Lynn chamber study to tackle location status of city shelters

LYNN – Long since regarded as an unsuitable place to house a shelter and a soup kitchen, members of the business community have begun brainstorming ways to relocate My Brother’s Table and the Lynn Shelter from the corner of Liberty and Washington streets.The perpetually hot topic prompted Chamber of Commerce President John Olson to address the issue of the multi-service center on Willow Street to see if there is a more viable, but less visible spot for it to be housed.”There is a general belief that it’s a poorly placed site because it’s sitting on the corner of Liberty and Washington streets – the gateway to downtown,” he said. “It brings a negative connotation to the city and everyone always says that they want to move it. So we’re going to conduct a feasibility study to see if that’s possible.”Olson said the chamber hopes to complete the study in six months. The study would address the needs of the shelter, the city, and the business community.”The report could come back and say this can’t be done because it’s cost prohibitive,” he said. “But then we would at least have an answer.”The leases for the two organizations, which share the center with other organizations, expired in 2007, however terms of the lease state that the services at the center are allowed to stay where they are for up to three years to allow for renegotiating.First created as a 10-year lease from 1991-2001, a five-year lease renewal was then established which expired last year.Since then, Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. has been adamant about instituting identification checks for clientele at the center to see if they are sex offenders or have outstanding warrants.Originally opposed to the idea, calling it “big brother-ish”, Lynn Shelter Director Marjorie St. Paul said a card swiping system may be implemented to keep a track of who has stayed at the center.”Some of the people may not come in if they know that the police are involved, but then again, this is a cyclical argument,” she said. “So, in the end, do we sacrifice 95 percent of the people for the 5 percent that would be affected?”The clientele, or “serial inebriates” as Clancy labeled them in the past, would have to be tracked in order to maintain a sense of security.”If they (shelter) stay there and are good neighbors, then fine, but the clients have to be sober. They’re not intrinsically evil, but a lot of them have mental problems,” he said. “Think of the situation as a gun. Guns don’t hurt anybody on their own, but if they are misused, they can hurt someone.”Clancy referenced ongoing negotiations between the shelter and My Brother’s Table, and said there has been “a lot of constructive dialogue.”While an official meeting to discuss the leases has yet to be held, Clancy maintains there have been a lot of back and forth discussions regarding the matter.”We’ve had a lot of dialogue with the shelter and the very complicated lease,” he said. “I think we’ve been fair and equitable, and we have made no attempt to evict.”Olson said several locations have been discussed to relocate the multi-service center in the past, such as the Lynnway, but he quickly dismissed that section of the city due to the massive Waterfront Master Plan that promises to build high-end condominiums and businesses on the roadway.”I can’t see the Lynnway being an option, so it would have to be in the general area of where it is now, maybe a half-mile radius,” he said. “You can’t blame the shelter, but even if there are two guys on the step of the shelter, it impacts people who visit the city and makes them less likely to want to do business here.”St. Paul said despite a possible move, the need for help is there.”The people that frequent the shelter are not the dirty dozen, or serial inebriates, they are chronic abusers, and we are driven to help them,” she said. “Every city has a different way of looking at shelters. Swampscott says they don’t have any homeless, but they do. They just sleep in Lynn.”