1949
Shattuck Campus is created from Franklin Park
Boston transfers the Shattuck Campus land to the State's Department of Public Health for the creation of a hospital to deal with polio.
Transfer of land link
Boston transfers the Shattuck Campus land to the State's Department of Public Health for the creation of a hospital to deal with polio.
Transfer of land link
Inpatient addiction services are added to the Shattuck Hospital. Dates need confirming.
City of Boston's Department of Neighborhood Development asks the State for the placement of 100 housing units on the Shattuck Campus. 75 with section 8 assistance and 25 without assistance. The proposal is quickly changed to low-threshold housing for those with substance use disorder.
Internal DCAMM Email link
The State's Executive Office of Health and Human Services, EOHHS, gets approval from the State's Division of Capitol Asset Management and Maintenance, DCAMM, for 75-100 low-threshold units on the Shattuck Campus.
'State Officicials' declare Shattuck Hospital is too expensive to repair. The State purchases the Newton Pavilion from BMC for $200 million to move the non-addiction services provided by the Shattuck Hospital.
Boston Globe link
EOHHS Secretary Marylou Sudders comes to Jamaica Plain to tell residents they will get 75-100 low-threshold units. People are deeply concerned so EOHHS and DCAMM agrees to a lengthy public process. This is the first notification to the general public.
Boston Bulletin link
A community advisory board, CAB, is created to get community input on the Shattuck Proposal/development. This board is stacked with opioid services and affordable housing advocates and only 2 abutting commmunity representatives from Jamaica Plain. The majority of people who use the park are from communities of color. Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan are not represented on the CAB. It is also clear to CAB members that they will not have input on number of units or types of services but rather only small changes, e.g. integration with the park. Note: date needs to be verified.
The first community meeting for the proposal for the development on the Shattuck Campus.
Shattuck meeting materials link
Louis Elisa from Roxbury works his way onto the Shattuck CAB
The second community meeting for the proposal for the development on the Shattuck Campus.
Shattuck meeting materials link
The third community meeting for the proposal for the development on the Shattuck Campus. After 3 public meetings, people are left frustrated. The end result is the same 75-100 units that went into the process.
Shattuck meeting materials link
Boston Bulletin link of community outrage
DCAMM, EOHHS, and other State departments put out a vision plan outlining the requested development supposedly based on community input, but it is the same plan as before any community input.
Shattuck Vision Plan link
DCAMM has a hearing about the plan. Representatives from Mattapan speak up about not being included in the process, which is a major oversight as the project is designated as being within Mattapan.
DCAMM meeting transcript link
30 months after the creation of the Shattuck CAB and after the final meeting about the Shattuck Vision plan to form the request for proposal, Fatima Ali-Salaam and Barbara Crichlow from Mattapan are appointed to the Shattuck CAB. Note that Dorchester is still not represented and this addition was after the Vision Plan was created.
CAB members link
Asset Management Board approves the plan.
Shattuck development info link
EOHHS Secretary Marylou Sudders comes to Stonybrook Neighborhood Association of Jamaica Plain (SNA) and the Franklin Park Coalition (FPC) to tell them she is placing 24 low-threshold beds on the Shattuck Campus for 6 months. She also sends an email to an unknown recipient list. When discussing with the SNA and FPC, she claims there are other places lined up for cottage placement throughout the State. There still are no other cottages located elswhere today.
Marylou Sudders' email link
BPDA approves Pine St Inns development of the largest low-threshold/housing first supportive housing building for those with substance use disorder at 3368 Washington St. This is for 140 people and less than a mile from the Shattuck Campus. The growing burden on surrounding communities around these projects is not factored into the Shattuck's proposal. Shattuck Campus plans still move forward with 75-100 units, despite this new complex addressing community needs.
BPDA link
EOHHS places 24 low-threshold beds in the cottages and also converts the Pine St Inn shelter to 30 low-threshold beds on the Shattuck Campus. The temporary 6 months of 54 low-threshold beds are still there today.
The request for proposal is released for a 'minimum of 75-100 supportive housing' where 'supportive housing' is referring to housing first for those with substance use disorder. The 'minimum' is referring to the type of services as they were hoping to keep the 236 inpatient treatment beds. This was not referring to the amount of supportive housing which contained a range. Within the same month the RFP closed, and only one proposal was received which was from BMC. BMC formed a coalition by giving all possible bidders what they wanted, and effectively bypassed the bidding process.
Shattuck development information link
Opioid use, discarded needles, encampments, and drug dealing in the Shattuck area dramatically increase directly and indirectly due to the low-threshold beds. Although information of the connection is withheld from the community, the timing and proximity coincides with the placement of the low-threshold beds. Additionally, 2 people from the Pine St Inn and 1 from the cottages were directly connected by the community to encampments and opioid use in the park, along with drug deals being witnessed near the Shattuck Campus.
