On Thursday, January 15, about 100 local officials, homeless advocates, neighborhood leaders and others gathered to celebrate the opening of 100 beds at the new 112 Southampton Street shelter, located in a former Boston Transportation Department sign shop. When the shelter becomes fully operational in the spring, it will offer 400 beds per night. The ceremony included comments from Mayor Martin J. Walsh, chief of health and human services Felix G. Arroyo, interim executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission Huy Nguyen and John Greenip, vice president for operations of Turner Construction, one of the contractors involved in the round-the-clock effort to prepare the new shelter for guests. The mayor, who previously worked as a construction laborer, pointed out in his remarks that the Turner, Suffolk and Gilbane construction companies, three of the largest in the country, worked three shifts to complete the first phase of the shelter in two and one half weeks, a job that would have taken six to eight months on a normal schedule. Police Commissioner William Evans, Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins, City Council president Bill Linehan and councilors Tito Jackson and Ayanna Pressley and state senator Linda Dorcena Forry attended the ceremony as well.

The Mayor thanked the people of the South End and South Boston for their participation in the siting of shelter for Long Island's displaced residents and acknowledged that their position with respect to siting of the new shelter was misrepresented in media reports. "At the meeting, the people of South Boston and the South End said they welcomed a shelter on Frontage Road at that time. They weren't saying, 'We don't want a homeless shelter,' they were saying, 'How do we find solutions for the shelter?' I want to thank those two communities." Walsh added, "As you walk around here, you'll see this is a much better operation than what would have been at Frontage Road." Walsh mentioned that a task force on homelessness has been convened, including homeless members to discuss the concerns of homeless people and solutions. "As we are building a bed, we are going to have programs in place to help people get off homelessness," Walsh said.

In his welcome remarks, Arroyo thanked the organizations that worked on helping the homeless displaced by the October 8 closing of Long Island facilities and contributed to preparing the new shelter. Arroyo acknowledged St. Francis House, the Pine Street Inn, Boston Health Care for the Homeless, the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans and the Boston Rescue Mission for making space in their facilities for the sudden influx of stranded homeless guests. "We can't wait for the spring when we will have over 400 people here per night. But this is not just about emergency shelter. Our mayor has said that emergency shelter is a need because we have not been doing other things. We must be providing opportunities so that each person doesn't need a shelter bed. That will be happening out of this site. We will be working toward permanent housing, mental health and substance abuse issues and helping them to find a stable living situation," Arroyo said.

When plans for the new shelter shifted from the Frontage Road area to Southampton Street,
Newmarket Business Association executive director Sue Sullivan had some initial worries about public safety and existing crime in the neighborhood. Sullivan has been in discussion with city officials about those public safety issues, about matching shelter guests with jobs in Newmarket and about workforce readiness training, and is pleased with the outcome. "We are thrilled that the shelter is coming here, and it's been terrible seeing the homeless displaced from Long Island." We had concerns about the shelter coming here. We met with Chief Arroyo and Chief Smith and we realized that the shelter was not going to exacerbate the difficult situation we have here. There is a lot of at-risk behavior around here. We are going to come up with a comprehensive public safety plan for the area."

Sullivan said the Newmarket area already employed a number of homeless Long Island guests, and will continue to offer jobs to qualified workers staying at Southampton Street. "A lot of our companies have already talked to me about wanting to hire the homeless and people who are at risk, but they need skills. This is where this shelter is going to be different. They are going to do training." Sullivan stressed that life skills training is essential for success in the workplace as well. "Believe it or not, those are some of the hardest. Sometimes someone starts out well but then they start coming in late and then they don't show up for a day. You have to be able to depend on them."

The section that is currently open, located on the second floor, includes a kitchen, dining area and sanitary facilities, and will accept guests from 4:30 PM until 6:30 AM, serving breakfast and dinner with several breaks for outdoor time each evening. The two sleeping areas offer bunk beds flanked by windows on two sides providing natural light and views to the outdoors. The dining area and another gathering space have photographic murals with city views and quotes from the Mayor on one wall.

Asked about the cost of fast-tracking the opening of the shelter by working three shifts, the Mayor responded that he did not have an analysis of the figures yet, and that there were a number of in-kind contributions that offset the overall cost. Looking ahead to the projected springtime opening of the remainder of the shelter, Arroyo quipped, "The mayor's behind me and he is going to tell me, 'Early spring,' and then he's going to tell me to do it before then." Walsh also stated the intention of an early-spring commencement of full operations at the shelter.