Residents denounce process for Fort Point shelter

‘How are you going to ensure we’re safe? ... We pay taxes. We live here. This is our neighborhood.’ FORT POINT RESIDENT, during community meeting for emergency shelter for migrants

South Boston residents were shocked, upset, and angry to learn at a community meeting Tuesday evening that an emergency shelter for migrants is about a week away from opening in an office building on a dead-end street in Fort Point.

“Do we get any say?” residents asked at a neighborhood meeting held at an office building on West First Street.

“How are you going to ensure we’re safe?” one woman asked. “We pay taxes. We live here. This is our neighborhood.”

Some more answers could come on Friday. The state has scheduled a virtual meeting for 6 p.m. to discuss the shelter plan.

The state launched the SafetyNet Shelter Grant program last fall as a partnership between the state and the United Way, with a $5 million grant to build emergency shelters for unhoused families this winter.

The program has so far launched nine shelters, with eight accommodating 97 families per night.

Governor Maura Healey on Monday publicly confirmed for the first time that the building at 24 Farnsworth St. would be opened “as soon as possible” and used as an overflow shelter.

At the Fort Point Neighborhood Association meeting, the state’s emergency assistance director told residents that the site would be a temporary home to about 25 families, largely from Haiti, for an estimated 80 people.

“This is going to happen,” Retired Lieutenant General L. Scott Rice said, adding that the facility was “three-quarters of the way set up” and could open as soon as “late next week.”

“Sounds like a dictator,” someone in the audience grumbled.

“Horrendous idea,” said another.

The state is struggling to find locations to shelter people who have fled distressing situations and want to provide for their families, Rice said.

Shelters reached a capacity limit of 7,500 families in early November, Rice said. A waiting list now has nearly 800 families on it, he said.

“These are real people with real souls,” Rice said.

“We don’t know them,” a woman responded.

The building is owned by the Unitarian Universalist Association and serves as the church’s headquarters. The United Way will operate the shelter for homeless families who are on a waiting list for the state’s emergency shelter system.

The building has six bathrooms but no showers, so shelter residents will be transported in vans to and from nearby YMCA’s to shower, Rice said.

“You can’t even get down that street,” one woman said. “Imagine buses coming and going. That’s ridiculous.”

The site was approved Monday for 90 days, Yusufi Vali, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s deputy chief of staff, said.

Officials and a neighborhood activist previously confirmed the state was considering the 92,000-square-foot building as a potential location for an emergency shelter but had been unable to get any questions answered before Tuesday’s meeting.

Residents said they are frustrated with the lack of details and specific information. They especially wanted to know how many times the 90-day approval period could be extended.

The answer was unclear. “How is it a done deal when you cannot answer these questions?” one man asked.