main concern being that there are two grade schools and Pope John Park well within walking distance of the proposal.

I know there are no easy answers and many different opinions. Please don’t condemn residents of the area (not politicians - fair game there) for their trepidations.

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I’m concerned for the future residents. Low income people trying to escape homelessness will have a tough time in car-oriented highway land. How are they supposed to get to work, shopping, medical appointments, social services, or anything else?

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It's not ideal, but it is an option for people who can manage a 20 minute walk. But really, there should be some sort of frequent bus service with a priority lane, rather than the once every 35 minutes bus service currently serving the area.

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As one who definitely leans left, I get so frustrated by the 'republican scum' angle of this comment.

If you consolidate disadvantaged / high risk people in one location like this there are a number of legitimate & non-partisan potential issues that a City Councilor, Neighbor, or Prospective Tenant to the proposed housing, would hope want to have addressed.

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There is literally decades of research that show that mixing the very poor into otherwise medium or above income buildings is the best situation for them. Warehousing the poor is very easy and that's why we continue to do it, but it's not actually very good for them. I fail to see how this is any different from some of the other big Housing Projects in Boston, which are cesspools of social ills.

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Housing sex offenders in Neponset is not a good idea.

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What makes you say that these people will be sex offenders?

Coincidentally the last high-profile serial pedophile I would associate with that area worked for many years at 295 Freeport St; AKA the BPPA headquarter. That's not far up the street from 900 Morrissey Blvd. His predecessor on the job also faces criminal charges.

Somehow I don't remember hearing the same level of neighborhood concerns or scrutiny about that Freeport St address.

"Patrick Rose, former president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, pleaded guilty today to raping six children over 27 years."

https://www.universalhub.com/2022/former-boston-police-union-head-admits...

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The incredible lack of empathy one must have to assume any unhoused person is the worst sort of criminal…

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Should be staffed with recovery support group and coaches. Having a place to call home is something to hold onto with all your might. Tell addiction to go fuck off and stop invading your brain chemistry.

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in the 00s, I had the great privilege of studying with Sir Geoffrey Hill at BU in a team-taught consortium class. We read Simone Weil, among others, but I will never forget the insistence Hill put upon Gravity and Grace.

A converted Comfort Inn is no one's solution to homelessness, but anyone complaining about it without a better solution (in this context, and I imagine there are lots of better solutions) is asking us to consider that suffering does not already exist and that there are better things we already have.

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where the Phillips Group principals live.

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Harvard Square.

Wellesley Square.

Dover center.

Cohasset center.

Winchester center.

Downtown Marblehead.

If they do it in Duxbury I might fundraise the rest of my life to get a Pine St Inn place there.

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Seems like Pine Street Inn has found a location, funding, and is now working to get support. If you think that there are other places that would be better, why not start fundraising and organizing now rather than just complain about it on the Internet?

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Funny thing though, he has absolutely used the "why don't you do it yourself" schtick before too.

hahahahaha beyond parody

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That's where the Officers of Pine Street Inn, Inc. live. The Board Chair lives in Duxbury. Of the other 25 Board Members, none live in Dorchester. There are reasonable people in Dorchester who have reasonable concerns about this proposal. They do not deserve to be told to shut up and do their part in dealing with a statewide, nationwide issue. There are already plenty of group homes and "sober" houses in Dorchester. A multi-generational, middle class, family-oriented community should not be steamrolled, simply because a worthy organization and a popular "nonprofit" developer in The Community Builders want to team up with a boatload of government cash. With the support of the Mayor and the BPDA, they are taking advantage of an opportunity created by long term business people cashing out of the community which supported their family for three generations.

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Along with getting a clue.

My comments have everything to do with poking fun at one of our resident hypocrites and nothing to do with your reactionary points.

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in Norton, Dedham, Wellesley, South End, or Hingham? That would seem to me to be the more important criteria vs where the board of this nonprofit lives.

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I just pressed the thumbs up to your post. I wish I could do it repeatedly.

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The plan my neighbors have been vilifying says that the first floor will be office space for supportive services of the residents.

