[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] uh good morning everybody uh and welcome uh to our hearing from uh on the committee of Public Health homelessness and Recovery uh related to the Sher uh for the record uh my name is John Fitzgerald District 3 city counselor I'm the chair of the Boston city council Committee on Public Health homelessness and Recovery today is April 4th 2024 this hearing is being recorded it is also being live streamed at boston.gov city-council DTV and broadcast on xinity Channel 8 RCN channel 82 FiOS channel 964 written comments may be sent to the committee email at CCC doal boston.gov and will be made a part of the record and available to all counselors public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing individuals will be called on in the order in which they signed up and we'll have two minutes to testify if you are interested in testifying in person please add your name to the signup sheet near the entrance of the chamber if you are looking to testify virtually please email our Central staff liaison Megan Cavanaugh Megan M GH n. Cavanaugh Ka a v a n a g h boston.gov for the link and your name will be added to the list today's hearing is on docket 0512 order for a hearing to discuss the shadic housing proposal to prioritize racial Equity this matter was sponsored by Council Tanya Fernandez Anderson and was referred to the commit on March 13th 2024 uh before we get into the opening statements I'd like to read um uh an absence letter from our council president ruie lisen uh dear chair Fitzgerald and this for the record uh I will be unable to attend the Committee on Public Health homelessness and Recovery hearing on docket 0512 a hearing to discuss the shatak housing proposal and to prioritize racial Equity while I cannot be president present I have full faith and confidence in the committee's ability to conduct the hearing with the utmost most respect compassion and empathy for the diverse perspectives of our community members I know my fellow counselors and all stakeholders involved care deeply and earnestly about the development of the shadic I kindly remind everyone including myself to keep an open mind presume best intentions consider constructive dialogue and ensure that each and every voice and concern is taken into true consideration there will be a new plan soon on the table after the community has rightly elevated concerns about the size and scope of the initial response to the RFP I look forward to reviewing the hearing and working together to ensure the revised Shad housing proposal aligns with the shared values of the community should the community on public uh should the committee or public have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to reach out to my office directly uh sincerely city council president Ry lisian so we thank uh Madam council president for that um today I'm joined by my colleagues in order of their arrival Council Tanya Fernandez Anderson Council Aaron Murphy councelor Ed Flynn councelor uh Enrique Pepin and councelor Ben Weber uh I'd now like to give opening remarks uh by order of arrival uh Council for we can start with you please and thank you thank you Mr chair good morning everyone my name is T fernan Anderson um city council for district 7 um I filed this hearing order or order for hearing to have a conversation about the plans for the shadic um not just rebuilding or or I guess uh renovating or rebuilding the shadic but also with their um housing plans we'll hear more about the state's RFP we'll hear more from we'll hear from BMC today um I've invited uh panelists that um have been working and have expertise in the community um in regards to uh Franklin Park and the shadic um welcome to everyone here who's taking the time out of this uh day we won't call it horrible cuz sometimes Rain Is Awesome um but who who has taken the time to come in and have this conversation the reason why I propose this hearing is because I've been hearing a lot from my constituents um and a budding constituents about this project I've had an overwhelming uh amount of emails come in in opposition to the proposal I've had uh oppositions that will that have stated they didn't want the project at all just renovate the shadic I've had opposition stating that maybe reducing the size of the housing portion and I've had opposition um to in in the uh way that BMC has um I guess committed their or executed their Community processes um also complaints about from the about the state not being transparent with the RFP process um I've also received letters in support after speaking with BMC um about a month ago I started receiving some support and I said to BMC and as you know I believe that I'm a consolidator of community so we have to create platforms to have this conversation in a democratic process um in a democratic uh way and I basically said to BMC look if you are just if I just receive only position and you're saying that there are people in support I need to hear that um I need to see that documented um and thereafter I've received a total of about 12 emails in support but I've received over 200 um either calls but over definitely over 100 um emails which I can provide to you um in opposition so because it seems so lopsided because the community have spoken adamantly in opposition to this and by Community I mean district 7 you'll also hear from counselors who have created uh meetings outside of district 7 to discuss the shadic um who are but the property uh who are but my district um and so feel that they have a right to their constituents to uh discuss the project um I think this happens typically when a project uh there's a lot of opposition um and so uh people will seek out developers will seek out the support of uh counselors outside of the district District the community district 7 being um majority black and brown Community feels that these abing uh counselors or representatives are being unfair and taking uh the initiative to get people outside of the demographic outside of the district to but uh step in into this conversation and so I think that this is the best platform for us to talk about some of these triggers about some of these historic hars and how we are condens populating poor people or affordable housing in district 7 and its impact on black and brown communities such as uh district 7 so uh or all of the neighborhoods in district 7 so today hopefully we'll hear from all sides um my uh colleague Mr chair has decided that the the panels that are in opposition will go after BMC the panel that is in support will go last that is not to set press presence of their final voice um so hopefully we'll get a chance an opportunity again to make a democratic if there are concerns or things that we need to clarify in terms of points that people make last than coming back and hearing from the experts to clarify some of the things that both sides say this is how we level the plan playing field that it's Democratic that it's fair that everybody's here so I will be super transparent with you and I want to get to a place for the record I repeat again I am in support of the project I am not in support of putting the housing piece in the sh in in Franklin Park what I've suggested to BMC is that we look at Parcels in Roxberry to look at truly affordable home ownership opportunities things that create more Equity things that we can liquidate assets and create ways of uh of of of uh closing the wealth Gap and projects that make sense for district 7 and that there are lot lot of Alternatives that we can look at I've proposed this because we need housing and because looking at Best Practices in terms of mental health in terms of dual diagnosed populations we have to deconcentrate these types of services not overpopulate them in one area so I share this with you and um we're going to have I think we're going to have a good time right it's going to be a positive conversation we're going to lay it all out on the table um and we're going to hear people's voices today this is democracy thank you for being here thank you Council Fernandez Anderson Council Murphy thank you chair um thank you all for being here this is an important issue as an atlarge city councelor um know I represent all the neighborhoods but I am a person in recovery myself a a mother of a son who has suffered through an opiate addiction someone who cares deeply about people's dignity and making sure that we do the right thing at the same time I know myself like all my colleagues we're getting lots of letters emails calls and opposition I know I've spoken with BMC several times about this proposal I hope that this is the first of many conversations that we can have to really set straight what will be going there what negative impacts it may have on the community and that I'm here to listen to all sides to make sure that when we move forward you know we we do that equitably and making sure that you know this job is hard and you have to make hard decisions and you can't be in politics you can't be a counselor and please everyone so I know that and I'm open to hearing and happy that we'll hear from BMC and what you're proposing to go in there I also know that Franklin Park is a gem in our city and we just went through a lawsuit that the community lost trying to push back on the stadium some of the community I know others want so there's there's a lot of tension in this area and for lots of good reasons so as an atlarge City councilor um I'm here to listen learn and make an informative decision when it comes time to weigh in so so thank you thank you chair thank you Council M Council Flynn thank you Mr chair and thank you to the panel that is here from the Boston Medical Center but also the residents and the community leaders and the neighborhood leaders Community activists that will provide testimony following this as well your voice is critical and important part of the discussion I don't represent this area I'm here to learn I'm here to listen and make an informed Judgment at the appropriate time but I do want to make sure that the community process is respected residents feel like they are being respected and listen to and I know on all panels panel one panel two panel three there's a lot of dedicated and respected people in the community so I'm looking to learn more about this proposal thank you Mr chair thank you Council Flynn Council Pippen thank you chair um good morning everyone my name is Enrique pepen represented District 5 I'm on a similar v as councelor Flynn and I'm here to learn about what has been going on I don't rep I don't directly represent this area but I have a lot of residents that visit Franklin Park and use it on a daily basis so I just want to make sure I'm hearing from both sides of the residents and of bmc's because I if this if something happens I just want to make sure that there's collaboration here with both those that want to see something go to the shadic hospital those that those who don't but at least that there's some sort of compromise and conversation happening that's why I'm here so that when it comes to a point of taking a vote I'm doing it in a way that I'm educated so thank you thank you Council pep and Council we thank you chair um uh my name is Ben Weber I represent district 6 uh one of the most common issues I have heard from people across District and specifically in Jamaica plane is about the shadic proposal it's my understanding that the plan is currently being revised and that we should anticipate new plans sometime in the coming months um but the most important issues that I I think we should be working on uh are the following you know what does the science say regarding the effectiveness of large recovery campuses such as these and is there any evidence that the proposal wherever it ends up will effectively serve those on the mry camp to what are the concrete plans for Mitigation Of effects of the campus on the community three what affirmative steps is the state taking to develop recovery campuses around Massachusetts and not only in Franklin Park and not concentrate treatment in one area or in communities of color um last it it's my job to advocate for residents in my community which ab but the park uh while the Shad proposal and the and the site is in district 7 I believe I have to represent people in my community who live a few hundred feet from that Park I see a lot of folks here today including the emerald necklace conservancy and residents of my district uh who organize cores and have organized you know very vocal opposition to this it's my job to advocate for them um and I believe they have a voice in this hearing even though they don't live in district 7 um and so I'm I'm here to listen I'm interested in hearing what all the panelists have to say because this is a very important issue for my constituents thank you thank you councilor Weber uh I will just reiterate for folks uh we're most likely in for a long hearing today I think I think folks that are up there understand that in between three different panels uh amongst Public public testimony as well uh We've certainly got a lot of uh dedicated time in front of us I will say that to again to reiterate that we are going to dry as strictly as we can to adhere to the time given we know that there are folks that are going to want to continue and be passionate and and continue on uh but out of respect for those that come before you and that will speak after you uh please try to adhere to that time frame um and if not um well it's going to happen so I appreciate I thank you all in advance um for for following the rules um with that I would now like to introduce today's panelists uh testifying on behalf of of The BMC so folks know first panel is BMC they're going to make a presentation second panel will be with those that uh that uh will show us what they think is wrong with the the presentation and the final panelist shows that what would could be the positives of this presentation again to show all sides of the story and so we us our C fellow counselors and colleagues and those watching at home have an understanding of the entire um uh matter um but uh introducing today's panelist testifying on behalf of the Boston Medical Center uh we have uh Ramon stto director of government advocacy Rob kig vice president strategic programs Dr Christine pace and Tracy Weeden executive director of BMC the Brockton Behavioral Health Center um Ramon I I'll turn it over to you to start uh I believe or whoever you guys would like to start but please again introduce yourselves when you come up to the microphone um and we'll go through your presentation and then counselors will have five minutes each for a round of questioning and then we'll do a second round three minutes each for a round of questioning that includes the response time as well so please try to for the sake of both the councilors and those on board uh try to keep the answers as minimal as possible so we can get as much questions and answers in um Ron I'll turn over to you thank you sir thank you very much Council Fitzgerald and I'm in the uh enviable position of having the least to say for the presentation part so I get to start first and then um my name is Ramon SoDo I'm the director of government advocacy and then I'm I'm just going to we're just going to go down the line before my colleague Trina uh kicks us off sh if you hi there I'm Christine Pace I'm a physician and addiction medicine specialist at Boston Medical Center I also apologize in advance I have clinical care um responsibility starting at uh 1 so I'll need to leave around 12:15 and appreciate your patience with that absolutely understand thank you good morning I'm Patrina Martin I'm vice president of community engagement and external Affairs at Boston Medical Center nice to meet you and I'm Rob kig I'm vice president of strategic programs at Boston Medical Center good morning Tracy Weeden executive director for Brockton Behavioral Health Center at Boston Medical Center great thank you proceed all right um thank you chairman Fitzgerald good morning to everyone to the councilors and members of the committee and thank you again to um councelor Fernandez Anderson for hosting us this morning again I'm Patrina Martin Cherry I'm the vice president of community engagement and external Affairs at Boston Medical Center so at BMC um we understand that Equitable Health outcomes require that we go beyond what's traditional offered in in a healthcare setting we also know that our patients are not just the folks who walk onto our campus we're also very concerned about the community members in the communities we serve in general um that's why we interrogate the root causes of society's most pressing Health Care disparities to find actionable Solutions um the key to our Approach at BMC is always to engage and listen to our community and to the patients that we serve so that their experiences and perspectives can inform how we can best support their health and well-being so whether it's clearly hearing Community concerns relating to food access and responding and the way that we've responded um to food access is by um we invested $1.7 million in Nubian markets in Roxberry making sure that we were able to provide for that community and surrounding communities a place that was blackowned where they can come um and make sure that they had access to fresh fruits and vegetables um we responded to a a to a concern that folks in our community and our patients needed help with their taxes so we empowered them by providing a service through street cred that for free gave them access to filing and having access to um earned income credit um we responded to um victims of violence who came through our doors by providing a service called VI app where they and their families could receive services and jobs and education and counseling we responded to the lack of um access to Workforce Development and economic Mobility by connecting folks in our communities to jobs in biotech and Blu green jobs um by making sure that we were working with industry leaders and working with policy makers and working with people who were able to provide training so that folks in the community had access to training and then they could then have access to jobs in biotech and we've done that very very successfully we know when it comes to the co-occurring crisis of Behavioral Health gaps in care and homelessness in the community we want to work with the community to take the appropriate action we are an institution that has worked hard over the years to develop trust in our community so we work with community-based organizations we work with churches and ministerial leaders and community members themselves through our community Advisory Board making sure that in everything we do the voice of the community is at the table when we started our Health Equity accelerator it was through our community Advisory board that we worked with to make sure that we were um we were taking the appropriate steps to find out which Health Care gaps we were focused on closing it was the community that helped us decide on diabetes Maternal Child Health and now Cancer Care so again we are always in the community working with them hearing from them and making sure that we are doing what's in the best interest of the Comm of the community today we are here to discuss why we in concert with other community organizations deeply commit to our neighborhoods resp deeply committed to our neighborhoods responded to the RFP from the state and then how we plan to make modifications to our plan to our plan based on feedback that we've um received and so now I'm going to turn it over to my colleague am I turning it over to me okay okay Christine thank you um thanks everyone thanks so much for having us today and thank you to the community members who came despite the weather we really appreciate it um I'm a physician at bosta Medical Center and an addiction specialist yesterday I was working with a patient who has um opioid use disorder alcohol use disorder homelessness um and very severe depression and it come into the to be treated for a medical condition we treated his medical condition and we were also able to manage his withdrawal symptoms while he was in the hospital um and as I was talking to him about what he wanted to be his next step he he said you know I'd really like to go to an additional inpatient substance use treatment program to keep up this momentum and continue my recovery um he he was really worried that if he returned to the shelter it would be incredibly hard to remain sober so we called Nine programs yesterday afternoon um to try to get him a bed and every single one told told us they didn't have capacity one specifically told us there were 70 patients waiting um for their for their beds right now and another told us he would have to wait for 6 to eight weeks um so we have to do better for our community see if this works um treatment recovery is so possible in 2024 we have amazing tools um to be able to really support people to long-term recovery and as a PCP I take care of so many people who have really made it and are living really rich and wonderful lives um in in long-term recovery but our system is so flawed and we have to do so much better um we know that we only have about half the beds we need to really meet the treatment demand that we see we're in the midst of a huge how housing crisis Boston Housing Authority has more than more than 40,000 patients currently on the weight list um care is really fragmented only one in five individuals are able to get after care after a detoxification stay and really importantly services are not um are not Equitable in terms of who receives them so we have seen for the last few years really skyrocketing overdose rates among black and brown communities and that's especially true in Massachusetts where the rates of fatal overdose for black residents of Massachusetts are 55% higher than for white and for Hispanic residents it's 37% higher than for white individuals so this is not acceptable like we have to do better so when the state issued its RFP for redevelopment of the Morton Street campus um we were fortunate to be able to assemble a coalition of Partners who were leaders in treatment and housing to come together um to really try to make the system better for our communities um we're joined by housing developers the Community Builders and jpnc as well as service providers Pine Street in healthcare for the homeless Victory programs bov and hcrc together we designed a new set of programs that was built on best practices with the goal of um adding treatment capacity at the key points where we see such um such constraints in our current data um better creating a network of care that's better integrated so that patients can move more seamlessly from one level of care to another and that providers can communicate and coordinate care so that patients have kind of one Journey one set of goals that they're working um along their recovery Continuum really importantly it's essential that these services incorporate dual diagnosis support the vast majority of individuals um seeking substance use disorder treatment in Massachusetts have co-occurring um mental health conditions such as depression post-traumatic stress disorder bipolar disorder Etc but very very few of our treatment programs have the Staffing um or the treatment models to be able to adequately support them and then finally um More than 70% of the individual seeking substance who treatment in Massachusetts are experiencing homelessness housing has to be a part of that solution so we really saw to loc at housing and longer term outpatient programming um to improve outcomes so our vision um with our partners is to create a community and a place that provides a Continuum of Care including a comprehensive and coordinated set of inpatient Services outpatient resources emergency housing and Supportive Housing opportunities all designed to Foster recovery and healing in a beautiful Community setting so since being provisionally designated last summer um in uh in June of 2023 by the Commonwealth um we've been engaging in extensive Community conversations and dialogues trying to gather feedback to inform how we should modify our plan um a couple of procedural notes when we are provisionally designated by the state for this Redevelopment um in response to the RF or for the RFP subm that we made that really just uh enables us to uh negotiate a final development plan with the Commonwealth and it also unlocks us to begin Community engagement um it does not mean that what we propose is the final thing um and that's why we've been having extensive Community conversations and dialogues and public meetings in order to gather feedback to understand how we should make modifications we recognize this has been a long process for the folks who live uh in around the park uh the Commonwealth made its decision to relocate the hospital services that it operates on the Shad site back in 2018 um it operates nearly 250 beds of Hospital Services there and it determined that it would uh not relocate the uh nonprofit or partner operated um behavioral health treatment and homeless shelter programs that were operational at shatak as well um the state went through a multi-year process of convening a community Advisory Board creating a vision plan that then informed a request for proposals that we they released back in 2022 um that is the uh request for proposals that BMC responded to and that RFP had some clear requirements um it required a minimum of 75 to 100 units of permanent Supportive Housing uh it required the continuity of an opioid treatment program um or more commonly known as a methodone Clinic operated on the site um uh uh at the time and presently um with capacity for 300 to 400 visits per day um it requested a set of Behavioral Health Services Residential Services um and then continuity of the services being operated on the site already which again include residential substance use disorder treatment beds as well as a a substantial homeless shelter program that has operate that have both operated on the site for decades um so that's the context into uh uh for bmc's proposal and submission and we hope to bring what we proposed or a modified and reduced scale version of what we proposed to the site where there are those extensive operations today um just a few more details on the uh some of what I've already shared um the shatak hospital was constructed and open back in 1954 um it has been a public health hospital facility um and a going concern for seven decades um serving um people uh with Hospital Services Psychiatric Services uh shelter services and residential substance use disorder treatment services um the shatak site is uh presently host to um close to 420 beds of um hospital and uh substance used disorder treatment and homeless Services um that's a reduction in scale from the preco levels if we rewind to 2019 it was closer to 550 beds of services um and the reason for that is program operators uh like Pine Street in uh practicing social distancing in the co era um so it has been a large goinging concern providing essential public health programs and services uh in uh on the current site for many years the state is relocating half of those beds to uh a new facility in the South End and this is Again part of uh um speaking to the Continuum or or the timeline for uh the services and operations at the shatak site um as I was describing on the left side of the slide is the 1954 view of the shatak hospital shortly after completion uh you can see three large structures two towers that are 10 to 12 stories tall um and a power plant facility that's several stories as well um there is very little open or green space in the original site plan um under 2.9 Acres uh and largely that's kind of grass between parking rows um fast forward to 2024 today's operations um one of the two towers was demolished uh some time ago by the Commonwealth uh because of uh because of its condition and uh Left Behind are the 12-story tower which is where the hospital services and residential substance use disorder treatment services are today as well as um the power plant building where an outpatient substance disorder treatment program and uh uh a uh homeless shelter operated by Pin Street NR um again the the scale of operations um going back to pre-co was 550 beds um today stands just uh just shy of 420 beds I'll now speak for a moment about the initial proposal that we put forward but let me again underscore we are making modifications and we are working on those modifications uh as a coalition now um we've been hearing feedback and we recognize in particular that the scale needs to come down um but in the spirit of of sharing what initially was submitted to the state um the uh the proposal that we provided to the state back in the summer of 2022 um at the timing of the request for proposals uh included 272 clinical beds of services actually a reduction in the number of clinical beds operating on the Shad site today um it included 174 shelter beds um that's uh the same scale as the historical shatak uh shatak operations which uh has uh included 120 beds of shelter services and about 54 beds of an outpatient addiction treatment program operated by Pine Street n um we also included 200 units of individual Supportive Housing permanent Supportive Housing that are homes for people uh where they sign leases and uh and pay rent and have uh Case Management Services helping them with their tency um that would be part of a first phase of development we also included a second phase of development with 205 units of permanent Supportive Housing focus on families those units would be lagged by several years and uh in our original proposal only embarked on after an assessment of the impact of the site and the feasibility of it to support more housing um again we are making modifications and um as we are hearing feedback and synthesizing what we've heard a few things are clear as I shared we are going to be reducing the scale of the uh of The Proposal as we modify our plans um we're also going to continue seeking ways to strengthen the clinical model to be able to as Dr Pace described support people with dual diagnoses um and then we're also uh considering changes in the mix of Housing Services