By Grace Allen

At Local Town Pages press time, Gov. Healey announced sweeping changes to the shelter system, which is not reflected in the following article. 

The emergency shelter at the old Bay State Correctional Center has been operational for over a month now, and 225 of the projected 405 people had moved in by Local Town Pages deadline. The situation will remain in flux for the foreseeable future, acknowledge town officials, who say the shelter should be full by mid- to late August.

So far, there have been few surprises, said Jim Lehan, chairman of the Norfolk Select Board, noting there have not been any police issues nor much demand on rescue personnel. The state agreed in June to some of the town’s requests for assistance, including stationing an ambulance on site during statistically peak ambulance call times, as well as a health clinic.

“It’s been pretty peaceful, but I’m going to be cautious because there are too many unknowns,” Lehan said. “We’ve never experienced this before and we’re going to stay alert to what potential issues could occur. But in terms of public safety, I think we’re in as good a place as we can be and both the police and fire chief are comfortable with the strategy we have in place to deal with issues.”

Norfolk officials meet weekly via Zoom with state officials. Any issues, updates, or changes are all discussed.

“This commitment to talk weekly is one of the things that has turned out to be in our favor,” Lehan said. “We can reevaluate where we are at, because you know this is going to be a moving target. Things that we think we have under control today may not be the case tomorrow, so by meeting weekly we can revisit issues to make sure we are going in the right direction.”

About 51% of families in the state’s shelter system are Massachusetts residents experiencing homelessness. However, the emergency shelter in Norfolk is currently housing just Haitian and Venezuelan families, likely because Massachusetts homeless families may have relatives or friends to stay with, surmised Lehan.

The state says the shelter will be open 6 to 12 months. Lehan says the facility has a temporary occupancy permit for 6 months, which can only be renewed for one additional 6-month period per state law.

Still, there is vehement opposition from residents. Jack Olivieri, who has lived in town for 40 years, is part of a group called Concerned Citizens of Norfolk. He says the town should be pushing back against the state for siting a shelter at the defunct prison, instead of acquiescing without a fight. His group has held one rally so far and has received much local and even national news coverage.

Olivieri points out that his group is not against the shelter’s residents—he has dropped off donations at the prison himself—but rather against what they view as the political failings of state and national leaders and their handling of the migrant situation. His group questions state leaders’ assertions that shelter residents have had criminal background checks and that their immunizations will be up to date.

“It’s despicable how [the state] handled this,” he said. “They’ve been working on this since December and they told us 30 days beforehand, only after it leaked out. Now they want us to trust them?”

Concerned Citizens of Norfolk has about 275 people and has allied with Concerned Citizens of Cape Cod, which was formed to raise awareness about the impact of the immigration crisis on Cape towns. The Norfolk group has also aligned with Mass Coalition for Immigration Reform, which believes mass immigration into the U.S. has negatively impacted the country.

Olivieri points out state officials are not concerned about the rising lead levels in the prison’s water, which may impact children housed in the shelter. He questions the state’s assertions that the site will stay open for 6 to 12 months only and says one of his group’s goals is to hold state officials to that promise. 

“We’ve been asked, ‘Don’t you guys have any compassion for these people?’ And I said, sure we do,” said Olivieri. “But we also have compassion for the town of Norfolk and homeless veterans and homeless Massachusetts residents that aren’t getting as much as these shelter residents are getting.”

Selectman Lehan said he understands the anger, noting the shelter has disrupted “a wonderful town.” But he cautions that residents have to deal with facts and not fall prey to social media rumors. For example, a post on one of the town’s Facebook pages questioned why there were so many cars at one of the prison’s parking lots, which fueled speculation that the shelter residents were being given cars by the state.

Not true, said Lehan, who notes the Department of Correction’s Central Transportation Unit is on site and still operational even though the prison itself was decommissioned in 2015. In addition, people working in the shelter and surrounding buildings park there.

“So there are always going to be cars there,” said Lehan. “That has not changed. But there is not a single occupant of the shelter that has been given a car. No one is giving the immigrants cars.”

Lehan says residents should reach out to the Town Administrator or to any of the Select Board members with any questions or concerns. Accurate information is not hard to get, he says—people just need to ask. That will go a long way towards assuaging people’s fears and anger, he hopes. 

“No one signed up for this,” he said. “But this is the hand we were dealt, and we’re doing our best to mitigate all these concerns people have. I get that people are scared. And people have the right to be unhappy and to vent. But in the role I’m in, I don’t have time to be angry, even though I’ve had some private angry moments. People say we should’ve stopped this. Well, it’s the state’s building, they own it, they don’t need our permission. At some point you have to focus on what you can control and not continue to complain about what you can’t.”

Residents are encouraged to visit the town’s Temporary Emergency Shelter Dashboard on the town’s website (Norfolk.ma.us) to stay informed and to sign up for updates. 

To help the shelter residents, or any residents in need, visit norfolkstrong.org, which is coordinating shelter needs with Heading Home, the shelter’s service provider.

For more information about Concerned Citizens of Norfolk, search for the group’s page on Facebook and request to join.