The shelter’s name, Restore Motivate Validate Shelter, is a nod to the building’s former role as a Registry of Motor Vehicles. “It’s in downtown. It’s also away from certain neighborhoods or neighborhoods in general,” City Manager Eric Batista said.
A space where people used to wait in line to get their driver’s licenses and take permit tests has been converted into a 60-bed emergency winter shelter in Worcester.
The former Registry of Motor Vehicles building at 611 Main St. will open as the aptly named Restore Motivate Validate Shelter on Tuesday, according to Tania Diduca, chief of staff for the Southern Middlesex Opportunity Council, the provider running the shelter.
During a press tour of the facility Monday, Diduca said they wanted a name for the shelter that would play on the fact that the building housed the RMV.
“And we really hope that when people come here that is exactly what they’re able to do,” Diduca said. “We want people to have an opportunity to restore, we want to hopefully motivate them, and we also really want to be able to validate where they are in their life.”
When choosing a location for the winter shelter, City Manager Eric Batista said the city had to go to faith-based and community organizations first because of Massachusetts General Laws when it comes to establishing an emergency shelter, but had challenges with that.
The city then looked at the properties it owns and properties the state owns in the city. While they were looking they took into consideration where the services unhoused individuals may utilize are located, according to Batista.
“So when we looked at all those facilities and all those spaces across the city, we saw the RMV, we felt ‘Oh my god that’s a great spot,’” Batista said. “It’s in downtown. It’s also away from certain neighborhoods or neighborhoods in general.”
Last year, the city’s emergency shelter was located in Blessed Sacrament Church and run by Open Sky Community Services. Many local residents were vocal in their opposition to having the shelter in their neighborhood, raising safety concerns as well as questioning the city’s communication about its plans, Worcester Patch reported.
The city signed the lease for 611 Main St. on Nov. 22, according to Jim Brooks, the city’s Director of Housing Development and Healthy Homes, which meant it had 19 days to convert it into a shelter.
The building had been winterized – the toilets were gone and the water and heat were shut off, according to Batista, so the city had to work with the state to get the building back online.
They also took down a wrap around counter and put in water and electrical lines for showers, according to Brooks. Getting the building ready to be a shelter was a joint effort between MassDOT, state building inspectors, city building inspectors, and city fire officials, Brooks said.
Keeping the shelter open through the end of April will cost a little over $1 million, according to Batista. The city has reached out to the state to fund it, but in the meantime is looking at other avenues to fund it like American Rescue Plan Act Funding and some emergency funding dollars the city can shift, Batista said.
There are still signs that the shelter was an RMV, with signs pointing people to customer service and self service terminals, but now the floor is lined with green cots that have been stacked with clean sheets and toiletry supplies including a toothbrush, tooth paste, soap, and shampoo and conditioner.
Some of the cots have been placed in an isolation area in case anyone comes in with COVID-19, otherwise 15 of the beds are reserved for women and 45 beds are reserved for men, according to Diduca. That breakdown is based on the people typically looking for services, Diduca said, which is usually more men than women.
The shelter also has a dining area where clients will be served meals.
The shelter will be open 24 hours a day, with a cutoff time for clients to enter the shelter at 6 p.m., Diduca said. During the day case managers will be available from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. to help clients with their housing and health needs, she said.
“They work very closely and intensively because the goal is really to be able to move to permanent supportive housing,” Diduca said.
Worcester saw a 70% jump in homelessness from winter 2021 to winter 2023 with 477 homeless individuals in 2021, 624 in 2022, and 810 in 2023, according to data from Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance. The numbers do not include families with children.
The demand for winter shelter this year over last has increased by 14%, recent trends suggest, according to city spokesperson Tom Matthews, which could mean a peak demand of 363 single adults requiring shelter on one night this winter season.
The city currently has 166 year-round shelter beds. Adding the 60 emergency shelter beds cuts the city’s shortage of beds from 197 to 137, according to Matthews.
The shelter at Blessed Sacrament did reach its 60-person capacity during some days in the last winter season, going over by one or two people on some days, according to Batista. Those people were sent to Queen Street Shelter, which is also run by SMOC. If the RMV shelter is at capacity, the plan is also to send people to Queen Street, according to Diduca.
Queen Street can get their capacity up to 120 using mats, according to Diduca.
“This is so critically important because we know there are a lot of people sleeping outside on the streets and winter is coming,” Susan Gentili, chief executive officer of SMOC, said Monday. “This is going to be a really welcoming, safe, and warm spot for people to be and to get connected to a lot of other services and housing, which is really the ultimate goal.”
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford, and Antigua and Barbuda. Her work has been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