based on feedback we've received we're doing those things in the context of a few things we need to consider as well how to maintain Integrity of the the model that we proposed um how to fit it into the site and um consider the real estate implications of the space and uh at a reduced scale what features need to change what design elements need to change uh and then we also need to do that third in a way that's uh that has sustainable financing um that can actually move forward and actually be operational in a responsible way going forward so over the past N9 months since we were provisionally design ated we've had the chance to engage with over a thousand participants in uh a variety of forums of public meetings and dialogues um we have uh tried to have a range of different ways of reaching people so that we can meet people where they are or wherever works for them to convey feedback to us um and this is a a topic that we recognize people feel passionately about um and so we've greatly appreciated the feedback and the passion that folks have brought to to their feedback both supportive and and against the just going through a little of the specific forums that we used we uh started with a couple of uh two large public meetings that uh were uh a way for us to share information about our proposal and then start to gather feedback questions concerns um we then hosted an open house um in uh in Dorchester that uh enabled us to have longer conversations with uh community members and gather more feedback hear concerns and questions um and actually collect kind of written sticky note feedback on a variety of topics related to the related to the project that was very valuable uh we also uh were included in uh two large community meetings that we attended uh where we received feedback and concerns as well and then we've also engaged in a large number of um smaller group meetings and meetings with electeds and Community leaders um uh where including some where uh uh leaders and electeds convened groups of their constituents in order to again gather feedback hear concerns um and begin to synthesize what the implications should be for modifications that we make um again all modifications before we even get to a public permitting process like article 80 um lastly we've maintained website and email presence along with the the Commonwealth we've heard a number of concerns um the many of these won't surprise folks uh folks in the room but but I'll um and the the list extends Beyond just the ones I'll highlight here but I I uh will name uh four that we have uh really been thinking about and working with as we consider modifications um the first um uh fairly evident is the concern about safety and or excuse me is the concern about scale of the development um that this is larger than what has historically been at the shatak site that it is an increase um we've heard that we are considering uh we or we plan to to modify downward our scale of development um and are working on how to do that um our original uh proposal was informed by the magnitude and scale of Public Health and housing crises that we see affecting our community as BMC and our partners Community as Boston based service providers largely serving the uh the neighborhoods in and around or using and around the park um we've also heard a concern about um Public Safety and Security um that's partly about the scale of the development and partly about the um the uh mix of services um we've heard concerns about uh Equity of where the services are cited and citing them in um a predominantly black and brown neighborhood or Community um in a park that has been used by or that is predominantly used by black and brown community members uh and the uh the equity implications of that um and we've also heard concerns about the um in of populations on site that there could be in a phase to um permanent housing for people who uh are for families along with Recovery Services um so we've been considering those things as we're making modifications um and and we've greatly appreciated the feedback we've also heard a lot of supportive feedback on uh particularly folks who feel animated by the importance of making progress on recovery on Dual diagnosis Care on the need for more highquality treatment capacity um the as as Dr Pace was describing the motivation for us as BMC in submitting our proposal was to create more Equitable access to highquality um Care and housing for individuals who we serve in our communities who are suffering and struggling um the current system of care is highly fragmented it makes it an incredibly difficult way to heal and there are models of care like uh that are accessible to people who may say have uh have greater means than many of the patients we care for folks who have commercial insurance or who can pay out of their own pockets and go to a monthlong recovery program where all of the levels of care are integrated into one place um we're seeking to do that replicate that evidence-based model but in a way that people who have public Insurance can actually access so um that Equity dimension has been very important for us and um and uh we'll continue to to think through that while we weigh the concerns the very real concerns we're hearing from [Applause] folks good morning uh we we appreciate the process of receiving Community feedback and we actually leverage Community feedback when we developed Boston Medical Cent's Brockton Behavioral Health Center which also focuses on Behavioral Health needs uh to service the community and we open Brockton in October of 2022 as an 82 bed psychiatric uh inpatient psychiatric and substance use uh disorder treatment program for adolescents and adults we opened those Services because they were additional benefits that the community desperately needed after hearing Community concerns around Brockton Behavioral Health It ultimately seemed to come down to fear of the unknown so like we don't know what we don't know and so understandably we went through a similar process in being able to address the concerns and share feedback in a a transparent way some people imagine the worst when we opened Brockton Behavioral Health Center almost like something you'd see in a a would like horror movie um While others seem to understand that the prevalence of un and undertreated behavioral health issues already existed in the community and recognized that our Hospital would intentionally serve as a safe healing environment where people could recover and return to their lives in their own Community as parents and family members and workers and productive citizens our Hospital also brought new jobs to the community where now nearly 70% of all of our staff live in Brockton or surrounding towns our staff treat patients every day who also live in Brockton in surrounding towns because we are BMC our patients not only have access to local behavioral health care but also have access to the most Innovative clinical care because we are an academic teaching Hospital which means that we're able to have nurses and doctors and other mental health professionals get real life experience working with our population and they too live in Brockton and surrounding towns so Brockton Behavioral Health Center not only introduced the Behavioral Health Services that our community desperately needed but we hire and treat our community at our hospital since opening we have had neighbors who once really had understandably concerns about what it would entail um a behavioral health hospital being in the community walk into our Hospital seeking help for their loved ones because too often the alternative is no help at all or very long waits in emergency departments for an impatient bed that's typically outside of their own community way too far for many family members and support systems to visit regularly another significant benefit of opening Brockton was that we took an old dilapidated nursing home that was pretty much an eyesore in the community and rehabilitated it into a beautiful modern carbon net carbon net zero emissions sustainable facility so not only is our building sustainable and Equitable so isn't the clinical care we provide to our our patients which is consistent with bmc's commitment to sustainable buildings in green spaces so the underscoring what Tracy was sharing about the uh approach to sustainability um the we wanted to speak a little about the site design and and some elements of The Proposal that we put forward um related to sustainability and Environmental Conservation um the one of the aims that that came through the um State's Community engagement process and the request for for proposals was returning greens space to Franklin Park um the uh I'll speak a bit about our original proposal again uh naming that we will be making modifications to this but on the left you can see the existing site plan this is shatak today um it is largely asphalt and Bricks um there is a very limited amount of green and Landscape space 2.9 Acres um that is uh largely grassy strips between parking um it's not functional or usable for folks um with our original modified proposal we were already able to materially increase more than double the amount of green uh Green Plaza and pedestrian space that was usable in community benefit um uh to uh and that would uh become part of Franklin Park um that was a designed priority for us and as we're making modifications we want to hold on to that and and try and uh try and uh continue the priority of returning land to the park uh and making it usable and green um we also as uh as Tracy alluded to that we were able to do with our Brockton behavioral health facility um we uh want to uh and plan to use to the extent possible Net Zero building techniques um and maximize sustainability of the site to minimize the environmental impact of it um again also in the spirit of keeping it as green as possible so a little bit on the path forward from here um we hope that our modified plan is going to continue to address Public Health needs um while also factoring in and reflecting what we're hearing from the community as we go uh go and continue Community dialogues um we're continuing to have Community conversations um in the weeks and months ahead um and we'll continue to work on modifications um once we have reached a point where we have uh modifications we will share them with uh Community stakeholders and also with uh with state government um and then we also will um have to enter into a permitting process um and we expect to go through the zoning and permitting process through bpda um as a a project like this typically would um that will be likely a multi or a a long one to twoe exercise um and then uh at the soonest uh the shatak hospital services that are operational on the site today will relocate not until sometime in 2026 um so construction most likely wouldn't even begin until that point um although will be determined a bit by the state's relocation and reciting plans um and then there would be a multi-year construction process um as I described initially proposed two phases of development with a weight period between the two to observe impact and assess feasibility of a second phase um and um but that that is part of the original plan and we'll consider modifications uh to that um but we look forward to to ongoing feedback and we thank everyone in the room and the council uh for having us here today thank you very much uh i' just like to acknowledge at this time that we've uh been joined by two other uh City councils at Large Council Henry Santana Council Julie Mia here if you guys don't mind you could do your opening statement into the questions if you will when we get to the round of questionings thank you just to keep this moving um thank you to all our panelists uh I'd like to acknowledge the sponsors to begin with for the first round of questions and I'll turn it to the floor uh to my colleagues in order of arrival uh again first round of questioning five minutes uh and then we'll do a second round of three minutes um Council Fernandez Anderson you have the floor thank you um what step have you taken specifically to ensure that the proposed housing project um uh at the shadic aligns with principles and of racial equity in the community I'll just ask all of them um what specific strategies will be implemented to address Community concerns regarding the size and scale of the project um proposed project and its potential impact um and you've been in conversations about reducing the size what what does that look like what what is the redu red reducing or reduction um size or scale um how will safety mechanisms be integrated to ensure the well-being and access to amenities such as uh Franklin Park for residents um of the proposed Supportive Housing units and what measures are in place to mitigate potential negative impacts um on the colle colletive quality of life of residents in the vicinity of the shadic thanks coun I can begin and and others from BMC chime in uh chime in as you see fit as well um so councelor I I'll start actually with the um concern you raised about or your question about how we're addressing the concern about um the scale and size we plan on reducing the scale overall that also uh is related to your question on on um equity and how we plan to factor that in um in the context of the housing program which we do expect will be part of the reductions in scale in our modified plan um where we've heard concerns about the scale being an an uh a challenge from the standpoint of burden on neighborhood um so that's a a consideration there um the provision of housing also uh in the uh in the response is something that um we uh given the rates uh the uh inequitable rates of homelessness currently uh currently in the city of Boston where 42% of the city's shelter population in 2021 was uh identified as Black versus 25% of the overall population um we hope that even at a reduced scale the presence of Supportive Housing on the site can still um address that inequity um while we also are weighing the the uh the sighting Equity concern that you rais b as well so addressing equity for the city but in the district we have already the highest amount of low affordable housing the highest amount of of any low threshold the highest amount of halfway homes the highest amount of nonprofits and services the highest rates of re rate how is that Equitable how is that sorry I didn't hear the last word addressing the equity concern for the enti for the whole city oh how is that in District s Equitable sorry yeah how is it Equitable to put it in a district that's already suffering for its economy is dampened and that's the reason how is that Equitable so we responded to uh requests for proposals that the state put forward that had already identified this site um we agree that these Services should be cited around Boston and around the region um but this is also a request for proposals that we uh in March or in uh summer 2022 put forward a response to you put a resp response is something that you're now admitting that it's too big cuz you said you heard the concerns and you thought it was too big you're saying yes we realize that and we are talking about now how to make it smaller um and so but you responded to it knowing that it was inequitable we responded to it motivated by the health inequities and housing inequities that we see as Boston Medical Center and with our partner members of of our Coalition what did the RFP propose the RFP numbers uh the RFP only outlined a minimum for housing a minimum of 75 75 a minimum of 75 to 100 units of per units and then you responded with uh 200 units of permanent Supportive Housing for individuals and then 205 units for families in a lagged Phase 2 again 100 minimum we went to 400 yes the in The Proposal we did and we've heard feedback on that and plan to make modifications in the spirit of being responsive to community feedback I really appreciate that um and so can we go to my other questions than you so you had uh you had asked about um safety mechanisms and how we plan to address that um so first we will as we are making modifications we will be modifying how we think about a safety plan and once we have a final set of services um for The Proposal we will have a final safety plan associated with that with that said there are also there are already things that are very clearly going to be part of our ultimate safety plan um a private uh private public safety force that will be responsible for safety on the grounds of the shatak site um secure entry egress from buildings um uh that are staff and monitored and when you're ready with that plan you'll come back to community we will thank you you mentioned something about State proposed shelter in South oh the the state is relocating its Hospital B in Southend um yes also in district 7 is it okay um so actually think it's yeah I think it that was a future question shelter where yeah uh East new next to BMC it's not a shelter yeah it's not shelter Services it's um inpatient Hospital Services um that are going to be relocated that state operated okay thank you I really I really appreciate that you recognize the scale that you're saying yeah it's kind of big and why do you think it's why do you why do you agree with the community we as BMC really value Community Partnership and and collaboration in projects that we're undertaking and as Trina was describing that's an anchoring principle for us as an institution and so that is a a factor that we wanted to be able to incorporate into our plans and is made possible by this provisional designation process where we now are able to incorporate feedback in and make modifications you mentioned meetings with the other elected officials open houses and meetings with other elected officials with Community I I don't know about these meetings I mean the smaller meetings I I don't know about these meetings what would you like to know well I I would have liked to be invited to one to do a meeting we actually asked you to host one um in our last conversation I suggest I said and then I said if you want to host one did you want it you know how did you want it structured and it looked like you were trying to it looked like you were trying to divide people in different cohorts and that that's not okay so I said I'm happy to but it needed to be community at large and we so but then I didn't hear back from you well I think the where we left the conversation was that when we have revisions would be an opportune time to then gather feedback from the group thank you thank you for that that makes sense so when you're ready we can go back to and we look forward to that okay but other electeds agreed to the smaller meetings yes okay got it thank you Council thank you uh Council Murphy thank you presentation um and for your obvious thoughtfulness of community um you know suggestions that you're going to continue to listen to but at at what point will scaling back and I'm not saying I have an opinion on how small or big this should be but at what point does it become like too small where the site where we know is a large piece of land that is in you know that section of Franklin Park that could hold more but I know that we don't want a burden and I agree with with that conversation but have you thought of that cuz often times we're talking you know with the planning board with developers who was scaling back on development and it's their bottom line profit that we they're going to lose but in this we're providing a service that we know we need there's never I mean we've had several hearings over the last couple weeks about housing and other needs for the city there's never there would never be enough affordable housing units right you could never say well that's too many or enough beds we know we need more recovery beds that are equipped to service um you know people who would have the Dual diagnosis so at what point would you pull out or think that well this isn't worth it because it's not going to yeah do what it needs to do for the state and for us in the city it's an important question and we've been trying to weigh that and and hold at once the feedback that we're getting with concern with simultaneously the public health and housing crises that um our initial proposal sought to to address and so um it's something we're considering and weighing um as you noted this is not something that um there is a uh for-profit Endeavor for Boston Medical Center we are a safety n Mission driven Health System um but but it's something that we're going to have to look back and uh or look at uh and factor in as we're making modifications and seeing what each um uh what each potential modification could mean for the the overall sustainability okay thank you no other questions chair thank you Council Murphy Council Flynn thank you Mr chair and thank you to the panel for your testimony um Mr chair I I know that the request for a proposal was put out by state officials and I obviously know that that this is a state project on State property surrounded by city of Boston property my my question or my question would be can The BMC team talk about the communication that you're having with the city with the state as it relates to potential jurisdiction challenges Public Safety Boston police Mass state police parks department DCR related issues environmental challenges City State Community engagement city and state response from Boston fire as well if there is a if there is a major issue on site or just over the over the area into the city who's who who has overall responsibility who are you coordinate coordinating with and how is that process going thank you counselor um so from the very beginning since before we even submitted the RFP we have been consistently um engaging the Franklin Park Coalition who I think is the most knowledgeable in the in this particular area of where things get tangled as far as public service and response um and so as we are have been in the process of of making the revisions and seeing ultimately When we arrive at the ultimate scale um we want to have the continue to have that conversation in concert with the Franklin Park Coalition so that we are not building a plan absent their influence and making sure that we take from their experience in order to help inform and lead in how we are going to approach the convoluted relationships between the state city um and you know specifically Park Rangers which the um which uh the Franklin Park Coalition has has lifted up as one key way to at least have some consistent monitoring um around the premises and uh particularly in the evenings so these are conversations that will continue and we look forward to arriving at a resolution you know certainly won't be perfect as I'm sure you you you share that it's going to be a challenge but we will you know ultimately try to get drive at the best resolution we can thank you I just want to follow up on that the challenges that this scenario presents itself um are significant and I'd rather see them just for my own benefit I guess but I'd rather see a plan in writing on scenarios that could potentially take place in responses from City officials from State officials there's a lot of potential overlap there's a lot of confusion potential confusion and jurisdiction issues that I've worked on previously unrelated to this but it's it's not issues that you're just able to fix right away it takes a long period of time negotiating with City officials nego negotiating with State officials negotiating with the neighb neighborhood residents impacted Community who were you working with um for the city of Boston uh specifically on on in general yeah I mean we've been in contact with the mayor's Administration um uh you know we've spoken with the um Public Health commission um with uh folks in mayor's leadership team um uh council members yeah no you saying from the mayor's office I'm I'm blanking on who else from the specifically from the may but we've been keeping them AB breast yeah but are they are they also concerned about potential challenges that this scenario presents itself believe so yeah and we've discussed a need to work through those plans with them and with the state um the the um Council you're raising an an important point and BMC wouldn't be comfortable moving forward with the plan without significant Clarity on those types of challenges if we're going to be operating high quality programs on the site um so definitely we plan to do that and and we have experience extensively collaborating with city and state officials uh in our operations at BMC who who is the top city official that you're working with on a day-to-day a week toe basis so the um the folks we have been in touch with regularly are um Mike Firestone Sheila Dylan and um um and um bisa oiu okay thank you Mr chair no further questions thank you Council Flynn uh councelor pepen thank you chair um BMC thank you so much for that presentation and for for being here again I just have a few quick questions um one what led you to start off with that number of propos units for in the RFP was it based on needs or was just just just out out of the ballpark number two number wise how many more beds are you proposing obviously you don't have an exact number right now um compared to the existing to the existing building um and number three in the presentation you mentioned offering wraparound services does that currently exist at the at the existing location or is that a new program can get started a yeah I think in terms of the sizing um this I'm just speaking towards the sizing of The Clinical Services we actually looked at um data from patients cared for at BMC and cared for across our partners and did um a gap analysis to really understand the number of patients who were falling out of care and the bed bed shortages they were facing so we we applied those analyses to the scale that we initially proposed um knowing that it wouldn't it was still an underestimate of what was going to be needed but knowing that we wanted to create as many beds as we would be able to sort of safely accommodate there um and then the wraparound Services what was the second question um how many how many more how many more technically proposed units compared to what exist I'm just thinking oh scale-wise I can answer that one so the um the um the currently there are just under 420 beds of services operational there's no permanent support of housing operational on the site um back in 2019 um and kind of more the equilibrium of shadic before covid and social distancing there were 550 beds of services but again no permanent Supportive Housing um our proposal originally um or in its original form reduce the number of clinical beds and shelter beds versus historical scale but increased um by adding in the first place permanent support of housing um meeting and and ining the minimum of the the RFP requirement do you want to speak to wraparound sir sure yeah so I think in current state that there are um a range of clinical substance use services on the campus and I think they they do coordinate um but they don't share Services between them so I think what we're hoping to do is have um some umbrella services such as housing case Navigators who can really you know meet the patient their first week um of receiving a service on this campus and and start to work their housing and um work with them it might be six to n months that they're on that campus really consistently work with them and that's a really rare opportunity now typically people are moving switching programs you know every four weeks and and getting a new counselor new housing person um so I think housing will be a really key value ad in terms of wraparound Services um and I think there other there other opportunities for efficiency as well I think in terms of Workforce Development Etc that we're hoping to leverage as well thank you no further questions thank you Council pen Council Weber sure um thank you chair uh Dr Pace maybe just answer this but did have have you done studies to about what is the need for substance abuse treatment services in the region yeah it wasn't an academic study but we looked at we basically looked at Medicaid data um from our own partner our our facility and our partners facilities is to look at what the need was yeah yeah what is the what what we think we basically have half the number of beds that our patients need and we see patients falling out of care so if you look at all the individuals who enter a detox facility um you know more than 70% of them are homeless and in that case we would really recommend that 100% of them go on to receive further inpatient substance use treatment because otherwise they're just going back to a shelter or to the street but only one in five is actually able to do that um and that's a level of care that I was looking for for my patient yesterday where their weight lists are 6 to 8 weeks long so we know that we're dramatically under under bedded right now yeah and just one thing I'll I'll add to that is um that number of the UN under supply of beds already factors in the couple hundred beds at shatak today um and so our proposal is um replacing um or maintaining some of those beds and then incrementally adding a little bit more on top of that so h i mean so how many beds uh short I mean do you have a number in terms of like how many beds you think would meet the needs of the region the total beds we do have that I don't have it at the top of my head we do it's um it's varies by level of care um the there uh the typical Continuum of recovery is detox to clinical stabilization services to residential rehabilitation services um to outpatient treatment and followup care um think like for the first uh program 7 days for the next program two weeks for the next program 3 to six months um and then out patient maintenance as long as needed um the the under Supply varies considerably based on the level of care there's actually not as much of an under supply of detox beds but there is a significant under Supply like hundreds of beds to uh you know low four digits numbers of beds for the uh CSS and the residential rehabilitation services beds for uh for the region no one site could address the the needs uh and we fully recognize that and support more okay and and um you know in coming up with a revised plan