Little Wanderers to build new health facility, housing

The nonprofit Home for Little Wanderers is partnering with Boston developer Alinea Capital Partners to replace the child and family service agency’s aged Roslindale behavioral health facility with a new clinical building and 22 units of supported low-income housing for young adults who’ve aged out of the state foster care system.

Alinea would construct the new 70,000-square-foot facility at 780 American Legion Highway, next to the Little Wanderers’ current 1940s-era facility purchased in 1999. The agency’s child and family counseling center, community service agency, preschool outreach program, therapeutic after-school program and family resource center would relocate to the adjacent new structure, and the old one would be demolished so Alinea could build 98 market-rate and workforce apartments and condos.

The Little Wanderers decided replacing the older building was more cost-effective than making repairs or finding a new location, according to Renee Yourk, director of business and strategic partnerships. It will sell the property to Alinea and lease it back.

“The facility was an old hospital that we bought, and we sort of just retrofitted our programs into it,” Yourk said. “We’re very excited about the project and ... to have stateof-the-art clinical space.”

The Little Wanderers and Alinea previously partnered on the agency’s Roxbury Village program for youths who have aged out of state care.

“There is a great need for serving that population all over Massachusetts,” Yourk said. “A lot of these kids leave the foster care system, and they don’t have the network. It’s expensive here in Massachusetts, and they struggle.”

The Little Wanderers is also in talks with The Dimock Center of Roxbury to offer medical primary care in the new building.