Shattuck Community Process Looks to Begin in September

The 12-month community process for the move of the Shattuck Hospital from Jamaica Plain to the South End will commence in September, according to the state Office of Health and Human Services.

The state recently chose Health Resources in Action (HRiA) to conduct the 12-month process, which will focus on the future of the Shattuck site in Jamaica Plain’s Franklin Park. The Shattuck operations will then move to the Newton Pavilion on East Newton Street, with the hope for Southenders being that the current Shattuck site will be able to reduce the amounts of services inundating the South End neighborhoods.

The Shattuck campus planning process will likely have its first public meeting in September. A timeline in the Request for Proposals (RFP) indicates that by Dec. 31 preliminary recommendations are due for the future use of the campus, “including preliminary financial models and estimates of project costs, and campus site plans illustrating existing conditions, site analysis, and documenting neighborhood access, opportunities and potential challenges.”

By June 30, 2019, the final recommendations are due for the future use, and that will include short-term and long-term implementation plans.

The RFP actually had some groundbreaking verbiage in it for the South End, who have long hoped that the Shattuck would ease the burden of addiction, recovery and homelessness services in their neighborhood.

The RFP seems to agree that there might be a trade-off of sorts for the Shattuck relocation to the South End.

“The recommendations should consider options to mitigate the public health and economic problems that disparately impact certain neighborhoods such as the South End today, and ensure that the benefits of the future use accrue equitably to all impacted neighborhoods,” read the RFP, which guides the planning process boundaries.

South End Forum Moderator Steve Fox and Newmarket Business Alliance Director Sue Sullivan have both been appointed to a Steering Committee for the process. Fox said they have begun discussions with members of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council to get on the same page.

“We talked at length about the understanding to create something reasonable,” said Fox. “We don’t want to take everything out of the South End and move it to JP. We’ve already forged the relationship between us and so that we can move forward on this (process).”

The state believes it will close on the Newton Pavilion by October. It is believe that employees and the current uses there will begin to vacate in September.

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