what uh impact has the you the mayor has talked about reopening Long Island like what what impact do you think that'll have or are you considering that how does it uh impact your thinking yeah it's an important question and um when we submitted our initial proposal um that was in the summer of 2022 no plans about Long Island or the bridge reopening had been announced yet when we were provisionally designated I believe actually no plans were were known yet as well um we are factoring that in and thinking through things um in the spirit of of what we were just sharing the scale of under supply of of essential Services um our view is it's probably both and more and we hope that they can play complimentary roles um but um the we are going to continue to factor that in and keep a dialogue with the city about it well could we have a situation where the short-term recovery is on Long Island and then if you kind of graduate to longer term recovery you know at the shadic I just as a non-doctor public health expert I'm just what do you think of that I think that I think having more the open door services early stage services on Long Island and then having people move to shatak when they're at later stages makes a lot of sense especially given sort of the the ways that the shat campus is really um so closely knit up into a surrounding community that would make a lot of sense um the minus is of course you want to make sure that um you front to have front door services being in an isolated location is also a little tricky so I think you would just need to figure out Pathways and supports to get people there but that's that's very much along the lines of weth thinking and and I think it's a great opportunity um okay so and again being new to this space can you just explain like what the financial model is why is BMC getting involved in this um you know how how how will they I mean we've seen issues Steward uh you know the Benjamin in terms of the the model explain it um you know yeah what's going on here um so we are a we are a nonprofit safety net Health System um that serves patients and members we um we were um I'm sure folks in this room are aware we were the only respondent to this request for proposals and um achieving something like this would um even in a modified and reduced scale like we're contemplating will require substantial government support the the um available rates for services don't cover the um the cost of construction or Debt Service Such that we'll need to collaborate with government on financing um the capital um we hope that we can get it to when I say sustainable I I mean that it can cover its costs and we can operate it as a responsible uh going concern for for years to come um not that it is generating profit because we are a nonprofit and that's that's not what motivates us to respond yeah they they're billable levels of care so all available to insurance so they have some level of ability to self sustain that way um okay well getting to that so I I've heard one I don't know what my time question yeah um the uh one criticism I've heard of The Proposal is that uh you know it'll for for people with substance abuse issues who don't have insurance they'll be provided with methadone uh whereas people with resources get subx Zone and that's more effective I I don't know what your response is to that that is not a trend we see in in Massachusetts with where we have such extraordinarily High rates of insurance and in fact methadone is actually very hard to get without any insurance so I would say I don't that is not true I think um and we're just incredibly fortunate to be in this state where for medication for opioid use disorder patients actually have access to a whole range of um whole range of medications especially with with with um State Insurance yeah the the primary inequity we see that is a concern for us is that as Dr Pace was describing it's really hard for people with public Insurance to access care there there aren't enough high quality beds and so that's creating access for people with public insurance is a guiding principle for us thank you chair thank you Council Weber uh Council Santana thank you Mr chair um and and thank you for panelist for for being here and and and providing that presentation um and thank you also to my colleagues or for first to the lead sponsor for um for bringing this to a hearing um and for my colleagues for um asking so many questions that I already um want to hear from I I think I want to use my time and you know you're going to readdress some of the stuff that you already talked about but um you know I have concerns just about the quality of life uh the impact that it will have on on the residents that are currently um um living in the neighborhood um so if you keep just kind of um spend more time just um speaking of of that impact and and the things that you guys are going to do um to avoid that and then um I know you also touched on on the safety plan as um chair of the of the Public Safety Committee um you know I'm really concerned to just um just want to hear more of your plan I know you kind of went into it but is it not fully ready yet or it's still being started out so would like to hear more um to that thank you glad to start in there and others Chim men um the for quality of life in the neighborhood many of the programs that we proposed have been operating on the shadic site for many years um and uh so we uh especially as we now are we we've heard that concern in the context also of the scale of our initial proposal so um we hope and expect that the modifications that we are planning that will bring down the scale um will mitigate some of those uh some of those concerns um we though also I I think many of the quality of life things uh that uh could be concerns we also see as opportunity in the spirit of bringing more green space and usable park space to uh residents of the area the uh the uh Shad site today is not exactly an inviting environment there are wonderful spaces immediately around the shatat campus the um the picnic Grove the tennis courts um but there isn't uh uh but the actual campus itself is uh largely isolated and largely parking and and brick buildings and so um by reimagining the actual 13 Acre Site into a much more usable um space with public ameni where we actually in our initial proposal uh suggested giving three acres of Park land back to Franklin Park out of the 13 acre parcel um we think those will be material Community benefits um we also will uh will uh prioritize Public Safety and uh for the public safety plan we had an initial plan related to uh related to our original proposal we are as we're making modifications we're going to be making changes to reflect the uh change in scale site layout and design program mix and um uh program mix and type um but there are some really common principles that we use as BNC BMC and our partners use already um we'll have as I I started to describe to to counselor as Anderson will have a um private public safety force that is trained in deescalation and um in uh working with uh uh working with vulnerable populations um that will be responsible for maintaining uh order and safety on the campus um we will uh have uh entry erass uh uh uh uh uh secure entry egress and monitoring uh we'll use technology around the campus um like uh video surveillance in order to uh monitor safety we will uh use lighting wayfinding signage in order to make it an inviting and navigable space for folks um and then we also have uh through uh again related to public amenities we think that is also going to support safety as well um the we proposed in our original uh proposal um creating a new bus uh a new uh Road in connection to Morton Street and busway um that will uh ensure that there's foot traffic and and folks who uh are coming and going um and also can mitigate some traffic concerns and issues for the site no great thank you you know I just want to um when in regards to the safety plan I I I do strongly urge when um when you do have that copy to really go and urge you to go to community um before that being that's that's finalized um a lot of the things you mentioned are are are do contribute to safety but also want to make sure um that we don't have any um consequences that we might not be thinking about so strongly urge you to um continue speaking to community thank you Mr chair thank you Council Santana uh Council Mia thank you chair and thank you to the sponsor for bringing us together and thank you to the panelists who are here and more importantly look at the community turnout this is what democracy looks like and I think I've been reading the faces as best as I can trying to get an understanding of kind of like reading the room and I feel feel like in many ways you all all are really trying hard at meeting a moment where you have so many different stakeholders right so you have housing Advocates you have um substance use disorder Advocates you have green space Advocates you have everyone in one space and all have very different opinions of what we need and how we need to get there and I just want to commend you because it is not easy trying to hold space for so many different diverse perspectives and so I just want to acknowledge how uncomfortable it is to be in spaces but also for me the process is far more important than the outcome and how we get there I think really is going to demonstrate our ability to see each other and listen to one another cuz I think that that's what is missing in these spaces is for people to really feel heard and Affirmed so I just I just want to acknowledge that it is not easy and so I commend you all um and The Advocates who have been so fiercely advocating for the things that they care about so um I have a few questions I am curious right like just help me understand I am always trying to find a win and what a win-win solution looks like and I'm curious if you all have considered um the West Roxberry high school campus right because there there is a space there that was up for discussion um whereas we won't impact our green um space there is the issue around it it is off of VFW Parkway so in terms of like residents and and and Transit and and things of that nature in terms of impacting of the community around you um we can minimize some of that chatter that we've been hearing right so I'm just curious um what considerations have you all entered into in looking for uh uh an alternate space yeah um so in considering that space or other alternative spaces um we would have to defer to the city and the state um in this case we responded to a state RFP for this specific site for these specific uses so I'm just going to throw that into the mix right because we need housing we do and we need Supportive Housing we do right so I'm going to go on record that there is definitely a need for us to have this discussion um and what I think so many of us are struggling with is the where it goes and I think that this is probably where the point of contention is because there's so many myths and facts and alternative realities that we're all like um struggling with so can you walk us through is there a dashboard a public space in which anyone can go to and see what your community engagement process has looked like how many Community meetings have you had who are the residents that have shown up how many of them are from Boston how many of them are organized groups like how many um you know what what have you decided to do based on the feedback that you received is there a public space for folks who are interested in your community engagement process because that's what this hearing is about is really to um en ensure that Community has a voice so I'm just curious is there something like that that exists yeah I do not believe we share that information on our project website it is something that we track and we Monitor and pay attention to to try to um be broadly distributed and who we're reaching and how um but it's something we can consider yeah I would recommend that only because what I hear often is that we had a meeting and it's like a check box but who shows up to that meeting um how much air space that person had um what influence and who they have access to in terms of power Brokers and decision makers it's like I just really want to make sure that as we continue to move through these processes that we're being as transparent as possible and that we can point to yes we've done our dual diligence this is what it looks like these are the folks that have engaged us um and I just want to say uh to you is that your your office has reached out to our office and we've been thinking about ways in which we create space for discomfort right and bringing people together who have very opposing views um so that we can figure out what it looks like to be in partnership with each other so I'm really looking forward to not just this hearing but outside of these formal spaces and places and also looking at other folks who are not highly engaged cuz this is this is what I worry about there are people who always are going to show up and then there are people who are most impacted but have absolutely no idea that these discussions are happening and I want to make sure that we get to a place where we could address that and I would love to hear what that looks like for you all thank you councelor Mahia as you know we are constantly in the community and so we intend to continue engaging the community on this topic like all topics and so um we'll um come up with a new process where we're able to make sure that that is open and accessible and we'd like to participate AB in that process because I my colleague asked the question around who are the city officials um and I'm I would I'm sure this is not the end of the conversation but I think that in terms of stakeholders you mentioned um Franklin Field I mean Franklin Park Coalition and I think that's great but I'm curious in terms of other stakeholders what does it look like when we open up the tent and create more space for other folks to be engaged and what has that process looked like so we've uh uh do I need Okay so we've um we've met with faith leaders we've met with um Boards of of uh community health centers and much of the feedback and concerns reflect the same feedback and concerns that we're hearing right now and I imagine we'll be hearing later today and so all of those points have been very helpful as we continue to to look back at the the potential revisions right so I would recommend and I'm this is my last thank you um chair um to my colleague uh counselor Anderson's earlier remark about siloing I think that there should be an opportunity for all of these stakeholders to be in the same room at the same time having the same conversation and I'm sure that probably has happened and I'm and and and and if it hasn't I going to encourage that because in terms from a transparency point of view I think that we can hear each other and then potentially because we might be in an opposing views we might be coming to the table with a solution that we can all agree upon so I would recommend that we have a open up the tent and everybody all in together girls any kind of weather girl type of environment thank you Council M uh We've also been joined by uh D4 city council Council Brian Morell Council Ro if you have any question floor is yours uh thank you chair and thank you for being here and thank you for the community for being here today um and thank you to council fernandz Anderson for um um posting this here in order um most I've been listening in um most of my questions have been asked um but kind of um going on of the trail that Council Santana was um alluding to on the public safety I know Public Safety you know sometimes a body but in terms of immediate like infrastructure like lighting call boxes um is that are those type of Investments looking to be made um in inside of this plan yes yes those are things that we would factor in along with our uh our own Public Safety Force for the campus okay and then um I know you guys don't have a new plan now but what's what's the timeline so we don't have a final timeline it will be in the months ahead um we want to continue to progress It Forward um but we will bring it back to uh bring it back to community in that process okay um well thank you again and um please continue to keep up the community engagement um um continue to incorporate what you're hearing today hopefully you guys get stayed for the remainder of of the hearing um and always feel free to reach out to our office to make sure that you're talking to the people that's most impacted to it thank you thank you Council roell uh we'll Now open up for a second round of questions I'll remind folks it'll be slightly less time than the first round oh sorry councelor uh uh council president ruy Lis Jen uh if You' like to introduce yourself and say ask your questions thank you thank you Mr chair and uh thank you I know that I sent in an absence letter because I was unsure that I'd be able to make it but happy to have uh been able to make it while this panel is going I want to thank my my colleague councelor fernan janderson for hosting this hearing thank you Mr chair for um allowing me the opportunity to speak and I as I was traveling in was listening to the questions that some of my colleagues were elevating and just want to um uplift some of those questions um and issues I and I want to highlight I think I what I what I heard you saying in response to a question Mr Soto is is that this proposal was really in response to a state issued RFP and uh there have been a number of community concerns that have been elevated I think Council Santana mentioned them a little bit when it when it comes to issues of safety that um and also like that the proposal you know the size and scope of the proposal and and and you all have internalized that information to really uh do another look and another dive at what uh the proposal would look like you've probably said this already for the record but is there a timeline when we will have that revised proposal before us we don't have a definite timeline but we um are hoping that will be in the months ahead okay um and I and I I wanted to uplift and I I perhaps I didn't hear the full answer when counselor Weber was talking about how does this fit into the larger ecosystem that we have of uh helping those who have are facing uh uh either chronic homelessness when you think about Long Island it was those for those who were suffering from mental health issues it was for those who are chronically homeless it was those who have substance abuse um disorders how does Long Island and this Council has committed alongside the mayor to investing deeply into Long Island as another solution how would this project fit into Long Island as a as a plan yes um so council president the uh requests for proposals that we responded to came out in the summer of 2022 and we responded then um well over a year before the announcement was made by the city about the um near-term path to the re reconstruction of the bridge to Long Island and that being a an asset open to the city again um and so that is information that we are processing um we uh the magnitude of Need for Clinical Services and housing and homeless Services is so great that um we see both sites as important elements and we hope and believe they can and should be complimentary uh assets and that'll need to be a dialogue with the folks in this room as well as um uh as well as the mayor and her team in order to ensure we can achieve that thank you and on the footprint of the current um of the current proposal there is and and I I just heard you state I think it was I don't remember whose question it was in response to that um there's you know the initial proposal was giving back three acres to Franklin Park is there thought what does the green space look like for um the development itself The Proposal like on on the side itself what would green space look like for those who are in long-term who are either long-term um hous there or who are who are there temporarily what does a green space look within the development itself that isn't relying on Franklin Park or any of the sound surrounding areas yep um so I will um go back one slide since it's still up on the U Monitor and council president we we spoke a bit about um so with the caveat that this is our original proposal and we will be modifying it so the the right side of the diagram will change um but on uh on the left side is the current site which is largely uh brick and asphalt um there are only 2.9 Acres of green and landscaped space and um under half an acre of um uh of Plaza and pedestrian space um the right side is the uh the original uh site the original proposal site plan um where we're able to more than double the amount of Green Plaza and pedestrian space on the site um while actually increasing the total scale of um of services on the site that's going to be a goal for us as we consider modifications to still be able to give space Chase back to Franklin Park and the 2.9 Acres that we or the three acres that we would give back are the very top portion of the diagram on the right side um that would be integrated back and designed with Community feedback and input in terms of what uh site elements folks would want to see there um for benefits that folks in programs would have um each program has its own private outdoor space Courtyard Green Space that they can go to for therapeutic purposes to have some privacy from uh from Park go um to create it uh as more of a home and a healing environment for them thank you and I I may be at Mr chair I had time no you have one more question guys okay I think I want to thank you um Mr shto for for that response I I wanted to turn my attention to who I think is you know someone who is not only a community leader but I think also I know takes Community engagement really seriously um can you tell me nice to be here with you um Aina uh Miss Martin um can you tell me a little bit about how you how The BMC has readjusted um its positioning or how it's thinking about this project in response to and and I know that we have community members here who are in support of this who are in support of long-term housing for those who are facing um who who have faced chronic homelessness or chronic substance abuse how has uh the ideas of BMC how was it shifted how have you internalized some of the negative Community feedback and how you're thinking about this project thank you councilor president um so I think as my colleagues have responded we um are making adjustments to size we've heard the community response to safety so we're addressing those things we've also heard the community response to like what's in it for us and so I think in the revision what you'll see are some um some benefits to the community so whether that will end up being like programming um I think that you know there'll be some of that in it but we we're definitely hearing the community and we're making the adjustments um in what you've seen now and in the future proposal I think you'll see more of that as well and so I don't know if my colleagues want to add more specifics um other than the things that we've listed here but we just want the community to know that in the conversations where we've been able to make sure that we're presenting the truth about what this is and what the process have been we're also hearing back and we've heard you and so um I think um the the counselors and the community members here will be very pleased with what they hear from us coming in the future as the proposal is revised thank you Trina one small question and I know you aren't the state um and I think that I just want to underline that but I think part of the frustration that we feel is like everything is happening in Boston when this is a this a Statewide issue so if you know a proposal or like the state looking at I know her about facilities in Westboro and other parts of the state that have the capacity and the ability if you know about any developments happening outside of Boston um that's my those are my questions sorry Mr chair if you know about anything else happening where we're trying to deal with this Regional Statewide issue that's not Boston you know Boston's doing a chair but in so many ways we do more than other places and I think that would help alleviate the frustration if we know about what's happening or what's in the work in other areas I know you're not the state but if you know I'd appreciate hearing that yeah we're not aware and would have to defer to the state um and and their expertise there thank you and thank you council president uh so we'll now go to the second round of questions that this is a a shorter round than the previous current question that we just had uh but we'll start back at the top with the sponsor Council fernandz Anderson thank you um chair um everything is happening in Boston but everything is happening in district 7 that's what's happening it's not just it's not Boston particularly it's district 7 the shadic the white Stadium uh the Blue Hill Avenue master plan Columbus AV and tront o'briant we had to deal with that and now we have to wait as the administration is saying till 2029 for any improvements on the building or any plans um the list goes on and on and on and I i' I've already I've already shared 80% um rental 54% uh low affordable housing of all Boston's affordable housing in district 7 Roxberry in particularly which is right next to the park um and used to be rockberry and somehow got renamed to DOR Chester and so it's it's not Boston it's particularly black and brown communities and that so you hear the frustration from community and there's this need and I heard you I wanted to Echo um apologies about the name I wanted to Echo missed Miss Weeden thank you um about fear of the unknown it just so happens that this is something that I'm really familiar with um and so it's for me not fear of the unknown and there there are no um people here saying no not in my backyard that is not the case people are not squeamish people are not saying people should not get Services people are supportive in fact black and brown people are always breastfeeding people's babies we're always taking in people we're always taking protecting and taking the brunt of responsibilities for the entire city of Boston and you all know that everyone here knows that um but I'd digress and back to my questions um particularly with I'm really interested in wraparound Services really interested in understanding facilities that you're building to actually support wraparound services or holistic uh trauma informed uh models what facilities exactly are going to be added and I don't mean the Green Space yeah and are you thinking facilities like the design of the buildings or the St like like a raiki pod or like a you know yoga studio or what are those like you you and we know right we know that it's not the drugs that get us to there are alternative medicine there are other ways right practices exercise healthy eating and other types of um alternative ways that actually support this um in in a higher scale so I guess for right for mental health in particularly I'm not going to touch the um op opioid but how what facilities will you be building to make this like a holistic cuz that's that's what I'm interested in I want to see a I or any campus that deals with um treatment to be holistic so can we talk about how is it holistic I think we're kind of in the early parts of we're sort of as we work through the modified proposal and figure out what are the levels of care that we can fit that would be on a smaller scale but that would still create a sort of um comprehensive set of services um what as we once we kind of get the go-ahead to move with that then I think we get to do the fun stuff of thinking about what can we do here that's really Innovative that um these patients do not have access to in other settings and I love the ideas as you suggested so um we've we definitely we've been starting to visit different facilities um our Coalition Partners have a lot of experience with this I think we're starting to like you know um modify our staffing models to make room for people like artists and others who can really bring their expertise so we're not there yet I think and we don't have the chance yet to really um build those out but we're very eager to do so and I think that would be a great area to really engage the expertise of our city you can see where my question is leading that when it's not holistic then we have this Perpetual issue right of more people um uh or relapsing or not being successful in their treatment um and so you see you see we saw that with roundhouse and we saw right and now even with the community process there with relocating folks a mess um no fa to your own because I I do appreciate so far that you are available that you want to work with Community um I want to make that very clear that thus far very extremely cordial professional and engaging and available I appreciate it I appreciate you for this um however I'm saying that not not not only in service when things get placed in uh poverty concentrated areas they also get low quality and so your development has to be high quality in the sense of that it supports the facility itself not just service you know the popup service but the facility itself also complements this holistic ecosystem yeah we could not agree more and I think that's also a really strong argument for doing that type of thinking early I mean I think the place where we're doing it the most is thinking about um you know what's the Staffing model you need to make sure that you are addressing every single person's mental health condition not just their substance use disorder that does not happen in current stage and so we've been really like combing through like what staff do we need to have like actually medical professionals working with behavioral with mental health professionals with substance use professionals what's that Staffing model and actually so it's actually an umbrella right right yeah working with Mass health on the rate and the different level of cares and how you're creating right this this this uh ecosystem and the linguistic and cultural competence to work with the with the