The comments on Next Door have been just bizarre. The irony is that my neighbors don't understand that no permission is needed to fill up a hotel with homeless people. The problem here is that the Pine Street wants to increase the transparency and effectiveness of placing homeless people there by making it a professional residence for mobility challenged homeless people. The first 50 will be people already placed in Dorchester by Pine Street that need an elevator building.

My neighbors are living in terror of criminals shuffling over the pedestrian bridge with their walkers and wheelchairs scattering needles wherever they go.

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Pine St nonprofit
Community Builders nonprofit
= big profit
Follow the money, pine st doesn't care about the impact on nearby schools, parks, day cares, Community center.
Families that have fought for the quality of life in the area for decades.

Boycott Philips old colony
No more donations to pine st

It's all about the money
How much is Pine St paying for the property?

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What impact? Are you blaming them for homelessness and poverty?

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Charity Navigator gives it a 97% with a full 10/10 for administrative overhead - looks like they're spending something like 82% of the money they take in on providing services to the homeless, which is a pretty great ratio! So what's your theory for where all this money is going then?

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This is on the wrong side of the highway (Morrissey Blvd). There is also no MBTA service there to get in or out. The one lone bus that comes anywhere near there may as well not operate and it may be cut with the MBTA bus changes.

People in transition need a way to get to their new jobs. That won't happen here.

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it leads straight to the Stop and Shop. and the bus stop. However since these people need an elevator to get up and down the stairs, I hope they qualify for ss.

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On 10/26, I attended the second community meeting where the project was presented. It was held at the Murphy School gymnasium and about 200 people attended, including many from outside of the Pope Hill’s neighborhood. Since much of the audience already knew about the project and had attended the previous meeting, the presentation was short with more time left for Q&A.

I had never been to a community meeting quite like it. Hardly anyone in attendance (over 95% white) seemed interested in hearing the details and nuances about what is being proposed. The presenters of the project were clear (or trying to be when able to talk) in explaining that this was not a temporary homeless shelter but permanent supportive housing which involves background check, rent payments, an older crowd (57 years old on average), 24/7 security and staff and long term residents. Almost everyone who spoke at that meeting (more ranting than questioning) kept comparing the proposal to what’s happening in the Melnea Cass area. The more outrageous the argument the more applause it received from most of the audience. The presidents of Pope’s Hill association and other neighborhood and local politicians who spoke (Councilor Frank Baker and State Rep Jim Hunt) also expressed strong oppositions from the start and did little to bring moderation or balance to the debate.

The project reps tried their best to address the concerns, but it was clearly falling on deaf ears for 90% of the audience. Only two attendees bravely spoke in favor of the proposal -or tried to- only to be quickly interrupted and heckled at by dozens of people.

This was NIMBY on steroids; "We all want to help these people but this is just not the right place for it" was the most polite version. The irony is that hardly anyone lives within sight of 900 Morrissey as it is surrounded by train tracks (4), a high-speed boulevard (6 lanes) and a huge Extra Space Storage.

Here is the link to the picture of a flyer that the meeting organizers were distributing. Only a few people cared to take one, let alone read it.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tjBNPx8QRxxHethZ7

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The Boston Bowl Family is selling out Dorchester. First the oversized Freeport Tavern site, next will be the Ramada Inn site. Both blocking views of the sea from Popes Hill. They want an illegal digital billboard directly across from Tenean Beach. They have made the Ramada Inn a homeless shelter. We now have aggressive homeless begging at local stores and parking lots, needles in playgrounds and fields. These are real fears yet we are criticized for asking questions about the Pine St Proposal. Avg age 57 means nothing, make it all seniors. Disabilities yes, recovering addicts questionable in a family area. If you want to blame someone for neighborhood reaction, blame the Boston Bowl/ Phillips Group Families!!!!

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Nobody asked us about the Ramada, they just filled it up. Now Pine Street wants to be transparent, and we punish them for it. We will have an office and managers that we can hold responsible. You don't have entitlement to water views when you don't live on the water. This stretch of land is the only place where we can tolerate mid rise dense housing. This is a housing crisis. unless you want tents in Hemingway Park, and your sidewalk, we need to allow commonsense solutions.

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