Back in 2013 the city launched a plan in cooperation with Pine Street Inn and Metro-West to convert the de-commissioned fire station, Engine 6 in Waban, into a permanent housing for formerly homeless folks. When the plan was made public there was a very big and load uproar from some of the citizenry of the surrounding neighborhood of Waban.
The public meetings were loud, impassioned, full of a fair amount of misinformation, and not a pretty site. In the face of the uproar, the city backed out of the plan and cancelled the project.
In response, Supporters of Engine 6, a group that sprang up to advocate for the project, lodged a formal complaint with the federal department of Housing & Development (HUD). In settling that complaint the city has agreed to a “conciliation agreement” with HUD that requires them to put together a detailed Action Plan to show how they will address housing for the chronically homeless.
That plan was released a few days ago. Here’s a copy.
The Action Plan lists six possible sites for future housing for the chronically homeless. Four of the six listed sites are properties already owned by Newton Public Housing. Three of those sites involve adding a single unit to an existing Newton Public Housing owned property.
A disgraceful waste of taxpayer’s money! No wonder this country is in trouble. Instead of spending precious resources actually helping people, HUD spends it on lawyers.
@Mike Striar – an alternative take might be … puncturing the common perception that federal agencies just spend money like drunken sailors with no oversite, HUD is insisting that the recipients of that federal housing money actually do use it ‘helping people”.
Fair point, Jerry. But couldn’t the same thing have been accomplished without all the legal mumbo jumbo? I mean the darn settlement plan is 17 pages long. It represents a lot of work on the part of HUD, and forced the city to spend money defending itself. The taxpayers pay both sides of that bill. Was the city going to misspend the HUD money on something else? Was someone going to steal the funds? I’m just not sure why something like Engine 6 turns into a contentious and costly battle between the federal and local government.
Me neither. It was indeed a tremendous waste of time, money, and lost opportunity all around.