patient population then shouldn't it be the argument then to centralize because isn't that the best practice like smaller programs yeah like not 800 not 500 not 400 shouldn't it be smaller and shouldn't it be more holistic the current design I mean the modified modified program is not as large as what we proposed initially and the idea is to break it into smaller units so that they're they have more of that Community feel so you're going into that different level of care and it's decentralized in a way because it's different campuses is that yeah so so the some of this is in the kind of like design of the building and the units that we've considered where people will kind of start in a small unit and program and move to the next small unit and program and the move to the next and so forth in know like integrated un I remember cuz you said that you want higher you want higher quality for people with insurance right the problem is we're always giving you know poor neighborhoods you know crap we we want I mean we are we are BMC we want to deliver exceedingly high quality Clinical Services to folks and speaking of that the people that will benefit from this are not you know 50% of people in district 7 or like so they're just you're not going to discriminate you're not going to say from here or from there we can't even do that right so what are the amenities and benefits to the current residents in this area yeah but not the green space please don't talk about grass anymore don't tell me about food forests and I don't want to eat your eggplants yeah I want real amenities in Black communities where we can have higher quality of life yeah so you don't blame me for for proposing that no okay the the catchman area that BMC as a hospital is responsible for the patients who we provide Primary Care to who we see in our emergency department in our inpatient bed are principally coming from the south end southe Roxbury Dorchester matapan JP and Ros everywhere in Boston great the preponderant are also in uh affiliated with uh a community health center Network Boston Health Net that we are part of um that is community health centers primary care sites will you give the community anything that improves quality of life to help mitigate this to help make it better will you are you going to do anything else for this area for district 7 we think that the access to Clinical Services that we can create because of that Network and because of BMC being you named about seven towns we're only one we're at time councelor yeah yeah there are also employment opportunities the actual construction of the site um and the Redevelopment that we will bring to the area um there so there are many things that that we believe will be very good in this District it's not a benefit it's a deficit thank you um s those left uh Council pepen if you have any further questions um I do have a question um just one what will happen if nothing is done with the Shad yeah I would have to defer to the state on that um it's ultimately their site and their there okay thank you that's it okay thank you Council pen Council Weber okay uh thank you chair uh so what does the science say about how many people can be effectively treated in a space like this and then also you know whether you can have short-term recovery long-term recovery folks next to each other I don't think there's any I don't think there's any scientific studies of small versus large programs and whether they work I think our our partners who have a lot of experience running these programs have you know I think favor sort of medium-sized programs like generally pretty small programs because they feel like it enables a stronger sense of community um closer relationships between clinicians and patients um and so I think what we're really trying to do are emulate those smaller programs um even if we may have a cluster of several of those if that makes sense yeah is I I I think one of the one of the first webinars or or Zoom meetings we had as a as a community about this somebody asked is there a similar size project to the the original proposal and I can't remember who response to someone from BMC I think said there's something in Singapore that's a similar size so you know in terms of like where we can look obviously it's not uh very reassuring uh for folks in the community um you know is there somewhere else we can look at there are large scale like programs that only take private insurance or self-pay um you know Hazelden has a very large scale program for example um they're not most of those places are not publishing rigorous reports of their patient outcomes which makes it hard to know um but I think it's you know I think um the modified proposal I think is does not feel dramatically large I don't think it's going to feel um daunting or uh corporate I guess for for for our patients I think we will be able to create something that feels like a normaliz program um for for our patients okay and when we talk about mitigation and I don't know uh Sharps teams and call boxes and things who in your proposal who's responsible for that is is it BMC the city the state what's your plan yeah so it'll be BMC in collaboration with other entities that are responsible in the park we'll have to work with the city with the parks department with the state and the state police um but we will do that coordination work I mean it's is part I don't know m Mr s well just and that's in partnership with the primary caretaker stakeholder of the park but the Franklin Park Coalition who has been going to bat for the kinds of things for a long time that we would be joining in that fight with them to make sure that we have you know the proper safeguards no yeah I just ask that in the RFP I mean I I I think it would uh be a good thing if you include funding for those things and there's estimate it's not just got got it there'll be something in the future we're not sure what it'll be uh you know that should be part of the plan um uh I so in terms of uh I mean that the Cottages there now like what what is your anticipation I you know to extent you have any idea but uh in the revised plan for them so we our proposal did not include the Cottages we proposed um ending uh ending or winding down that program and that would be up to the state what to do next with them okay but you wouldn't have control over that the state could still keep up the Cottages or not with the site that that we laid out so we would uh redevelop the site and we in our original proposal um told that the state that they would need to wind down or relocate The Cottages okay do I get one I I don't know what the time is um so in terms of what do you have you done any analysis about who would be served I think councelor fernandz Anderson mentioned you know uh people from Boston people from outside of Boston do you know are you if somebody's from Maine and they're they're looking for services are you going to send them back to Maine or how will that work and then do you know what percentage of people you're expecting will be actually from Boston versus coming in from somewhere else um that's a great question I think for the to your first point I think the we our goal would be to work very closely with all the referral with referral potential referers all around Boston right so community health centers we've already been starting to meet with um outpatient behavioral health programs community behavioral health centers hospitals so who are serving people from this area um who are in need of these services so I think we'd really you know form those relationships form those smooth relationship pathway referral Pathways to ensure that our referrals were coming locally um I think it's it would be very especially you know Insurance Contracting is a big part of who you take I think it would be very unusual that we'd be ended up being contracted with any out of state payers um and able to take an out of state individual that would certainly not be our goal okay I am I I have one more oh okay um well uh in terms of I guess going just going back to mitigation right because uh you know I first started running for office I I see some people here in the in the audience who I took a walking tour of Franklin Park they they live right on alongside the park in district 6 and they're concerned with you know the needles and and impacts uh on the community and so what do you think are the best things that can be done uh you know if your proposal is going forward you know what are you going to try to put for uh to to mitigate those those effects I can speak to the clinical campus and I'll pass it to Rob for the housing but you think the clinical campus is a pretty tightly controlled ecosystem like the the um these are pretty structured levels of care where individuals have very limited time for kind of free time out and about and um the buildings in current state are designed so they have Courtyards so that outdoor time is still kind of on the campus within the treatment facility so I think the um we do not anticipate a lot of additional needles or Park traffic related to The Clinical Services buildings but I'll pass to Rob for the housing yeah and I think for overall for the site will be a robust Public Safety presence and Public Safety plan that we will execute against um that will be us with our partner organizations like Pine Street in that have extensive experience uh in operating the facilities we also reduced scale is going to reduce the impact and and some of the concerns that we've heard about neighborhood stress um we want the park to be an inviting place thank you chair thank you CH thank you councilor Weber I do want to be mindful I know some folks had a time constraint I just so we'll try and finish up but just want to remind you in case you lost track of time as well um uh Council Santana thank you Mr chair with your permission um I would like to Grant my my time to The District counselor and and the lead sponsor on this with your permission granted um we'll save you for back at the end then is that right right um Council Mia okay um I feel like I'm in a NOA there's always I don't know if you ever watched those Latino noas so dramatic there's always a villain in those noas there's no villain here so um because in many ways it feels like you know you are here taking the stand and you're taking the hit and you're here representing in um and we appreciate that not to say that you are the villain I'm not saying that um but I think that we as as humans have a a way of just trying to figure out who are the people that we're going to be mad at um and and so I just want to acknowledge that I know that you guys are getting a lot of heat um and I can say that because I know what it's like to be on your on the receiving end of that heat and so I just want to acknowledge that it is not easy because you're trying to do the right thing right and and and um doing the right thing sometimes is hard for everyone to to to Grapple with and so I guess my question is as you continue to navigate these very difficult conversations um at what point are you really going to say this is this is what it is is and this is all that it can be and we're going to move forward with it or not like what where are we in that yeah I think we're in the process of of trying to incorporate feedback and and being in a position where we can bring back and talk through modifications and a modified plan with Community stakeholders um we recognize folks here are here because they're passionate um and because they believe in what they are speaking about and we really respect and appreciate that so we'll try and honor that as we as we are considering modifications and and how to carry it forward we also fully expected this will be also going through the article 80 process which is another layer another another continuation of the conversation um so it would be I guess to to directly to your point it would I guess arrive that moment would arrive once we complete that process yeah because what I have seen here in the short period of time that I've been in the seat is that people are always feeling like things are being done to them without them right and so each phase is going to give people an opportunity to speak and but I'd like to hear from you all is there a a scenario in which you all are prepared to say the community has spoken there is adverse reaction um and resistance and you'll say we can't in good faith move forward with cuz what I don't want is to set people up for an unmet expectation right and so here we are having a hearing here we are creating space for Community to be heard but sometimes people feel like it doesn't really matter how loud we scream people aren't listening to us is there a scenario in which Community voice could influence you all otherwise just out of curiosity so I would just sort of just for from the premise of the question I wouldn't presuppose that it's all oppositional right like I think there are a lot of people who are very supportive who actually want to see more housing that actually want to see more services on the site and so we want to hear everybody out throughout this process till the very end great great I was just going to add um we are here and we responded to the RFP because of the need that we saw in the community like we are BMC so we saw that there was a significant need which prompted us to respond to this this RFP I think as we continue to have Community conversations it's evolving I think you guys have seen it evolve um we heard your um um your request for holistic Services I think if we look at what we did in Brockton and we use that as an example in terms of who we hired how we built like it it is a state-ofthe-art facility because we know our people deserve they deserve Excellence as well and so we're um evolving and proceeding with all of these things in mind so I I I agree with um with my colleague that like not all of the responses have been Negative they agree with us that this is a need but we have to figure out how to grow this and how to present it in a way that it serves everyone including the community and also including the folks in the surrounding areas who live in that area of the park and and and that's why I asked the question because I think it's important for those who are tuning in and are paying attention that there are so many different stakeholders and there's so many different levels of understanding of what is at play and I think that these uh opportunities give you all an opportunity to get things on the record and I also want to just commend the um the sponsor of this hearing because normally when you have hearings it's always stacked with all of the people who are on one side or another in this particular case we're are going to hear from people from both sides and I think that that is really key in terms of decision making and I'm glad that you all are participating in in in in that discourse so I just want to say thank you to you both the chair and the sponsor for being super intentional about creating space for all voices to be heard in this platform thank you councilman here Council Morel thank you chair um I understand this is a you know Regional Pro problem and you know Boston is definitely playing its role and um you said that you had conversations with community health centers and other providers that provide similar um um Services just to get a kind of understanding of those conversations can you talk to like how many of those um U service providers were you know providing residents not well how many residents were Boston residents that were receiving those type of services from those community centers so we we've started to um speak specifically with community health centers like cin Square matapan Health Center um really to introduce the project kind of get their early feedback and then really start a dialogue where we'd be developing shared clinical programs referral Pathways Etc so I think that you know what we would really like to do is have our services be um you know a continuation and a real extension of what they offer and really serve the individuals they're seeing right now and I I think one of the concerns I I do have is um and I think some of my other colleagues have mentioned this is that this is a you know Regional problem and a lot of people um are saying like we're we're taking like one of the largest sites in in in the in the state on um how many of them are serving Boston Boston how much how much of this will be serving Boston residents okay yeah I think we we've heard that concerned too and I think by building really concerted strong relationships with local care providers then we can really help prevent that from being a problem all right um and if possible whatever time I do have left I'll seed it over to council f going to have the rest of the day's going um thank you councilor uh councilor lisian uh thank you Mr chair and I just want to thank all of my colleagues for asking great questions I eager to get to the next two panels and realize that I'm on different kind of temps I can imagine that others are on different kind temps I just want to thank you thank you for being for also listening and hearing and internalizing Community um and I also just want to thank you because I I I often times think and I struggle with this especially for our hospitals who are here in the city of Boston that we expect the most from those who care for the least Among Us and I often feel that way for Boston Medical Center even when I'm sort of chiding you even when we're going back and forth on an issue even when we don't agree that we expect so much from you as an institution in a way that we don't expect from our other hospitals and institutions that are here so you really are centered in community and so I just want to say thank you you cared for my grandfather may you rest in peace when he was um when he was when he was not well um when others uh turned him away and I just want to thank you for that because these conversations are very difficult how we figure out how we care for the least Among Us is very difficult and BMC is often there and often centered in that work hearing the criticism from me as an elected official from others and from community so I just wanted to say thank you um and I want to make sure that we can get to the next panels thank you great thank you councilen uh before we go over to council Fon I just my two sents I do want to Echo what councilor Weber said about having the uh programmatic and financial foresight of what could happen in a worst case scenario right if things so I I do uh believe in that you know the the management of that ahead of time will be good because there could come a moment where you guys will have to step up more to to uh uh mitigate certain impacts right and so the fact that you guys please uh have that in your foresight Council Fernandes Anderson you want to take us home um thank you Mr chair thank you Council centen Council Ro um and councelor Mia um actually that is credit to um the chair who um of course I was thinking that BMC is on one side and then the community was on the other and he said well there's a middle there's a middle so thank you uh Mr chair for that um in terms of you know when we're talking about and I just want to bring context because I and I I I don't want to go into questions because we don't have much time we're going to the next panel and I know that uh you guys are going to stay to listen um and I appreciate that um in terms of district 7 the context here is that it's the most disenfranchised District um and now second um in terms of Investments to uh uh Council or's District uh which includes matapan um and so when you're thinking about when an Administration comes in that wants to do things and wants to do things fast or responses to rfps that creates or renovates um facilities like the shadic then uh there are because of the historic deficits there's so much to be done and so of course you know then all of these agendas will come our way like and then you hear things like don't you want something to happen don't you want renovation don't you want housing for poor people hey uh and then this is people talking to the most vulnerable Community hey vulnerable people like don't you care about poverty these don't you care about service treatment and that's heartbreaking that's heartbreaking because historic harms uh or redressing historic harms should look opposite you Equity would mean that you come in and you invest uh uh uh more than you have in the past because now people this district has to catch up not that you come in with this you know sort of and I not I'm not saying you're saying this I'm saying that for the people watching uh the district or the community or the residents there should not be guest lit to feel that they don't care about housing because nothing is going to happen if BMC doesn't come and save the day that's not the case right that's not the case people want treatment for people and I've been very clear that I really want to see a beautiful high quality uh holistic facilities of or or that that that creates this ecosystem this campus for treatment and we should be in intentional we should be transparent we should be transformative in how we do that I really care about this I work for dmh um I work for some someone in the audience um in the past and doing these services and I really want to see that for our for this community but in particularly if you're going to put in district 7 the most historically disenfranchised District in Boston then give quality and then also think about how that impacts the the the residents already there this means that you're thinking about um Community benefits I can't speak for the atlarge counselors I'll let them tackle the other hospitals I'll let them in their own time and agenda to go after the other hospitals but you're in my you're in district 7 so I'm going to go I'm going to talk to you and we're we're going to I'm going to be asking you hey where can you offer benefits amenities quality of life Improvement quality of life the issue is that if we continue to con densely populating pover and service and nonprofit things that don't contribute to our economy what we are doing is perpetuating systemic racism and we do that because we're not actually investing in Social determins of Health in a preventative way what we do is we come back to the vulnerable community and we say don't you care about this pain that we caused that we now are putting here in your district and so that doesn't actually address social determinance of Health that's the Band-Aid approach that's the Western medicine thing right we just sort of you know treat it we don't cure the disease the disease here is that systemically there's a racist structure that has disinvested our district and when you bring the service to a place bring it small and bring it quality and make again again right not qu quantity quality and make sure that it's more intentional I just wanted to leave you with that and I hope you receive it well and I look forward to continue to talk with you thank you thank you council fand is Anderson uh panel thank you very much uh for coming you you may now be released I appreciate you guys all thank you we gowhere you're not going anywhere are you staying here're going to we need the seats though right here we're going to bring down the second panel uh we'll do a 5 minute recess just for folks need to go do whatever they got to do but please come back and we'll be much stricter with the times uh going forward on the next two panels hey Mr all right I e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Applause] e thank you everybody uh coming back from recess and uh the second panel uh is now set um so uh I'd now like to introduce today's panelists uh testifying in opposition uh on behalf of the community uh we have uh Diane Wilkerson uh Luis Alisa Derek Evans Leah Randolph and Rory coffee um if you could all introduce yourself as you uh as where we first speak if you want to go down the L end uh wilon we could start with you uh and then I will uh do do our councils have any uh any opening statements for this panel or no we'll just go right into folks go right into questions right um so yes if you guys would like to introduce yourself and then uh start your presentation and we'll go right into the question rounds of questioning after that uh and again we'll be a lot tighter with the uh stricter with the timing of questions in this round uh for us please and thank you happy to start um Mr chairman if if I could and please ask you not to count this toward my time I just want to say a thank you to the coun you don't have you don't have any time you guys are the same so um Diane Wilkerson um author president contempor Inc resident um one block off from the site that we're talking about but um what I really would like to do is just start with a thank you to the council um on yesterday we had what is a rare occurrence for roxburry there's a victory in court um regarding the appointment of a receiver for a facility Mr chair I know you are very familiar with Benjamin Health Center um and it was councelor Mahia Council the council president um councelor Santana I'm hoping I don't forget anyone councelor Anderson um no I want to save a special one for councelor Weber who have been um supportive of us but councelor Weber actually has been like literally on the ground and was involved in helping to secure council with the lawyers committee who testified in most magnificent presentation in court on Tuesday afternoon and we we didn't know when the judge would act but literally at 700 a.m. Wednesday morning we got an order that the judge was approving the appointment of attorney Joe fer as the receivership and so um yeah you you all deserve thanks for that big thanks to you and c special thanks to councelor re here we go Council re so so here today my job today is really to contextualize that kind of the history of the community's involvement really to correct some of the record not the least of which is that we constantly introduced as opposing the project right um to clarify there is no community that has been more receptive as councelor uh Anderson fernandis Anderson has said of the need for substance abuse services sober houses um so we we we we give that space to no one we want to be involved we want to provide the service um so I just want to I I want to state that because that is so important all the conversation has been about who's opposed and who's supportive we're supportive of people we're supportive of the delivery of services in our community and the way that everybody else deserves it we think that this process has turned on its head as we are seeing more and more of revision of of what is basic City advocacy development process where there's rules for the city and then there's rules for Roxberry and and and and it is important to note that because I think some for example for example there's been much conversation about the role of Franklin Park Coalition this actually Franklin Park Board what I think is missed in this this is not an event this is a development process and it's a development process where under our City Rules a Butters have priority it is not that it's dismissing the position of Franklin Park Coalition but they have been dismissed in this process for the benefit of the uh Butters like Mr Alisa lives across the street I live on the side on the americ Legion Highway one black over right that's that's a legal right that we have completely completely dismissed and so when the presenters talked about the community meetings we organized those we had them right on American Legion Highway across the street the Brook School is there what those children are viewing every day is open sexual intercourse all day every day the dealings that's going on you all ask all the right questions all of the right questions no police have been engaged in this process we talk to them we talk to e13 our organizations are the only ones who've been talking to them so when you talk ask the question about jurisdiction that's important the most important not not much of this conversation in the presentation that you heard was about the delivery of service how ironic that this whole discussion is about centralizing substance abuse delivery for to be clear 850 One units I don't you know every you know there's all kind of skating on a site that we dis deinstitutionalized Mental Health Services because that's no longer how we practice the delivery in this country in this country there is no other model there is no other model and we are tired of being the guinea pigs what we have done is gone uh out and put together a coalition that really looks different from most most of the coalitions in this city because they tend to be fractured so much of the conflict in Boston is about race we are proud to say that we have a huge Co Coalition of people from JP from Georgia white people let me just say it out loud right who are standing there and working with us on a unified issue and so we don't want that to get twisted either we're standing here together we have compiled our own set of experts you're going to hear from the most well-respected substance abuse to recovery expert in our community who has been at this for 40 years at one time operated the only two in service inh house black women we had one for black for black men we had a Latino house for Latino males why because our substance abuse delivery is done differently there is no there's no medical theoretical support for the idea of putting all the substance abusers in one place active users and by the way their families every time we go to a meeting we ask people we asked the president of of of BMC you you you moving your children there you coming from Brooklyn you coming from duckberry you come you moving your children into an addiction Village this whole concept which we didn't spend enough time discussing is absolutely crazy they have convinced a whole number of people that this is about Supportive Housing for immigrants I saw one of the people who was on the list to testify and I called and I said I see your testifying what are you going to say you said I'm going to say I'm going to testify about supporting Supportive Housing for immigrants it's offensive to us because