WORCESTER—With temperatures already dropping heading into the winter months, the city of Worcester announced Thursday that it will be opening an emergency winter shelter in the former Registry of Motor Vehicles building on Main Street.
The shelter, which will include 60 beds, is expected to open the week of Dec. 11, according to a press release from the city.
Southern Middlesex Opportunity Council (SMOC) will run the shelter. SMOC currently runs Queen Street Shelter and the Martin Luther King Jr. Opportunity Center on Chandler Street.
“The opening of this emergency winter shelter is the culmination of our community, along with the state, coming together to figure out a solution to make sure no one is left outside in the cold during the winter months,” City Manager Eric Batista said. “I can’t thank the state and our community partners enough for their hard work and perseverance to secure a location that is centrally located, close to services, and accommodating of needs.”
The shelter will be open 24/7 through the end of April and offer showers, meals, support services, and security detail, according to the press release.
SMOC President Susan Gentili said her organization is pleased to be a part of “this important community effort” and said it is “committed to helping people in need by providing warmth and shelter during the coldest months of the year.”
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 worked with the state to find a new property that worked best as a shelter and would solve some of the issues with the location last year, spokesperson Tom Matthews said.
The Worcester RMV moved from its location at 611 Main St. to its current location at 50 Southwest Cutoff in August 2022, the Telegram & Gazette reported.
Worcester has seen record numbers of unhoused individuals in recent years. From February 2022 to February 2023 the number of sheltered and unsheltered unhoused single adults rose by 30% from 622 to 810, according to data from the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance (CMHA). During a Point-in-Time count on Jan. 3, providers found that 55 people were unsheltered on that day, according to CMHA.
The city doesn’t have a specific date it opens a winter shelter each year, the date depends on when the city and stakeholders are able to work together to identify a location and manager, according to Matthews.
Worcester’s Homeless Outreach Team and Quality of Life Team will be reaching out to unhoused individuals to let them know about the shelter, according to the city’s press release.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford and Antigua and Barbuda. She’s 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