Increased opioid activity documentation link
Michelle Wu asks the State for 1000 units of low-threshold housing outside of Boston to help with the statewide opioid crisis. Secretary Sudders responds by saying the State is already spending a lot in Boston. Wu no longer pursues this request afterwards.
News link
Marylou Sudders letter link
Over 400 units of low-threshold supportive housing included within BMC's proposal is leaked to the press.
Bay State Banner article link
Begining in 2018, the reach of BMC within the Medicaid population greatly expanded with the creation of their WellSense Health Plan. In November of 2022 they expand this to include four more ACOs, one of which is Beth Israel Lahey Health Performance Network. This group becomes the largest to serve the Medicaid and MassHealth population with a broad reach through Massachusetts. The significance of this may be both the reach and the population. With this massive influx of Medicaid and MassHealth patients comes a subset who are dealing with substance use disorder. One way to cut costs is to concentrate services. Saving a fraction of money on the most expensive subset of the population allows for profits on the less expensive subset.
BMC's announcement link
COalition for REgion-wide Services - Beyond Franklin Park, CORES, forms to organize people around the park from all communities and push back against BMC's proposal. The group also forms to raise awareness of the redevelopment of the Shattuck Campus as the vast majority of residents are unaware it is being considered.
CORES facebook link
The CEO of BMC and signer and submitter of BMC's Shattuck proposal, Kate Walsh, is appointed to lead EOHHS. Alastair Bell, the COO and one of the main leaders of BMC's Shattuck Proposal, takes over as CEO of BMC. He has an MD but also a masters in business administration, MBA, and is previously from Mckinsey Consultants. Mckinsey is the business consulting firm which advised BMC to sell the Newton Pavilion to the State. At BMC, Alastair surrounded himself with Harvard MBAs, including Rob Koenig, a Harvard MBA, who take the lead role in shaping and selling the plan with little experience in soliciting genuine community impact. BMC's Shattuck Proposal appears to be more of a business than a health decision.
Kate Walsh appointment article link
DCAMM and EOHHS give BMC provisional designation to advance their project after almost 1 year since submitting and 4 months after the creator of the proposal, Kate Walsh, is able to oversee its approval.
Shattuck development info link
The proposal is finally viewed by the community through a freedom of information request. It includes 525 housing first residential beds without sobriety or treatment requirements along with 326 treatment beds, for a total of 851 beds. It is larger and more concentrated than anything of its kind in North America and a regression in policy by going back to concentrating addiction and poverty in communities of color. BMC proposes the campus will service a radius of 20 miles, the overwhelming majority of which is outside of Boston. With their expanded reach through the State as the largest provider for medicaid and MassHealth patients, this very well could mean transporting patients suffering from substance use disorder into Boston.
The proposal also contains a request from the State for $207 million and from the city for $125 million. With BMC's sale of the Newton Pavilion on their campus to the State for $200 million and the request from the State and city for $332 million for the construction of a new campus, concentrating services in a community of color is a move which may generate over a half billion tax-payer dollars to BMC. If they had put these services at the Newton Pavilion, it would have cost the tax-payers $0 in capital investments, raising the important policy question of whether this is the best use of public funds.
BMC's full proposal link
Franklin Park Coalition, Garrison-Trotter Neighborhood Association and Emerald Necklace Conservancy, and Marti Glynn of Dorchester write letters to the editor in the Boston Globe against BMC's proposal.
Boston Globe link
BMC has their first public zoom meeting to present their proposal. Almost universal objection from participants.
CORES along with 30 groups around the park invite BMC and the State for a community meeting. Only 1 representative from BMC shows up. Grievances are aired about the project.
BMC hosts thier second zoom meeting. This time taking questions out of order and selecting people they know are in support.
Video at bottom of page link
Jim O'Connell, President of BHCC and part of the BMC led coalition for the Shattuck Proposal, comes out with concerns about BMC's proposal. Leader at Dimock Center also comes out against the plan.
Boston Globe link
BMC holds an open house at Lena Park to major protests outside.
Boston Bulletin link
Boston Herald link
CORES along with 30 groups around the park hold a second community meeting. This time BMC, DCAMM, and EOHHS reps attend. After all objections, BMC's plan remains unchanged and questions on safety and process are left unanswered.
A half dozen community leaders meet with State Auditor Diane DiZiglio about the Shattuck Proposal and the process. She expresses concerns about the process and believes it merits a review.
Over the course of a couple of months, police get multiple reports of streets where a large proportion of the cars have their windows broken. Not much is stolen except for money. This is within the Jamaica Plain neighborhoods of Stonybrook, Forest Hills, and near South St. In December, a suspect from the Shattuck Campus is caught in the act and is arrested by police from precinct E13 for the break-ins. This is reported by officers Patricia Darosa and Ryan Cunningham within multiple public forums.
The State says BMC's proposal is far too large and costly. The State and BMC start negiotiations, but the abutting park communities which will be impacted are not included in the discussions.
Boston Globe link