the proponents went out and recruited black people from Melrose from Everett because you know for us any old black face will do right to come here and tell you they support immigrant housing that's not what this is It's not what it is we all support housing of course we support housing the question about the J the the reach the jurisdiction it's in the proposal 20 miles 20 miles is the is the scope from which the potential recipients residents will come and you know why that's a problem for us because the very path to rediction recovery is very regimented and black and brown people don't aren't in it don't they're not in it and so everybody keeps saying trust me I know that's not what 100% of the of the of the residents of those Cottages that Charlie Baker dropped on us before he walked out the door 100% were white people that's not that's not to say we're opposed to addiction recovery for white people but to the extent that this is being sold is something that's going to help Boston resident council president you asked this you are absolutely right the process will not result it unless unless they're changing it but we haven't seen anything different why because yes we've been doing those meetings yes we have we had a meeting August 1st there were almost 200 people there wearing masks it's actually the meeting I caught Co for the first time right um and I know it because it's the only time I was outside that week we had another meeting October 23rd at the Brook School almost 300 people were there we had we we shut we actually broke down the the zoom because we couldn't handle any more folks and we had almost 200 people in the audience That's How concerned they are we asked lots of questions can I tell you we haven't gotten an answer to a single one of them so that whole Community engagement process that you just heard laid out I don't know who what they're talking about we've not gotten an answer to one of the questions so we keep coming to hear this and it's so important that we hear it in front of you and I asked councelor Flynn I said make sure you stay cuz I wanted him to hear this point because I know how protective and how organized that they that the South Boston Community is and we respect them we know that you would not allow them to come and bring elected officials my my counselor's not going to South Boston and going to have a better say than you she shouldn't she shouldn't how in the hell are we going to meetings about this at English high school because the adjoining rep and this is this whole thing is got has gotten turned upside down it doesn't have to be we want to see service delivered especially to the many black and and Latino men and women who are living up and down the streets of Blue Hill Avenue in the storefronts in Grove Hall in the storefronts of new Bean Square they've been there they were never part of mass and Cass there was never a press conference where the mayor announced they were doing five million or whatever for the people that are lingering all up and down the streets in our community they're still there and those kids that come out of that school that Brook School on a daily basis you wouldn't want your children to see what they see every day and guess what they're not enough police this is not a bash of police they're not enough of police for us to to to manage that it's constant the drops the bags of drugs that get left in the park and we wait and we watch for the person who's who ordered it and they come pick it up and we're calling and maybe 30 minutes later this is not our our thinking we have it on video we have pictures of it right this is not what we think is happening I had the privilege of being of spending the day in the hospital with Dr Jee Maguire the day after she was assaulted and almost killed in the park we're sitting here today from October 2022 and no one has ever been arrested for that assault that almost killed killed her this is the reality so the questions that you ask about safety are so important but there isn't a plan I heard some stuff today sounds good never heard it before this the the um auditor and I'm going to wrap the state auditor right now is is investigating this whole process because we've never had a process where dcam put out an RFP which is very specific about size and someone responds with a proposal that's seven times this the maximum size laid out in the RFP it was this community this united front that went at them that went at the Secretary of Health and Human Services at those meetings and the letter writings and meeting with the state and forced them to explain themselves and they couldn't which is why it's back on the with they had to go back to the drawing board you absolutely right they should we want a pro we'd love to see it look mayor curlyy sold that's that that's that that space in Franklin Park and it everybody knows that so we talk about the history we start in 1950 like that's where it started he sold it out of that Park the Crown Jewel of the hestad necklace that's what that is now they're proposing a soccer stadium that's going to shut shut down par uh traffic on one end a animal hospital did you all know that the city of Boston is proposing to build an animal hospital now in Franklin Park and now at 850 unit maybe it's going to be 400 it's still too much because it's the wrong place you asked the question about where else we ask the state you've got 12 empty military sites you've got 15 empty hospitals have you looked at any of them they said no thank so you're going to hear I I think the facts and what you need to hear about this because this is just wrong it's the wrong place today is the first time we've ever heard that there was City officials actually involved because guess what they've been hiding so now we know we got to go talk to Sheila Dylan and Dr ojak cutu and who else did you and and Mr Firestone because of course he knows all there is to know about Roxberry Dorchester and Franklin Park give me a break thank you Senator I'm sorry thank you Mr chairman no I appreciate it uh for procal purposes do I know just saw how this panel is going to act are we just going to go down the line are each you going to uh have something to say is that it is there the I just want to make sure there's a presentation this is our expert great no I just want to be more I just want to be mindful of time too as you guys go so if we're just going to go in order that's fine um but on to next please introduce yourself and and and present thank you um good afternoon my name is Leah Randolph um I want to first thank um you for H for hosting this I think it's really important uh for us for us to have an open transparent conversation where that that includes legislators includes community and includes Boston Medical Center where uh we can ask questions and hear the answers or the non answers um I am a person in long-term recovery I've been in recovery for 35 years conat I have um run residential programs outpatient programs developed programs in our community for two decades the first program that I that I ran was called first Incorporated for those who know the history of our residential Community residential program and outpatient program in Boston in Roxbury for specifically people of African ancestry out of those five programs that we had we had a residential program for women a residential program for women and children a residential program for men a residential program for Hispanic men and an outpatient program 85% of people who went through those programs because they were living in the community were successful the programs were all small based holistic approached programs that were culturally specific culturally inclusive to the people that live in the communities and we know for a fact I know that that um someone asked a question um to Boston Medical Center and uh Dr Pace said that it didn't exist no it does it has it doesn't today but it has existed and people have gone on and moved on in their lives like me and other folks to become doctors and lawyers and program developers and and have been able to do the work and continue to do the work as Senator Wilkerson said we are not opposed to treatment how could I be opposed to treatment that doesn't even make sense we are not opposed to treatment but we are opposed to the systemic racis that exists within the systems and that's why we are seeing the astronomical numbers of black people that are dying in Massachusetts in our communities um as compared to the rest of the country Massachusetts is number four on the list being one of the smallest states number four on the list for the number of black people that are dying from substance use disorder there's a problem with that one of the problems is because we do not have one culturally specific program that really looks at and deals with the culturalism in the needs of people in our community I went on to get my bachelor's degree from from um Mass Boston I got my master's degree from Cambridge College I sit on the on the city on the state board for substance abuse counselors um I also have my own mental health and behavior behavioral health program in Dorchester where we service over 300 children we also have a second program in Lynn it's called Commonwealth mental health and wellness program and we and we work on the wellness and the health and the healing of the people in our the communities that we serve what's important is that people from the communities are working in these programs because there's a trust factor that absolutely does exist and and we all know why I don't have to say it again there a trust factor that exists because when I worked in places I did work at Boston Medical Center in the emergency department and what I saw in Project desert um as we were building our clinic and what I saw was a lot of folks that were not from our communities coming in and their parents insisting that we place their kid in treatment and when we would call to place if we we had a black person excuse me that was 45 years old and we had a white person that was 21 years old guess who got the bed and so that's a problem that we're that we've been facing and that's why we're seeing the numbers that are dwindling in terms of access to services for people from our communities um it is important that we understand that the exposure of of having people who are working towards recovery in the same site with people who are not have no oversight um it a it's a conflict of interest and what happens is that when people are struggling every single day to be able to just get up and tell themselves that I can't can't use today no matter what and then they go outside of the treatment facility where they're staying and there are people out there that are using and that are not supervised it becomes a challenge for them and their hearts and their spirits to be able to move forward and to be able to continue with their treatment and so we have to look at what services are going to be are going to be rendered to our community and how are we looking at the modalities the modalities have to be separated they cannot all be in one place in order for people to move forward is that my time my time is up I just want to make sure we can get to everybody El it's okay but thank you all right I I just want to just just make sure that the point is understood that we have had services that have been successful that there have to be a smaller model that modalities cannot be mixed and that and that we have to we have to address the systemic racism and that communities of color have to be the providers of the services to people that live in the community thank you thank you very much sir thank you good morning um just please introduce yourself that's all yes good morning thank you for the opportunity to share a new um factual version of the very important and horrifying situation my name is lisis Alisa I'm president of the Garrison Tri neighbor Association an organization that has cons existed now for the past 45 years in the city of Boston continuously um in addition um I am a founding member of the Franklin Park Coalition and for the past 45 years have continued to work to be a member and me a part of the Coalition I represent organization Garrison tra which has been a part of it as well as princea Masons and others in addition um I'm a seven-year Survivor of a horrendous process to destroy Frankin Park Community as a member of the community Advisory Board from the very beginning from seven years I've been a part of The Advisory board that was supposedly working to um to look at this process to see how it could be affected and um I'm also a former Clinic administrator of a drug treatment facility blue laal drug treatment facility methodone program in the 70s under bch I'm here today because I'm one a mission to bring closure and Clarity to a travesty of uh social cultural environmental and racial Injustice The BMC proposal should have begun with the words once upon a time because it's a fable this meeting should never have taken place because it never should have happened in the beginning this is because it was Ill informed and poly conceived the decam process was irregular unsound and uninformed it was exclusionary and it was dominated by providers I'm saying this to you as a 50-year employee of the state in federal government 35 years in state government 25 of those years as administrator doing contracts and grants Administration the whole process was still informed The Proposal before the committee should never have been accepted by dcam as it violated the state regulations procedural guidelines for responding to requests for services more importantly it has little or nothing to do with increasing the health and human surfaces needs of the citizens of Boston I want you to keep that in mind BMC proposal addresses little of the needs of the residents of Boston but speaks broadly to the original needs Health needs and concerns of the Commonwealth which can and should be managed in an environment which is not in the midst of the most challenged environmental justice community in the whole Commonwealth in the whole state there's no place more challenged in terms of environmental justice than the are area in which they now want to drop this process there are so many more locations which are more suitable in size and scope BMC proposal is nonresponsive to the RFP because it calls for placement of buildings and individuals far above the scope identified in the body of the RFP and I know this because I was a part of that process and the visioning plan which I worked on which they were directed to consult and follow that's what the RFP does everybody who does Contracting those who've worked in any form of government knows that when you send out RFP these are the regulations and guidelines should follow while BMC speaks to expand its physical and fiscal Empire at the cost of dependent individuals in the mental and medical community they have turned the Blind Eye to surrounding communities in which their exp experimentation might take place the process was floyed from the beginning the proposal and does not address and his elements does not address or provide real support or assistance to the residents of the city of Boston BMC while a world class institution remains completely toned deaf ignorant and insensitive to the communities and residents that are suffering right outside their front door the vast majority of the population BMC desires to assist far outside the boundaries of Boston's communities and neighborhoods that would be impacted by the proposed structures which have no parallel anywhere in this nation nowhere else does in this country does a project of this nature exist or should it I urge my learned leaders in political positions to take the time to read the voluminous proposal presented by BMC understand how very little of what they propose is of real value to the residents of Boston and especially the communities around the proposed site do not let the environmental justice Community Boston continue to live as a Peace Tree dish or a live experiment for institution in search of Empire to build I want you to note that discussion about proposal and modification and changes that they keep talking about is not doable the RFP dams RFP regulations on page 66 said no changes can be made to proposal once submitted and open without express permission of the decam commissioner and I don't believe that that has taken place because we've heard or seen nothing about it I want you to look at what they're proposing how they're proposing I want you to take in consideration that they come before you with a process was flawed from the beginning they purposely DeCamp excluded Roxbury Dorchester and matapan from the process they purposely turned the face of the park that I've been facing for 52 years towards a direction and said we only have to respond to the community of Jamaica plane they purposely ignored Harvest Street Community Health Center Demmer Community Health Center Prince Hall Masons the other churches and they did nothing now that BMC has a proposal and they say you want to do some Outreach and talk to people okay but that's pass the point where we should be this proposal should never come this far you will have to take up with the others here as to the actual working in this process as a former Clinic administrator as a former contract administrator but as a former police officer I can tell you as a planner city planner architect you cannot put people with challenges in a color sack where there's no human contact on a regular basis for more than a half a mile and say that it's a workable clinical environment for change you can't just throw housing anywhere and you don't want to put your children in a place for Supportive Housing that you wouldn't want to live they I you really up thank you s thank you counselors um so I'm Rory coffee um I'm on the steering committee of the Stony Brook neighborhood association I'm also one of the founders of cores um the the group that's you know a conget of you know different races different areas of the park you know people that are in recovery people that are you know part of the services we are a group of you know count was about 500 people we may be up to about a, now of people that think bmc's proposal is too big and we all have different views as to what should go there but everybody agrees that this proposal is is way too big but you know foremost and more importantly I'm a father of a four-year-old and and this is what really got me started on this journey of of really being involved here and that's what got me here I have a four-year-old he learned how to walk in in Franklin Park and he was one one going on two um and about 3 years ago 2021 you know they moved 54 residential units to Franklin Park to the Shad campus now we keep on speaking about how it's the same beds are there it's the same services are there not much is changing we're doing the same thing well I can tell you right now there's a big change in Franklin Park and especially when they started moving the residential units I'm talking about residential units that don't have sobriety requirements don't have treatment requirements these are very similar to the residential units are proposing to put there these are the supportive house units right if you look through the proposal these do not have sobriety nor treatment requirements it's a massive amount them so they moved 54 there in 2021 and not long thereafter I was taking my son to walk in the park I live near William Street entrance there and he sees in the distance he sees three people laying in the grass he starts yelling sleep sleep he runs towards them I have to run grab him I pull him back home right I go back there the next day there are a dozen needles there mix in with toys you know blood fil needles there's no way my 2-year-old at the time would have been a to tell the difference between a toy and a needle so that really started me on this journey of really documenting what's going on in the park you know what may happen in the future but not only that cleaning up the park I've spent endless hours cleaning up that Park I've cleaned out hundreds and hundreds of needles since those 54 low threshold units went in I've cleaned out encampments I've clean I've not only that on the other side of think I've gone to service to people to actively using in the park that that wasn't really occurring before these residential units went in right so I've been working on both sides here I've been you know Josh cudy isn't there anymore I was regular contact with Josh Cy hey there's someone out there can you get services to them you know it's always very difficult like getting services to people in that part needless to say there are impacts happening now with the 54 right we're we're looking at an expansion in the proposal to 520 or it's 45 Supportive Housing units 120 low threshold units so 525 residential units plus another 30 that are behavioral respite units that are very similar to those beds so we're looking at a massive increase and for them to say that there's not going to be increase in needles or impact the area seems absurd to me absolutely absurd just just shows how little how little vision they have for for what this could be doing to the community and and the fact that they're still isn't a safety plan still to this day there is not a safety plan this should be first not last right we should be thinking safety first we should be thinking about the surrounding Community First right and impacts to the community district 7 thinking about impacts to district 7 first right before we're thinking about moving people from 20 miles out into this community to have further impacts thanks Mr Coffee appreciate Mr EV sure hello okay my name is Derek Evans um I live on wulla Street in Roxbury um for a long time since the uh middle 1990s uh I have been uh a Community Development and what's now called climate Justice um practitioner not just Advocate uh here in Boston on Wakulla Street and in my native state um Co coal Mississippi um first I want to thank everyone for being here for having us here um it's very I think we can all agree that everyone is in this room now because they do care they care about people they care about people suffering and they care about Community sometimes we care more than we know how to care and we need to align those a little bit better and I don't want to disparage I don't don't want to overly critique or uh dissuade people from continued engagement in a more caring and competent process and results um but I should start by saying that no one here would choose a lifemate or a career if they had a choice or even what to eat simply based on what's available right there's a lot more criteria criteria than the state putting out an RFP um also no such decision will ever work well or is likely to work well if the feedback is solicited based upon your questions right your plan and not the community or the family or the spouse or the what have you right their needs wants and capacity to help so far as far as feedback on what would be the largest such campus in North America thank you whoever asked about that from the council there is no study or it was asked and there's currently no study of the efficacy of such a concentration here there's also councelor Flynn no emergency response plan or an ability to name the partners that would be required to get that going sooner than later there's also no accounting for what else is going just on with just within Franklin Park white Stadium there is a traffic plan that we're waiting to see a parking plan what impact would these two major major concurrent changes to Franklin Park have upon one another in addition to the surrounding Community there's been no accounting councelor Weber for the state's environmental justice map and I mention councelor Weber because he chairs this body's environmental justice committee there's no accounting for the fact that just across the street well across a dangerous thoroughfare lies the temptation of the vast and sprawling Forest Hill Cemetery there's no accounting for that this is not merely Green Space this is Frederick Law Olstead Green Space that any community on this planet knows they would wish they had so I hope when we say greenspace we say omstead greenspace because we have inherited that um I want to say that quantitatively qualitatively and even anecdotally as far as Stories the data is vastly lacking and let me talk about stories briefly you have one minute Mr thank you we have our own observed and lived story that and predictors of what would happen here under this proposal from Atkinson Street from The Roundhouse uh councelor Flynn from The Cottages I know folks who have lived in the Cottages since they were first place there and who are there now and who are not here and who have not been present that's a vast that's a growing community in this city the people needing these services and I don't see anywhere on record where they've been asked to give some quality some quantity right of but I've I've heard from them that not only where they not ask by the way we also have Invision and the towers which Invision works a lot better than the towers because it's smaller um these folks are concerned because uh although we want to wrap around housing mental health and homelessness there's additional things that concern the served population in the adjacent Community they're afraid of the concentration the isolation in Franklin Park safety and also that they will have even fewer uh accesses to income which currently after selling an EBT card 24 day hours after getting it they have the choices of Larsen drug dealing themselves or sex work and that's what we all have observed and witnessed and experienced at mass and Cass and that is what we are threatening to export to Franklin Park and nobody should be subjected anywhere from anywhere of any race to that kind of concentration in inh humanity unfortunately it sounds to me a little bit more like doow than it sounds like Humane treatment lastly and I'll end so we don't just have housing a mental health and a homelessness problem to combine and wrap around we also have a sexual violence and trafficking problem that needs to go into this plan and we also have of course the trashing of olmstead's legacy to include in this plan and finally environmental justice the city of Boston has a very delineable triangular-shaped southwesterly Corridor that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has mapped recently and it contains every High percentile traditionally underserved environmental justice census Block in this city and when you look at it it's the same map as the red lining 70 years ago it's the same map that put half of hestad Legacy in the same cell as as the African-American and black and brown citizens of Boston thank you Mr now is the time to fix that and uh I fear that the process would get worse before it gets better if we do not now begin to have the dialogue that councelor Mahia and others have suggested and that it be inclusive of the human reality and Geographic reality that we're talking about thank you appreciate it thank you T uh and thank you to all of our panelist uh I'd like now to acknowledge the sponsor to begin with the first round of questions and I'll turn the floor over to my colleagues in order of Arial Council fernandz hon thank you um thank you to all the panelists I um particularly wanted to uh ask some clarifying questions on as to uh the points that you made um first um with uh Miss Randolph if you could um expound more on mixing modalities and what does decentralizing level of care means absolutely so um when someone goes into treatment so there were there were there was an explanation that came from uh BMC that talked about a very good treatment model um so detox uh residential um and um and then a extended service of care these are Services of care and modalities that are structured uh where people are actually getting the support and and the help that they need to be able to move forward in their lives in making decision there's another modality that um that is now existing in Franklin Park where uh there is no structure um where there is no oversight and so when people who have substance to and they and I'm not saying that the that everyone doesn't deserve um to participate in the modality that works for them at that time it's called harm reduction but to mix so you have people here who are still using who were not ready maybe they're not using what they were using before maybe they're using less um but they're still using which one attracts a lot of negative attention it attracts Predators it attracts drug dealers it attracts uh sexual abusers um to so that's what we're seeing happening now in the area in Franklin Park so when we talk about putting these two together the people who are struggling to stay sober one day at a time have a difficult time because they're still be these are people that they know these are people that they they don't they all know each other and so it becomes challenging um for instance if you are on a diet right and your favorite food is chocolate and then you walk into a room that is completely filled with chocolate and you haven't eaten anything all day long then the likelihood that you may take a piece of chocolate is going to be greater than less so when we we try to mix these two modalities together um it it's a it's it's a tsunami and and it will cause a lot of harm to a lot of people who are trying to work towards recovery thank you and the community thank you Mr chair um do you think we could allow Rob or someone from BMC a seat so that uh In fairness to allow them to respond to any clar or clarify anything I at at the moment I will not we still have another panel to go through and public testimony so I want to make sure we get through this uh anything afterwards they can have meet outside the lines and you guys can have conversations after um but I don't want to put I want to make sure we take this in the how we've compartmentalized it originally thank you um so I I guess my questions are still for a lot for BMC um as well um I know that Derek mentioned parking um and I had that on my list so I have a list of things that have not been answered um parking plan safety plan downscale size uh mixing modalities uh can you can you correlate that to Equitable practices or harm reduction or trauma informed um decentralized Services how how how does even make sense um in terms of mixing all level of cares in one campus um Dash a dashboard uh will you commit to doing that uh Community benefits or amenities to uh try to um balance out the impact holistic um development plan in terms of your facilities that will support wraparound or uh the uh service treatment um environmental impact uh specifically because uh in district 7 we suffer from the second highest heat island in Boston um and um I understand you're increasing the the grass but what does that mean for trees uh continued Community process that you've committed to and what do next steps uh look like um I think just going on record I'm officially through the chair asking that you provide that in writing um to all of the things and you'll get an email uh Mr chair if you will you'll get an email with my list um to answer those questions um Mr chair I I'll yield out of respect for my colleagues and come back to questioning thank you uh counc um Council Flynn any questions for our panel thank you Mr chair and thank you to the panel for the important testimon testimony that you provided it was helpful again I Haven studied this proposal that's why I wanted to listen to you and your thoughts and concerns as residents as as Neighbors in Lewis I know that you live just a short walk away from this area as well um I the opportunity to work with you for 30 years and I've always respected you and but your testimony today here and you're a person that's always been very honest but your testimony here today um had a big impact on my thinking about about this proposal again I haven't taken a position on it but your testimony here certainly is helped helped me um learn more about the proposal um so I guess my question Lewis and I I always try to factor in the quality the impact a proposal will have on the quality of life of the residents the impacted residents and I understand that there has been little dialogue with the Boston police or with massachusett State Police um on public safety issues but tell me some of tell me about some of the quality of life issues that still have not been addressed and how do we go forward in addressing quality of life issues during this process but also if if this proposal goes forward what will that quality of life look like and how does the city and state respond to those issues well I'm I'm not the key person on quality of life issues because I'm starting from the very beginning I don't think we should be here um my years in administration working for presidents and governors I know the proposal of this nature should have never come this forward there's other issues behind there but having worked in the community having worked consistently in Franklin Park over the last 50 some years I can tell you working with the revisioning plan that was put together they did not take in consideration the story that we keep raising about security which is fundamental to everything that you do somebody here said something that was laughable about uh Park Rangers as being a part of the security that might be you know utilized in this Pro it's an absolute joke um we see one park ranger a day maybe now in Franklin Park at one time we used to see none even though they house their horses in the the uh maintenance yard Park Rangers never been aart Community the shadic hospital area which is B basically guarded by the state police and they have their own um BMC um security that would not be the same thing when you provide housing and you would turn it into a community you're talking about 400 or 851 which was the original count you create a whole different type of community just like you do with the ink block or any place else that you put that many beds or units together you have a different demand as Mr Evans said we're suffering right now from a process of poor management of the situation of the exist in broad daylight where there's no trees there's no cover there's no you know hidden areas that people get lost to if they having this level of contact and and negative concerns you know in mass and cast which is the most travel route you know in all the Boston what do you think is going to happen in the Colac that's away from everything as Miss Leah said you know people go where the resources are as a former Clinic administrator let me tell you when it was satellite centers that small groups of people came to we were able to control them after their own program some genius from BMC decided that everybody should come to Masson Castle to The BMC at the central office and get their medication just like this proposal that's the most UNH thing you would think of in change of Safety and Security because if I'm selling drugs I'm going to go where there's going to be two or 300 people every day because I'm going to get a sale you don't have the same situation the last part of is though they keep talking about supporting of housing for whom would you put your 9-year-old daughter or 12-year-old daughter in a house even if you're in recovery where a majority of the people are in that situation and a significant number of them are still dependent because what happens in the existing site as coffee said there are no standards we're not you know setting some standards by which you know you have to Be Drug Free and be working towards that proposal you're creating a holocaust for the people who live there I can tell you that from having worked here in New York and Chicago and other places around the world so the issue you raised we've got a safety issue we got a housing issue and we clearly got a poor management issue for the proposal as it has come forward thank you Lis um Diane would you like to respond to that I would just two points yeah first um if you know the site or picture it um we already have two schools right on American Legion Highway where the kids get like rushed in and out the door so they don't look across the street we have uh probably a dozen senior buildings from Holgate to Franklin Place to um the the whole kind of what's that the Walnut Avenue Elm Hill Avenue uh on the front side of Blue Hill LA on the park there's uh another two two more public schools and they've had to readjust their whole way of life every day to keep the kids from either in the park or looking in the park during school right um Harvard um matapan Health Center we were there and the the staff and the director shared with us how they were adamantly opposed to this project because the push now they've got people in their parking lot so all the people who work on the parking lot side of their building keep the shades drawn cuz people are in the parking lot having sex all day like just this is real people like Rory who spend an inordinate amount of time just picking up needles people have stopped walking their dogs in the park because the dogs got pricked never mind allowing your children to get out and play this is right in the middle in the crown jewel of of of of omstead of Frederick omstead right now and the police that they can't handle that by the time they get there the the deal the trans trans action is over you watch people bring little packets this is what Miss Randolph is talking about in the UN the there's no monitoring little the packets of of the drugs that get dropped and then 15 20 minutes later you'll see whoever ordered them it's like did like a uber drug delivery they come and they drop them and you hope that no child finds them before the pickup you know the people the customer finds it this is right now with only 38 uh Cottages right what would that look like if we're going to be putting like this kind of facility in a park I'm my argument it should it would be better place in the Boston Garden in the Boston Common because one it's in the middle there's this train station at least there's Transportation you best believe if somebody calls from that Garden the police are going to come and I'm not trying to be factious I'm saying well if I'm just saying if if this is what we're doing now it would make sense it would make better sense there's no grocery store for people to go to I appreciate I just want to be mindful of the panelists as well your responses are part of the five minutes for the questioning for our counselors so the longer your answer although we we we do want to listen it does give less time if folks have other questions Council Flynn thank you for your thank you for your questions thank you Mr chair yep uh Council Weber yeah uh thank you chair um and and just thank you Senator Wilkerson um you know I think about the Benjamin you know who's a great uh win for the the folks there and as I've said in in every interview I've given I think the families uh have have you know in part a lot to thank for well they should be thanking you you're an integral part of the process and um you know I'm glad we could work together on that uh and and Mr Evans just I as far as the chair of the environment uh you know climate committee I I I don't have that honor I'm the vice chair it's a I uh haven't risen that high yet but um uh you know uh and we do draw a distinction between the chairs and the vice chairs but I I I take your point of just for the folks watching at home um uh and I guess you know I I hope you know uh you were listening to the questions I was posing to The BMC and you know uh you know I think again like Mr coffee you know I I uh you and I walked the Franklin Park and you know I think this is a very important issue uh you know I would just say going forward um you know I think Senator Wilkerson you mentioned you've got a coalition of folks from all different neighborhoods uh you know I do represent the people in one of those neighborhoods in Jamaica plane uh two of them are sitting to your right and to your left uh and that you know if they have a problem with how this is going they cannot vote for or against the counselor from another District they're stuck with me so to to you know keep them in enfranchised I I do think I have to be part of these conversations to hear concerns and so I really hope we can work together as we go forward um because it's my job to represent you know Mr Coffee Miss Miss Hamill you know who are here and I can name about five or six other people sitting in the back so um you know I I I uh in terms of of questions for you I mean most of my questions again like councelor fernandz Anderson are for The BMC um you know I I guess uh you know so something for Mr Coffee I you know I you you're a scientist correct um so um you know I when you do research you know I'm I'm very interested in what you have to say but in terms of like I'm I'm trying to when I look at the issue uh looking at concerns in the community I think are you know incred again incredibly valid but sometimes when we're talking about the science I I don't you know if somebody came in and was if I was talking about your area of expertise uh you know you might push back and say well you know like I I'm this is my career so how do I take in like you know the sort of feedback that I'm getting who when I'm not sure you know I I feel like people at the BMC this is they're in the health industry 24 hours a day 7 days a week like where where is the uh you know where should I be listening to to you how would you just respond to that uh in terms of like doing research at at home you know uh and so how can I elevate your concerns in a way that's not just you know somebody who's not an expert arguing against somebody who's an expert in the public health field well you have one of those experts right here right and you have many experts that don't that aren't to benefit from this proposal itself like Jim o Connell who also we could speak to and many others right so I would I would go to people that aren't to benefit from The Proposal not the developers right and and really seek their their expertise you want to be closer to the mic Mr Coffee that's why yeah I was just saying I would I would go to those that are not to benefit from their own proposal um to seek expertise so you have Leia Randolph right here is an expert you have Jim o Connell of Boston healthcare for the homeless that you could you could reach out to I would just say not to go to the develop you never go to the developer to see what what the best development would be right because the developer going to they're going to give you their vision and not not really the expertise of the field well I so yeah thank you I just I I I figured you'd have you know a respon being in your with your background but I guess in terms for us um you know what is the have anyone has any conversations with dcam you know I I feel like you know councelor Mahia talked about you know uh BMC you know is here and they're you know they're an easy target uh and but I mean what's your sense from dcam uh you know how involved they are how receptive they've been so far from the very beginning um so I work with the we have to keep it a little bit we do have other people my last question from the very beginning I worked on the community Advisory Board I talked to stuttered on a regular basis even before they put in the shanty houses I mean constantly we've talked to DeCamp but I don't have to go to decam because I've had 35 years as a contract administrator and working as administrator and state government I know the process is incorrect but regardless of that that has nothing to do with the development process the health process and the experts that we have here at this table they rival anyone that you'll have here the years that I spent in dealing with health care and dealing with drug dependent Community if you want information is to the health you can talk to people with heal if you want to talk about how the impact of the physical environment is going to affect the people in the community I've got 50 years in Franklin Park and other places in this country and I think you should take that in consideration thank you thank thank you Mr Alisa to you chair thank you Council Weber uh Council Santana any questions for the panel thank you Mr chair I do have one and again most of my questions for for for for the previous panel but we we talked last in the previous panel about um Community benefits and you know Green Space and um programming was brought up I although that's great I I I believe in some other types of community benefits just wondering um from from this group of pelist of of you know I know that where you stand on this project but are there any Community benefits that you that you feel that the the um you know your community will will benefit from and if so what are they um so that way we can get those into the record thank you just say can I just say that it's ludicrous to talk about Green Space in a park so you go from there and and counselor we've had three like very large major meetings Community benefits hasn't coming up one time has not come up one time so just this notion that people are like what's in it for me that might be the case for someplace but not once has that issue that comment been made a question been asked at any of our meetings we are more more concerned about what's going to happen What would happen to the people that they plan to put together so no I couldn't answer that great thank you thank you Mr chair thank you councelor councilman here thank you chair um and I do appreciate uh the community panel having been a community organizer I know how important a community voice is so thank you for being here um I know that there are other panelists that need to speak and there's some folks who have hard stop set too so I'm not going to ask questions I'm just going to make up comments um so my 9-year-old daughter when she was nine at the time um witnessed someone um overdose and it was the most traumatic experience to as a parent to be able to W to witness that to see my daughter witness that as well and so I just want to say I I I apologize that you as a parent had to experience that and this is something that we see constant so I just want to hold space for you and I know how difficult it is um and I have a question I'm curious this because the narrative have has been that folks are opposing the project because around safety issues and because it's substance use disorder and also the um issues around Green Space what if there was no what if if if the proposal was just about housing would that change the conversation for folks no right so the reason why I asked the question is because there is a narrative that folks don't want the project because of the safety concerns that come with mass and cast I would say the safety concerns would be enough but our position has been continues to be that the primary question would be the concept on its face is inconsistent with Medical Practice substance abuse recovery period that's why we did institutionalized on that very site like near that site we just we as a commonwealth and across the country in 1970s concluded that concentrating people with mental health same we now know concentrating people in poverty doesn't end well you cannot concentrate people in sizes of of that size I think that the housing piece as you said if it was just housing if it was just housing of the type that they're talking about supported for the population otherwise known as an addiction Village we'd still be opposed to it it doesn't make sense okay Derek you wanted to say something yeah I I I think that I'm very I'm very proud of the fact that this panel here and others are prioritizing the served community and then and only then following with the additional harms to others besides them um which is like when I was speaking culminates in um what we might call placeis right or environmental justice or Redline whatever it's been called over the decades and um on those grounds as well your question is relevant because we're not gaining we're losing tree canopy in the city of Boston and now has a canopy ordinance right okay we're not gaining we're losing on other fronts uh emissions and this and that environmental stuff I mean in fact as I said and I'll end with this number one this project in this location would be inhumane anywhere to anyone in my opinion and number two to place it where it's proposed to be placed violates every definition of social justice around that growing Circle thank you I appreciate that and uh I'll I I allegedly said I was going to not ask questions and then I did um sorry uh but I am going to stop because I want to be mindful of the fact that people have to leave at too but I have so much more to say but I won't can I just say one thing I just I just want to just say that treatment is important and treatment is needed for the surrounding communities and we're not opposed to treatment but there has to be a larger conversation about the various modalities of treatment and how treatment will take place and uh the various modalities of how these services will take place so we're not opposed to subst treatment for substance disorder for mental health disorder for alcohol disorder we're not opposed to people being able to receive services get better just want to say that for thank you very much uh and for panel testimony number two not those in opposition but those highlighting the negative impacts of this project great uh please keep it to one minute thank you um thank you Mr chair uh I did want to ask specifically about uh there was another thing that was mentioned about uh cultural competence um can you tell me exactly uh best practices around that and what it would look like ideally yeah looking at cultural inclusion um and so when you have a community that's surrounding um a uh treatment facility like take demic for instance um and the community residents don't have access to that uh facility and when they do have access for instance they had first Incorporated um the men's program um was taken over bmic um that men's program was a program that really worked efficiently to be able able to help uh black men many who were coming out of prison to be able to uh take control of their lives to become productive members of society because of the cultural competency because understanding that there's a culture to everything right and so understanding the culture of of where these men came from the experiences that they had and and how to be able to help them to become to grow and to be responsible uh members of the community to be fathers and and all of that that program once it moved um out of being an independent program is now a program that is that sh that works specifically more for young white um opiate addicts and so so so all of the people in our community that had access to those programs don't have access to those programs anymore that's a part of cultural inclusion and cultural competency thank you thank you so much everyone thank you very much P you guys are dismissed thank you for your testimony uh we'd like to call up now panel testimony number three uh those uh not in support but highlighting the positive aspects uh of this uh development uh Mr uh I'm sorry so we have Armani white Pastor Kiki dufor Judith rodick Pastor Daryl hamton and Brendan little uh is on Zoom um so uh we will not be taking a recess we'll go right into this panel number three um please and thank you is it doesn't say on but oh sorry passor do for is on zo as well sorry thank you unless you want to be third we got the first two lock that please no he's here be the it is fine um thank you to P testimony uh number three um I know some folks are on a very tight time frame and I appreciate your patience for sticking around um uh so why don't we get right into it um we will have uh you guys say your peace right uh we could do it similar unless there's a different unless there's a overall presentation folks can have 5 minutes a piece and then we'll turn it over to questions um from the counselors okay um uh Pastor Hamilton I know there is a time difference right so if we want to yeah I'll you want however you guys decided to lead It Off please go ahead thank you so much for um moving this ahead and for allowing this panel to be a part of this especially you Council first Gerald um so my name is Armani white I'm the executive director of reclaim Roxberry and we're an organization that was formed in 2015 to ensure public land for public good and development without displacement I myself am a third generation Rock resident so my great great grandparents are from here um and so you know protecting this community making sure that we have the things that we need in this community is super important to me and it's part of the reason why I helped uh found reca Roxberry and I actually have like a personal connection to this topic around addiction as well my first introduction to like professional advocacy was actually as a uh a casew worker at the Barbara mcginness house at uh Southern Jamaica plane Health Center where I you know worked tirelessly to try to find beds for people with dual diagnosis in our community to be able to live and they didn't exist and this project that we have here is a project that actually will provide that so uh in 2017 or 2018 I believe when the RFP process began we were a major player in turning out community members to be a part of this process of really engaged process and I think this was a time when most of the people in the council weren't on the council when that was happening and so I think that's maybe part of the reason why maybe people don't feel as in part of the the community process um but just important to share that you know this kind of project is a project that we do need in our community that when we talk to over 6,000 people or yeah 6,000 people over the past two summers they talk about needing housing there's no case where people in rockberry the majority of people that we talk to say we don't need more affordable housing and it's important to also notice to note that this is not just a rockberry district 7 issue the Franklin Park is something that touches all of the city um so when we hear people say oh this is like a you know just a rock issue it's not it's it's a it's a full City Dorchester matap pin you know it's an issue that we all face and yes we do have a problem at mass and Cass this kind of program will help alleviate those pressures so um this is something that like I said before people that we talk to are in support of and just want to make sure we make it clear here that folks from rockbury do support this folks that have been here for multiple Generations black bostonians support this um and yeah we just need to continue to have a honest conversation about this and we need to have a really strong Community process moving forward continuing on the work that we have done but um we like we should get the facts straight and talk about what's happened as it has and you know just be informed about this so thank you thank you Pastor Hamilton yeah uh thank you very much also uh for allowing uh me to be able to sit on this panel and share um my name is Reverend Daryl Hamilton so I am part of the Pastoral team of the First Baptist Church in Jamaica plane uh yes I am Baptist but I won't be here long I promise you that um and I'm going to say about our church too is that we are uh currently rather for about 7 years now the the present location of the shadic child care center um we too are just a few hundred feet from district 7 uh and so we are intimately connected to this issue um as a church uh Faith Community with many of our uh members being part of the constituencies that we are discussing uh I'm here because as we have acknowledged collectively you know we are all here because we we care about people um and the reason why I support this issue or rather I support this proposal is because there is Extreme urgent need for Supportive Housing um and recovery centers for substance use um I'm here because repeatedly and often I hear uh from members of my congregation about the need for more supportive housing and more support services they feel as much as anyone the crunch of the housing crisis um that we are experiencing as a nation as we are experiencing here in Boston with this also is expressed the desire to stay within their communities to not be shipped out and displaced to not be divorced from their neighbors and friends because this is how we create the conditions that continue to break down the fabric of our communities and our families uh this is how we also sustain the conditions that result in the problems we are seeking to alleviate around substance use this is how we maintain the conditions and I feel like I could feel the sentiment in this space today of an inherent US versus them I know we don't want it to be that way um but I think in many ways we still get caught up uh sort of in that unfortunate dichotomy of of an us and them and I think it's important that we don't do that because we have to acknowledge and recognize that the people that we are talking about are already our neighbors and so it's important that we let them stay in their neighborhoods so that way they can get the treatments that they need um that these individuals are indeed the constituents that we are discussing that have been considered in these districts and so I see that this proposal will indeed help to serve the constituents the residents um that live close to the campus not only in rockberry as was mentioned but also mapin Dorchester JP and I know there's a lot of concern about the scale of this project but my sentiment is that the scale of the project is designed to meet the scale of the crisis desire to meet the scale of the need and frankly is not even able to fully do that because the need is so great however we ought not place the entire burden of solving this crisis the systemic realities that are true we cannot place that entire burden on BMC as the sole entity to solve all of these with one proposal people who are impacted are telling us what they need there are people telling us though or telling them to wait people who are suffering themselves from opioid addiction as I said are our constitu are your consti people who need support of housing they are your constituents and there are people in these communities us being representative of that who are indeed supporters of this request and of this proposal so I think we are Greatful for the opportunity to share and I will close here to say that this is an experiment in Beloved Community I believe today is the anniversary of the assassination of Dr mther King where we get the understanding of Beloved Community and a Beloved Community is intended to bring all stakeholders together in a creative and and transformative way Beloved Community is regional it is also Statewide it is also local it is also our designated neighborhoods it is everywhere so I would encourage us to understand that we can indeed save save Franklin Park and save lives We Can Save Franklin Park and save the lives of our neighbors We Can Save Franklin Park and our neighbors uh in in in Boston in Dorchester in matapan and Roxberry thank you thank you B uh I know on Zoom now uh we're going to go to Brendan little uh Community member in recovery uh Mr little uh if we could bring Mr little up please uh he will have the floor first and then we will go on to Pastor Kiki do a for thank you so much chairfit show can you hear me yep you're all set go ahead sir great thank you I'm grateful to be here today um thank you all so much um my name is Brendan little I was born and raised in Boston uh the majority of my life has been spent living in Jamaica Plain and Dorchester not far from the proposed Redevelopment I'm currently a homeowner in Jamaica plane and a parent of young children one currently in in Boston public schools and another who will start at Boston Public Schools next year personally I'm a person with lived experience with both substances disorder and homelessness treatment and supportive programs like the ones proposed for this campus saved my life professionally I led the creation process for the Mayor's Office of Recovery Services at the city of Boston and served as its inaugural policy director for more than 5 years during my time in this role I helped to create new substance use recovery programs in the city of Boston throughout the city and worked to address the complex issues at mass and cast so I deeply understand substance use and homelessness at both the personal and professional levels with all this experience and information I want this proposed development in my backyard as someone who has seen Boston become more and more developed with expensive condos over the decades and become increas increasingly unaffordable I'm excited at the potential for development that will continue to help our society's most vulnerable If This Were a proposal for high cost condos Community opponents would likely ask why we weren't creating services that benefit our community well this project is the epitome of a benefit to our community it's spearheaded by one of the most venerable medical institutions in New England Boston Medical Center primarily serves lowincome people and has deep ties in all Boston neighborhoods especially neighborhoods with majority black and brown residents BMC also has an excellent addiction treatment and research team that leads locally and nationally this proposal addresses two of the most urgent needs in our community right now substance use disorder and homelessness I've heard concerns about this project creating quote another mass and Cass as someone who literally worked at mass and cast for years my office was there and helped create Services there I can say that this is not true the proposed programs in housing for the Shad are not the types of low thresholds programs that exist in the Mass incast area the services for the Shad re development are for people who are stabilized with a designated bed with all program participants and residents robustly supported by trained staff staff that will be hired locally creating more jobs this is different from the low threshold services at mass and cast like homeless shelters syringe exchange methodone clinics and day drop in spaces it's a different level of the Continuum with bostonians in need of more long-term Addiction Services many can't find Equitable care in their Community this is especially true for black and brown people with substance use disorder this population faces severe treatment disparities rooted in racism and stigma this is worsened by the fact that overdose deaths are skyrocketing for black and brown individuals as compared to White individuals who better to adequately address these injustices than Boston Medical Center with the state-of-the ark campus at the center of Boston's largest and most diverse neighborhoods this proposal will help countless people improve their lives again I won't be reading this I wouldn't be reading this testimony today if I didn't get the help I needed 20 years ago I'd likely still be homeless and in Act of addiction it is only because of services like the ones proposed here that have been able to have Thrive personally and spend a career in public service thank you for your time thank you Mr little uh Pastor Ki we can uh go to your testimony thanks thank you well uh thank you so very much good afternoon uh to you all uh thank you chair and thank you all the uh counselors um I want to thank also the former uh panel uh whom I have a great uh admiration for the work and for the advocacy as well again Pastor je FL I I'm the pastor of the toal he Church in uh in Boston and I'm also representing uh a group of immigrant uh organizations called Equity now and beond uh Equity now and beond is a Health Equity Coalition that coordinated coordinated by Center to support immigrant organizing and led by grassroot immigrant uh organization as I said we have Alpha aens that is a Latin X organizations Brazilian women's group representing the Brazilian Community uh aidon which is the African Community Economic Development Corporation representing the uh Africans and then we are definitely just working with several other uh uh organizations basically to address uh he equity and as well as uh the shortage basically of supportive Supportive Housing so I'm definitely speaking uh in support of the Shak housing presented by uh BMC that I have great definitely uh admiration as well for because uh uh we've been working throughout covid-19 uh affecting impacting uh our communities uh positively uh in terms of tackling the social determinance of Health communities are facing so supportive housings uh uh as always referred to is uh a blend of uh definitely uh housing that support individuals families to definitely have a stable and productive lives for black and brown communities um often just people are facing systemic barriers uh to housing healthare economic opportunities but I believe that what if housings can provide a critical foundation for overcoming these challenges let me just give take you a give you an example um just mostly working in maren uh hosting Wellness clinics on a weekly uh basis having been many people coming uh to our clinics for routine exams and try to receive other uh services but which we do not offer so uh I have a a haian desent regi uh always there and and then very sometime disruptive uh in the park in in the in the square and and the the they called the police on him and then what the police do is just arrest him okay and put him in jail and sometimes connect him with a with W with uh Boston Medical Center but you know again a week later I saw him I said Jerry what's going on well I was in jail and then did you get any other treatments at any other facility no they didn't have uh definitely a bed for me to stay there and that's what I on the streets again causing those trouble so this is regi Hasan descent but I have another uh gentleman who is an African-American at David he called me uncle Kiki when he comes to the office so uh he's suffering uh definitely uh uh addiction challenges and then when I don't see him I saw him again two weeks later he said pastor Kiki I was in jail because they didn't have any room for me to give me the treatment that I need and that's one of the reason that uh I support very much this housing the supportive housings that can have endless benefits and the the reason I said endless benefits because house the Supportive Housing stands as a powerful tool in addressing the complex set of challenges faced by black and brown communities offering them a pathway to Greater stability health and Economic Opportunity so I I I I stop right there uh just to uh address any other questions that you might have thank you so very much thank you Pastor thank you for your testimony uh M truth rodic you now have the floor thank you um I had a a speech and I lost the paper uh say the dog ate it anyway I want to thank the council I want to thank you too for holding this hearing um I I've learned from listening to everybody um certain parts of this that I didn't really think about before um and so this has been a learning experience for me um and I want to like I said thank you for that my name is Judith Roderick I am a a qunit bond I've been in Boston since I was six years old long time ago I am a resident of matapan I am a member of New England United for justice and I strongly support the Morton Street Redevelopment project I have um I'm blanking horrible horrible horrible um I kind of feel like a lot of this is um when you were mentioning or was mentioning the them versus us I feel like this is an issue where people view this through a lens of them and those are people that have homes and they're not taking into account people that don't have homes and those people aren't here and I think that's a a problem um I feel like this is also an economic problem it's so it's structural racism based on economic problems um The Cutting of funds the shatak hospital has been around for decades they've mentioned it um doing what it does the detox the Sheltering the counseling and then there were funding cuts and I didn't hear anybody talking about that I mean where were the people when they were cutting the shadic program my son is a recovering addict he's been in programs shelters detoxes he has struggled with this issue for years and he's hanging by a thread he was in a sober house in Winchendon and if you don't know where Winchendon is it's far away North by Gardner and Fitchburg he was the only black person in that sober house and he was probably the only black person in that town he was culturally displaced um and the program didn't work sometimes sending people away is not the best answer for solving a problem I feel like the prop the proposal for redeveloping sha shadic is a holistic wraparound service program part of the reason so many people relapse is because they wait they're in one agency or one Hospital getting a specific service and then they're sent to another place to sign up and in between there is is a waiting list a wait time and during that time it's very easy to be depressed to kind of run into other people that you know that may be using and you relapse I get concerned about my son because I feel like he's changed he's more depressed and the program for the shadic is a long way off Long Island is a long way off and so for now we're stuck with waiting for programs to pick him up here and there and that's all I have to say cuz I can't remember the rest of my speech Jud it was wonderful thank you very much we appreciate your time thank you uh with that we'll go over to any questions we have from our counselors that are still here with us today uh we're going to try and keep this uh brief as we also have I just got the list of testim public testimony and it's rather long so um Council fernz andon we'll start with you thank you Mr chair um I just wanted to make some comments um and ask uh if uh Armani thank you so much for being here if you could submit to me or ask I know that you're a wonderful um organizing organization does amazing work I'm I'm a fan I'm always you know reposting and um actually using it to educate people in the district as well um I agree with you that um this is not just about Roxberry I do feel that you know we have to as a district counselor of course I'm prioritizing District constituents um and in meetings where I've gone to JP um prioritizing a Butters and then on to Regional right so um I understand this uh approach to community and Boston as one as opposed to just looking at just Roxberry what I do want to ask you though is to um encourage people in Roxberry Dorchester you know I have like a you know I even have matapan right like so like district 7 yeah so like a a bit of metapan a bit of JP I have like slithers of these areas all because of like how Franklin Park comes around um and so if people can submit to me in writing because do base my informed decisions based on documented proof um and so right now I do have an overwhelming amount of emails that completely oppose it not even like a middle ground uh speaking of Middle Ground uh Mr Judith thank you so much for your testimony today um in terms of a wraparound proposal or a holistic uh proposal that supports wraparound it's not a holistic proposal as Sports wraparound yet they are saying that they will get to that planning but we haven't seen one and what I'm encouraging is that we hold them to account so that it can become a quality facility that is provides this holistic wraparound um I do want to mention in terms of like conflating you know the different types of modalities and like Armani I also uh worked in these services and finding beds is horrible you have to go like very far out in the state to find beds and you have to drive out there because you're the one who's releasing people out of service um and so I would say like I think the concern here and I'm trying to find the middle ground in terms of like how do we get to renovate the shadic and create housing I'm I'm I'm leaning into saying if we're going to bring something into district 7 a place where we already have like an economic um issues with a lot of very vulnerable populations then we have to make sure that it's quality we have to make sure that it's holistic that it supports wraparound and then we have to ensure that um it also provides Community benefits that that is supportive to the impact or at least balances out the impact of the community um and so I would say because of the different modalities when you it is true that and there is research on in terms of decentralizing services and this means that you know one population that is very early on in treatment like emergency than to a regular bed a 30-day or 40 and then to go into Supportive Housing and then family um I think that what I've asked from BMC is that there secur the security measures should include like Gates and like ID cards that you go into different level of campuses because we're talking about different level of care this this real high level care where people need the Hands-On and then there's the outpatient when people have already like moved into an apartment and they got their kid back from DCF and now they're in housing and and then uh maybe decreasing in size and looking at other Parcels to do more housing because maybe that's the benefit that they go more into more housing for uh uh rockberry and surrounding areas in other Parcels so I'm we're try I'm just I just want to make sure that we are clear and then the sentiment of the the US and them it's unfortunate that that we've come to that um and there is no us and them I think that the other panel has been trying to show you that they've organized that all Races have come together in this thing in this effort to try to show Community um that what where they stand but where I stand is I do I am I have to be the consolidator I have to listen to all sides I have to understand where is the middle ground so if we can find a medium here and address some services and get quality out of this um and also explore other ways of increasing housing um in in Parcels that it doesn't condensity populate everybody in one space then great and Als in again like the green space and all of that stuff taking away the parking to give us grass than where people parking you know we have a lot of questions and I think that goes into further Community process okay I feel like parts of of this particular group that's in favor of the development would be monitoring it so kind of like watching over to make sure everything that you're talking about and everything that we want is actually happening yeah yeah uh I I am extremely transparent Miss Judith you're not from my district but I welcome a meeting supposed to talk and get to know each other I already like you just by looking at you um I will give you every I will show you we make sure we actually record our meetings and we have a district website and we post the recordings on the website um we also have a district app so there's so many ways of being transparent about this um and believe you me I I have to be in the middle I can't no I understand um but you're watching me I got you you're watching me I will make sure that I give you the tools so you I think there will be compliance people around to make sure things that happen that's why the dashboard that Council Mahir mentioned is important because then everybody can see it right that would be excellent great thank you all Council Weber sorry thank you chair um and and thank you for uh testifying um you know I think today uh to me the um what I missed was uh having people who are experiencing these problems so so I thank you uh jth for coming in and and at least you know connecting that also Mr little uh you know for doing that but it's like we're talking about helping people who aren't here right uh um and it's kind of it's It's hard to uh balance uh the views where um you know we have uh folks who have valid concerns about the facility we have people who would be helped by it who you know we we don't hear from um but I guess in terms of um you know how we go forward and B let's just accept the premise that putting in the facility and renovating the shadic would have a negative impact on the neighborhood uh and on the surrounding communities um you know how do we balance that with you know the uh how that would benefit uh human beings in the future you know so I I I don't know if you can give us any advice for how we do that it's you know it's sort of there's a a sacrifice there but um but you're automatic I Ally assuming it's going to happen well I know I'm just I'm just saying just accepting let's just let's not get into that debate but let's let's say there's just there's going to be increase in issues around the park but you know there is the I'm just bringing in the the the people who will be helped you know your son um you know how do we uh balance that I don't know if Mr Mr I think what M Roger said at the beginning like kind of a rejection of the Prem the question which is that you have to have um kind of like a give and take I think this is a wholly positive thing for the community and um I think folks that I've heard speak in opposition of it are afraid of you know I think a number of things that are a result of us not having a something like this here I mean the reality exists you know right now like my father his friends they walk every morning there they're older men and you know you hear about how great the space is and people get to use it going to stay um you know the there's going to be you know increased attention on the the space when there's actually more services here this is going to be like a net positive I don't necessarily see any negatives so it's hard to balance the negatives I understand as a counselor you're going to hear a lot of the both sides and I think it's up to you to decide like you know what is actually the the benefit um or the how how the benefits outweigh the potential negatives I don't see negatives but you may see negatives um so you have to come up with that but I encourage you to support this and I think this is something that when I hear you talk in other spaces about affordable housing and the need for services this is an opportunity to you know actually you know to show that albeit none of us really have power of this this is a state parcel that was you know RFP out and you as counselors it's important for us to have this conversation but from what I understand this is going to be something that community members are going to continue to engage and support and it'll be great to have you a part of that thankk thank you anyone yeah oh I'm just trying to remember um at one of the meetings where Boston Medical Center was present they did talk about and it was in their proposal I believe where um this isn't kind of a a everybody jump in kind of thing and you know pull the person off the street and put them in a house it's more structur there are safeguards um there's a lease to sign right okay um if you are doing drugs like any other Housing Development you will be put out and there isn't a kind of why you're shaking your head there isn't a kind of of um in terms of the treatment center if I'm not mistaken it isn't everybody just kind of wanders around the the wards or whatever it's compartmentalized where if you are getting a specific kind of treatment you're there you're not wandering off to another section and so that's kind of a safeguard thank you thank you miss rodri you want to say something to me you I just I didn't know if Pastor Kiki or anyone online just just want to keep keep just want to keep this moving at the moment that's all cuz we do still public testimony that's it for me thank you chair thank you councelor Weber Council Mia thank you chair and I think that councelor Anderson pointed out recently that I think I may be the only parent on the council with a school AG minor child that is a single mom and my daughter's waiting for me and I have to take her to a doctor's appointment so I'm going to just say a few things and then I'm going to go okay um so first I just want to thank you all for for being here because one of the hardest things to do um is to show up and share a different narrative especially when you have been in a dated with the other side of the conversation so it's been really refreshing to hear the other side of this equation and create space for that that dialogue to happen in a transparent in a public place so I just want to say thank you for sharing your stories and given so much of your own personal journey to help us provide some context to what this is all about right so I just want to thank you for that and then I have been saying here on the city council that we are a body of 13 and we represent the city as a whole so whenever we make votes or whenever we make decisions whether you live in West Roxberry or Roxberry your voice and your votes impact the city as a whole and whenever there's a development project as a Citywide counselor I always defer to The District counselor out of respect because they're the ones who are carrying the brunt of the advocacy that's coming from all sides right and spes and places so I want to be really respectful of that narrative in terms of understanding the Dynamics that happen so I just want to put that within some context so that people can understand why counselor Anderson is really trying to protect the conversation and the Integrity of the bearing of the brunt mostly is always rockberry so wanted to just acknowledge that that there is definitely some that feeling there um and and while I have the microphone I just want to say that I think what and I'll say this because I said it during my the first panel that spoke is that this behavior of pitting people against each other in political spaces it's just it doesn't get us to where we we need to be because the people who are most impacted by that behavior are the people who are not in this chamber right now regard regardless of whether it's the people who live in the neighborhood or the people who are in need of those Services both are out of this conversation and nobody wins and while I do appreciate the the impact that we're trying to get to what I continue to struggle with is the process in which we go about getting there as a community because it shouldn't take a hearing for us to be able to see each other and listen to one another it shouldn't and I appreciate Armani you letting us know that these conversations were happening prior to us being in this chamber right because you don't know what you don't know and even though those conversations were happening then there's still a lot of people who feel left out and so that's why we're questioning the Integrity of the community Community engagement process because there's still this level of of under misunderstanding of the facts and how we got here so I want to name that as something that we're grappling with I want to name that as something that we continue to hold space for and I want to acknowledge that we're not going to get it right that is just the bottom line but what we need to do is recognize that we can continue to pit people against each other and then act like everything's all good whatever after everything goes down we have to start learning how to in this city deal with tension and discomfort and disagreement in ways that continue to keep the community whole and that's what I would love to see us get to and no questions just a comment for us to Grapple with because I think that that is where the real work requires us to leave ourselves and our egos and our political agendas at the door and bring our full selves into this space ready to do the people's work and that's what our constituents want us to do thank you thank you Council Mia uh panel thank you very much for your testimony we appreciate you I dismissed at this moment and we'll be moving on to public testimony uh when your name is called please come down to one of the two podiums and state your name uh neighborhood Andor organization affiliation uh please speak into the microphone and please keep your comments to 2 minutes you will hear me say 15 seconds when you have 15 seconds left so you guys know when to wrap up um we'll be starting with the folks uh that have signed up in person um I'm looking around for Samuel I don't see Sam here is there a Karen broek from a Karen yep I'm sorry Karen uh I know it begins with an m i apolog but we'll see Hello uh my name is Karen Monty brodic um president of the emerald necklace Conservancy um very uh excited to be here um this is a sad day because I also don't like to see folks all asking for things that are needed um conflicting but in some ways this is an exciting day um because for years we've been asking for this hearing I am so glad that today after seven years after the state announced their plan for housing uh excuse me Supportive Services uh it's not affordable housing I'm I'm sorry to say that is not what's being proposed here Supportive Housing and addiction treatment services are being proposed here and um and I I wanted to to just mention a couple of facts here's a map of the sites the state decided not to explore none of these sites were explored we asked the state during the process is there any other use we could use for this public land this land was parked until 1949 and then it was deed to the state for public health purposes it cannot be used for affordable housing according to the deed the state probably I haven't asked them specifically can sell all of these pieces of property around the state but they cannot sell the land that the shadic sits on today and they let the shadic hospital degrade for 50 years 70 years excuse me so badly that it's too expensive to renovate instead they're demolishing it and moving it to to rockberry excuse me to the South End uh Karen mon broek I live on the Roxberry side of massav for uh for record keeping purposes um again represent the emerald necklace Conservancy we we work to bring together 26 neighborhood groups up and down the emerald necklace and I do want to mention that the Franklin Park Coalition has come out in opposition to this proposal today um that it is so in 1952 this land was allowed for public health purposes if it's not used for public health purposes which I believe a park would be um it is it is uh it is meant to go back to being a park that will cost the state money and ultimately the environmental wrong here is that the community was not engaged in decision- making and 1972 we passed a law so this would never happen again it's called article 97 and it was not respected here it's not being respected in other places and it's about listening to the environmental justice communities that surround the park so Community benefits are one thing but decision making is bottom line didn't happen thank you Ken thank you appreciate it uh again folks uh two minutes so please if you have prepared uh uh statements uh take a look and feel if you could fit them within that two-minute time frame uh Stephanie uh shell congratulations on saying my name correctly no one ever does uh my name is Stephanie schul I'm from Jamaica Plain uh Ben Weber's District um just wanted to say um that I'm a bit appalled and confused as to why the state has allowed yet another crisis in our communities to fester and boil over and uh not address it in a proactive manner such that we are again left with various actors try desperately trying to solve a problem that needs to be solved at a larger scale but instead they're cherry-picking what's easiest to do and what's easiest unfortunately continually results in the same communities over and over again having to host the things that all no Community really if they're honest wants there in their community and so I'm calling upon the city council for in whatever way they have available to them to Advocate with our state representatives with our state agencies to proactively create a Statewide plan to deal with the opioid crisis the homelessness crisis and the Behavioral Health crisis I personally would be happy to pay more taxes to have these problems dealt with in a comprehensive and effective way that's my first point second point is BMC God bless them I'm a BMC patient myself talked about doing what's good for the community I would like to know what do they mean by the community clearly as public health people they have a much broader sense of what the community is than what I think of as my community which is the Forest Hills t- stop which is the businesses up and down that area which is the park I have 10 seconds left according to my clock um is it the South End Representatives who were on the community uh Advisory Board the people who desperately want mass and cast dealt with was it the service providers whop that's my timer finally there's no safety plan and there needs to be thank you thank you I appreciate I was trying to give you an extra 5 seconds then um uh Samuel you ready uh testimony please keep it to a strict to two minutes thank you yes sir first of all I want to say thank you to um councelor Fitzgerald for uh for hosting this with councel Anderson thank you councelor Weber for still being here um I think that you know people are very well-intentioned but I do want to remind people a little bit about the history and that is that James Michael Curry went to prison because he committed fraud and he had to be bailed out by the president of the United States and right after he was bailed out this is when all of these uh changes happened and it was probably funny at the time but that mayor kept everything in pencil so we didn't have any record and he took between 5 and 10% of all of the city Coffer money now why is this important it's important because if we're talking about systemic racism we have to look at 2014 when they closed the Long Island Bridge cuz they thought that 2024 which is this year was going to have the Olympics and they've been trying to take Franklin Park ever since and so I say all that because I just left the state house and we're going to have a 200 million to $500 million deficit which means they're not going to have money to do a lot of these wonderful ideas which I think are great and so one of the other things I was concerned about is that they really don't have a plan and I say that because the city of Boston used to have its own hospital if you were to go down Massachusetts Avenue you would see that the Public Health commission still has the building that says Boston City Hospital so at a certain point I think that they're trying to rob Peter to pay Paul beu right now can't even pay its own graduate students how are they supposed to be able to pay for this new hospital if you look at the Boston Medical Center now it's falling apart and so all that's going to end up happening is this is going to be a slush fund for some CEO and we already saw that happening at the Benjamin thank goodness attorney Feer was able to solve that problem so I say all that you know in closing by saying that most of the people who are deciding what's going to happen in Dorchester Roxberry and Jamaica plane don't actually live there and I think that it would be a problem if if this actually went through thank you very much for your time appreciate thank you uh Sarah amen oh take your time please hi everyone oops Sarah Freeman Jamaica plan many affiliations but I don't want to lose my two minutes going through them all I agree with everyone who is saying it's a shame that we have well-intentioned Boston Medical Center housing Advocates recovery Advocates Park Advocates neighborhood Advocates it's a big city it's a big state we need a plan that meets all these needs equitably and this plan from my point of view gets an F not BMC but the state when Mary L suters came to JP Ron community shatak hospital and Franklin Parker not in JP and they had everything figured out they were going to tear down the shat they had already acquired the Newton Pavilion this is the first the public heard they're going to move the impatients there they had already gone to dcam and gotten the okay for 75 to 100 units of Supportive Housing that's a change of use it's so dismissive of the neighborhoods around Franklin Park that they didn't get a conversation we're going to tear down the hospital what would you all like to see happen that meets the public health definition it could be a park it could be a Nutrition Center it could be a gym it could be Food Forest never had the conversation I could go on and on but I guess I'll ask whatever we do moving forward if the city can get the state to avoid those pitfalls moving forward if they need 851 units we have a whole list of Alternatives that they could be looking at putting them in one place is wrong putting them in the one place that has the most Recovery Services anywhere is wrong I don't know how I'm doing on time should I go on maybe I'll leave it there just we can do better we all deserve better there are no demons here no good guys bad guys we just have to figure it out thank you thank you m [Music] Freeman uh Maggie graille graville she has leave y okay thank you uh hope hope hope half great thank you hi thank you so much for taking time with us uh I'm hope half I'm live in Jamaica plane Jamaica plane does touch um the Franklin Park it's being denied left and right but I walk in it with a group of people my own age uh every week um It's a Wonderful loop around around the golf course starting on Williams Street um it it sounds like the park is terribly terribly dangerous um I haven't found it I've lived in Jamaica plane for 35 years I get around on a bike I cut through Franklin Park when I need to go to Dorchester which I do as a social worker um although when I heard about all these needles I I thought oh that's just you know exaggeration so I got a little group of us together and we searched for three hours for needles and we did find some needles but not easily they were not just strewn all over the park um we had to look for two and a half hours and talk to about 20 people and I think probably in many many parks that big there are going to be needles because we have so many homeless people um so I I I try not to believe all the bad things you hear about uh the park It's a Wonderful Park um now I'm also a retired social worker um and one thing I found is and I worked with low-income people for 35 years in Boston one thing I found was it's really hard to um do anything unless you have housing I was paid to help people with mental health do I have to stop 15 seconds okay um and if you don't have housing you can't get over a depression if you don't have housing you can't get over um substance abuse you that's the basis so it's not that we should put it somewhere else and not here we should put it here and all over the state we have a tsunami of homelessness coming at us thank you hope uh Sarah horley is Sarah here yes gotcha no no no take your time thank you Melissa Hamill's up next followed by Michelle Davis just for people to be ready thank you and just a clarifying question we have a couple of people on Zoom will they be at the end or uh the zoom yeah I I I give preference to the folks who show up anded patiently Mak sense okay thank you for your patience my name is Sarah horley and I'm part of the housing and health on Morton Street homes Coalition I'm a lifelong Jamaica plane and Boston resident since childhood my family has visited Franklin Park on a weekly basis in high school I volunteered at the shadic shelter which is still there more recently when my son was preschool age he attended this child care center um which was on the shat campus and we never had any concern for safety the vast majority of the services proposed by BMC have been on the campus for decades um and the addition of Supportive Housing will further help interrupt cycles of mental illness substance abuse and homelessness as we've talked about today there'll be a continuing public process and the final numbers of housing units will be negotiated with the state the city and the community Through much process with the remainder of my time I'd like to read a portion of testimony from Zach de clerk who is a Boston resident in recovery and he wasn't able to attend today so Zach says as a person in long-term recovery from substance abuse disorder I've benefited from life-saving residential programs and housing security that enabled me to have the life I have today I have also been to literally dozens of funerals of friends and loved ones over the past 15 years many people who lacked adequate access to such services and housing the recovery meetings I attend on the shat campus are over overwhelmingly people of color in their attendance the population served by the shadic deserves an upgrade and also the access to Supportive Housing Zach continues to say my family lives one block from the park and utilizes the area near the shat today we walked past some new housing construction and my four-year-old asked if they were building that house for Tony Tony is our neighbor who has been living in his minivan for most of that kid's life and lived in an apartment on that same block before that sadly that home that market rate home isn't for our friend Tony every time we scale down a proposal like this one we scale down the chances of Tony having a decent place to call home thank you thank you very much uh Melissa Hamill hello um thank you councelor Fitzgerald and councelor uh Fernand Xander person for having this uh meeting today um appreciate it very much um as you know um I'm a member of Kors but I'm also a me I've lived in Jamaica plane for over 40 years and I love my city I love my community and I love Franklin Park um unfortunately it's a little disingenuous to say there isn't any safety issues um I've lived around the corner from um the boat at school which is Pine Street Run and I walk my dog along the corridor I've been um I've been assaulted once by somebody who lived at the poter school and my dog has uh been seconden twice from consuming human waste from people who are you actively using down along the tracks so there are safety concerns and all you have to do is talk to Dr Jean Maguire um so um please let's not gloss over that fact um I want my community to be safe I want all the communities that live around Franklin Park to be safe I want everybody who uses that Park on a daily basis on a weekly basis to be safe um I don't think that having this amount of people who are actively seeking recovery is wise for them I my I have a personal um tragedy in my family in October I lost a dear a very close family member to opioid addiction um so no one's saying that we don't care but Jamaica plane Roxberry Dorchester matapan have already been oversaturated with care they've had their share of uh of facilities that 15 seconds so I I think that we all are on the same page here we want to seek we want people to have healthy safe recovery and healthy safe communities but always coming back to the same communities is wrong thank you thank you very much Melissa uh is Michelle Davis here she left she left okay uh Lincoln lond Lincoln's on thank you very much uh Terry Mason she left Terry's gone thank you very much uh Martha Martha K yeah Co yeah she left uh that'll take us down to David looks like Moi I can't David yeah thank you sir two minutes hello counselors thank you so much for for listening to me I'll I'll try to be as brief as I can I'm David Moyer I've been fighting for Boston since 1972 along with other people I'm in that class that believed that government would only do the right thing when people stood up and told them what to do I want to quickly go through how we got to this place first of all I want just clarify that in 1949 uh the mayor of Boston after running this by the parks commissioner and running it by the city councilors twice asked to be able to convey to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the right to build a hospital for the treatment of the workers of the area who would serve their country well that was the sole purpose it's it's known as a as a servitude it's an obligation to provide a service on that land that land is heathfield it's a section of of um Franklin Park it is not it is illegal for decam to reference the shatak campus as if they own the land they don't they own a right to use the land for a explicit public purpose of a hospital to help people now so I want to talk to the fact that I have for your review what I believe is an illegally um grounded Memo by decam saying that that there are two assets the building with its programs and the land the land was not an asset it is not an asset to be managed it is simply the place on which the encumbrance of a duty to help the citizens of Boston with public health is built um I talked to Dam about that and with the with the Boston Medical Group folks and subsequent oh and the original eam position which I'm providing you the letter from 1921 sorry 2021 says this is for um this transitional housing thing that was something created during the life they did not have the right to do it I draw you your attention to the fact that there's a letter I'm going to give you from baky talking about how it's changed here's my point you have a zoning code I would like to impose it please I will give for us to review thank you David I appreciate it um I have a up next uh c a l i g Kika sorry okay didn't want I go by one name usually because I have a long Spanish name and I legally can go by one name you legally I went to court I'm in the Arts world as well but I have been in RN in Boston for over 46 years I actually worked at lenel shad's locked Ward way back in the 70s and it was not a good place I also wor was a last evening charged nurse at Boston state hospital and when they did deinstitutionalization I'm probably going to cry and there was no safety net and suddenly about a third of the homeless on the streets of Boston where my former patients I am a member of Kors thank you I'm a member of Kors because I care about people getting Services I also was a Boston City nurse which became Boston Medical Center for 25 years I've been a patient at Boston Medical Center and my whole family for my whole life pretty much I was a patient there yesterday and for years Boston Medical Center cannot even manage substance use illicit substance use and drug dealing on its campus at BMC let alone will they be able to help with that on the proposed proposal at Lett Hospital Kors stands for Coalition for regional Services down at mass and Cass any given day about 50% of the people that were down there were from out of Boston what we stand for is making smaller Regional services to to serve people from other places it does not belong in one place I also grew up on Waverly Street in Roxbury and so I went to White stadium for concerts playhouse in the park I my kids and I have built Forts and Hike there no I want to say it does not belong in a part because if you want to talk about public health then we this is climate crisis time we need more green space for our mental and physical health it does not belong there find other places so we can House people with substance use disorder please not in our Park thank you very much uh Renee Welch hello um Renee Welch I've lived in thank you for for this space um Renee Welch I lived in Jamaica play in Roxbury since 1975 since I was born um someone said today that this proposal was the fear of the unknown there is no unknown since the tiny Cottages we now have to deal with people defecating on our sidewalks we have to deal with needle cleanup we have to deal with drug dealing we have to deal with um prostitution and a host of other things that we didn't have to deal with before but now we have to deal with it so when they say to us um so this is going to be different their I guess it's their failed test run it isn't working we now have I live in egson so egson is like on that Kasa JP Rock and let's be honest people look at eglon like it's the hood right nobody wants to live there but we're the ones that has to deal with people in eglon shooting up naked cuz I've seen that okay and they're coming from the new Cottages in the park no one listens to us it's we're going to stick this here because it is the path of path of leas resistance where do you guys live because I can tell you most of the people that sat on this on this Council from BMC do not live in Jamaica plane and the one person that does live in Jamaica plan I see them on Jamaica Pond I don't see in the park okay so let's be real I own my house that's not by luck that's by grit my family came to this country in 1968 we fought for everything we have this proposal is going to kill our generational wealth as black and brown people so let's be real about this this is an attack on the black community say what you want because the majority of the people in these programs are neither black nor Brown okay there are there are black people who are in these programs helping and they're being discriminated against there's a woman that was here today she's a service provider she was called the n-word by a drug by by a drug addict in these same programs so not only we trying to help we are also being discriminated against let's be real stop attacking the black and brown community and put it in the neighborhoods where it belong um what what is it Welsley Weston where most of these people come from we are not your punching bags thank you thank you uh Sasha good friend Sasha here no then that would conclude the in-person public testimony we do have public testimony on Zoom though I don't I'm not sure how many are still signed in um we'll start uh at the top there would be uh Jawan SK here I'm in person well you sign you you signed up uh you signed up on Zoom but it I signed it on that one over there no no no no no Absolut if you're here you're here that's great right uh no I appreciate go ahead two minutes all right can everyone hear me all right there we go uh good afternoon counselors uh neighbors my name is Jaan SK uh I am a lifelong doorchester resident of District 4 um and I am also a candidate uh for state senate for the first suffect district pleasure to be here um I just have a few uh quick comments so I'm currently opposed to this project as it currently stands uh as you guys know when I was running for Boston city council at large as a writing candidate last year um I was advocating for the shadic to become a Holistic community-led Center uh with a a focus uh definitely on um uh uh with services that are focused more on fruits and vegetables with the healing um as opposed to the current medicines that they're currently given us uh as our bodies are not able to sustain sustain uh such medicines um additionally what I would like to see um there's no housing on this lot um I definitely feel like we should be in uh investing in the closed schools uh similar to timl Middle School um what are we doing with that project why can't we turn it into housing similar to how we did with the Rogers in High Park uh for the seniors lgbtq Community um the second thing uh when it comes to holistic Services I want to make sure that we're bringing diversity into this project uh where every culture is allowed to share what their natural uh remedies are from each and every culture so that way we can start to heal um the overall Community um I would like to see a community gym uh Community cooking classes inside of this building uh yoga Riki uh room for meditation and and this is my last uh comment here um I would like to see us purchase those fruits and vegetables from local farms here inside the city of Boston similar to the uh uh Urban farming Institute um as well as the thoron street Farm in Roxberry uh thank you all for your support I look forward to working with you on this issue appreciate it thank you sir uh now going to zoom uh our first person uh yeah please St up so state your name make sure thank you thank you so much chair and thank you for um bringing this conversation my name is Sasha good friend I live in Jamaica plane and I'm going to read a statement from someone who wasn't able to be here today my name is kie Connelly and I'm a client at Women's hope part of the victory programs women's hope is located on the 11th floor of the shadic and it is a recovery program for women who struggle with substance use and moderate to severe mental health issues as of August 2023 opioid deaths have reached an all-time high in Massachusetts suffet county is one of three counties in Massachusetts that have death rates significantly higher than the national average as well as Hampton and Bristol counties these numbers represent my friends my boyfriend and other loved ones who I've lost to overdoses from font and all in 2014 when the Long Island Bridge suddenly was abruptly closed 800 beds were lost that were so desperately needed and utilized for treatment and shelter we urgently need places like the shadic and Long Island Health campuses because they provide access to recovery and Mental Health Services these facilities helped us navigate our lives in early recovery they gave us shelter resources and hope for our future the shadic has provided me with the support I so urgently needed four times in 2017 I was in the high point section 35 unit and a month later I came to woman's hope when it was the TSS program in my most recent Journey which started in March of 2023 I was sent to the shadic for a bed in a CSS run by bov and now I'm back at wom's Hope which has turned into a Coe residential treatment program but what happens next to us is so crucial where do we go once we graduate from these programs 6 months one year flies by and we are in the infancy of our recovery and rebuilding Our Lives some of us go to sober homes where the rank can be 200 a week or more in some cases seconds this is not a permanent solution once again some of us find ourselves lost in the cycle of going in and out in programs because we've been removed from our day-to-day support of daily check-ins with case managers mental health workers and people we've learned to trust these Supportive Housing units would save so many lives minees included thank you thank you very much sir uh now we will move on to the zoom I think right is there anyone else here that has signed up to speak and that has not all right so now we move on to zoom uh first up on the zoom testimony is uh an Dei Neil pet Neil pitri is an there DD you up Miss Petri are you uh are you with us yes I'll try again sorry about that there you go you have two minutes Miss py thank you all right first thank you to the council and the many participants I am the president and CEO of the mestad network based in Washington DC we are a National Organization honored to Champion hestad parks and places across the country we wholeheartedly support the provision of needed social services and housing but we strongly oppose the location of a facility of any size in Frederick Law olmstead's historic Franklin Park we urge the state to raise the shadic and regain 13 acres of park space for the people before it is too late for decades the city of Boston has been chipping away at olmstead's extraordinary Franklin Park for non-park and private uses as we have heard numerous alternative treatment sites are available many of which would provide smaller and more accessible facilities throughout the region that is why we join those who call on the city and state to review and identify a comprehensive plan for these urgent Services whatever the purpose and however well-meaning public parks should not be viewed as places to build Olstead made clear that that parks are intended to be places without Building E design Parks as critical Public Health infrastructure to give City dwellers an opportunity to escape the city stated another way Olstead Parks have a foundational social justice purpose we are told not to worry this will be a Sustainable Building I'm sorry a building is still a building it's time to prioritize racial Equity the neighborhoods of Franklin Park deserve restorative and healthful open space as Frederick La Olstead intended leaders in Boston and cities around the country need to remember parks are cost effective Public Health Resources that can drive better mental physical and environmental outcomes we urge you no more building in Franklin Park thank you so much thank you Ed uh up next we have uh Josh oberly Josh if you're with us you have two minutes and make sure you're off mute please and thank you Mr O are you online hi can everyone hear me y we can hear you now Josh go ahead you have two minutes please and thank you sir yeah thank you councelor FZ Joe thank you Council Anderson I appreciate the time today for the public to be heard about the issue I live in Forest Hills I'm one of the more newer residents to the community I lived here about seven going on eight years uh I've discussed you know just the concerns about the homeless and drug use around Forest Hills in the past you know five six years I've seen it go up myself there's been a lot of things going on in the park since the um the small houses Cottages have been built and you know there there are needles around I know someone in the room today has been picking them up that that's a great you know uh friend of the park but I think just the um fact of the matter is that there's too much density here um for this the services that are being proposed and I just support the um the regional smaller um facilities that could possibly be built to support this community uh thank you thank you Josh appreciate testimony uh up next we have uh James Michelle James are you there oh uh James you have to accept being promoted as a panelist to speak so if you could if you haven't done that please do so and you'll be allowed you'll be allocated 2 minutes James you got about 10 seconds perhaps we can come back um W and said we move on to a Shamika Moreno shmika Moreno if you are uh still online with us please uh when you begin talking you'll have two minutes uh please make sure you're off mute thank you you have the floor hi my name is shik Moro I'm a long time born raised resident of oxbury um I just want to say it's kind of confusing when people keep calling it Franklin Park it's not Franklin Park it's a Chad it's a hospital it's been a hospital since before I was born as a mother who walks mass in cast de able to bring my child to school I find it very disturbing that people from the Jamaica plan area don't want needles in their neighborhood but for the last nine years of my daughter's life she's walked from nurtury on Mount Pleasant now to Orchard Gardens and seen these same needles and defecation but it wasn't a concern then my concern is they just don't want it in their neighborhood project prise is a program through BMC where I first started my volunteering for my clinical hours for my lad act which is naum or uh not but um abbreviation for LIC addiction and dual diagnosis counseling I work at project perment which is V by BMC on River Street on a housing site where people are housed living there with over 300 units so to say that we don't need this or it's too much we already have this as it's also the Joel in house that's part the street from Franklin Park Zoo that's a state run program for black women so I'm just not understanding why the misinformation is being spewed by the senator who spoke earlier purposefully this it's not a black or brown thing or a white or black thing it's I don't want this in my neighborhood and that's not feir when people that are black and brown like myself a Latina lives with this every day and deals with it every day because I have no choice this is where I reside and it it's being said to the community that it's an issue with just us no it's an issue with everybody and if Community is community that means everyone not just where you live or Community is everywhere the city of Boston is the community as a whole and that's all I have to say thank you so much Miss Maro I appreciate it uh up next uh on the zoom and we only have a couple more folks uh is Kevin whan Kevin whan if you could please accept being a panelist you will have two minutes once you begin speaking thank you we'll wait just a little bit he's not there uh all right Kevin has signed off uh we'll move on to uh Pamela King is Pamela King still with us online Pamela if you unmute yourself you'll have uh two minutes to speak once you start talking thank you very much hello can you hear me yes Miss King you have two minutes thank you okay yes uh I just want to say that I uh support all of the um expert witnesses that came from Senator Wilkerson and U Miss Randolph and Derek Evans and lisis Aliss U those are this is very important um expertise that we are ignoring and it was ignored when we had the meeting concerning um the Haitian immigrants coming to M so what I'm concerned about is that this is an issue of systemic racism and it's in the public health realm and the higher numbers of people who have been dying in the black and brown communities and Hispanic communities um it just there's been no attention to that and I just would like maybe each of us in the city to uh look at the 2020 Declaration of racism as a Public Health crisis by May Walsh he gave eight executive orders and he ordered all departments to follow those those orders and I'd like to know if there's any evidence anybody can find any evidence that any of these orders these executive orders to eliminate uh sis uh racism as a Public Health crisis or have any of those orders been carried out by any Department in the city of Boston since 2020 I don't know if that's a comment or a question I think it's both I I think it's a question that folks don't have the answer to at their fingertips at the moment but we appreciate your questioning uh you have 15 seconds if you'd like to add anything else yes would you please uh could you please find out as a city council if any of these departments have done anything to carry out those executive orders it will be noted in the record and we'll try and get back to you Pamela thank you so much thank you so much uh that concludes the zoom public testimony as well uh I'll allow for closing remarks if any from the remaining counselors uh please keep it to one minute or under do you guys have anything you'd like to add at the moment yes thank you of course I do um thank you Mr chair and thank you so much for your Your Grace today and your patience um I just wanted to make a comment about um specifically housing this is not affordable housing this is not family housing this is not any type of housing individual housing this is shelter specifically uh Supportive Housing for people suffering or transitioning into uh long-term treatment so it's I I I just don't want the issues to be conflated where housing Advocates are coming here and saying housing why not housing housing is a problem well if as I mentioned uh district 7 shares the most amount of affordable housing as is and there's research shows that it dampens our economy it doesn't contribute to our communities when we do that so condensing or further uh condensing populating uh poverty into or Services into district 7 I live um on humble AV it's public information and it's just one mile radius between eight halfway homes so all around my home I literally live next to one so then I walk to Franklin Park and that's going to be there as I've said before um no we are all in support of of services I would like to see the shadic renovated I would like to see BMC actually follow the recommendations from the state which whatever numbers that they've asked and then I would like to see a holistic highquality uh facility be built there um where it actually properly addresses service if you really care about it and you say that you're intentional then bring high quality service and actually create this holistic environment that addresses all of these uh around a a wraparound Services um I thank you all of you for being here and your advocacy look forward to the conversation look forward to BMC again on record that you have not responded uh questions about safety uh parking the wraparound model uh a lot of questions not being answered today and so I just want to make sure that you do walk away understanding that so downscaling number of the dashboard Community benefits holistic development plan environmental impact and how to mitigate that continued Community process thank you all thank you chair thank you councel Council Weber any closing remarks um thank you chair uh I just want to thank everyone uh all the three panelists uh on the three panels and everyone who gave public testimony thank you and uh looks like you know this will be part of a much longer process and I I look forward to to it thank you great thank you Council Weber and thank you to everybody who arrived today for your patience as well everybody online uh with that the hearing on docket 0512 was [Music] [Music] adjourned [Music]