'What can you do with a dormitory?' Old Becker College buildings being converted to shelters

LEICESTER — Dorms that once provided students a home away from home on the Becker College campus will now provide shelter to 66 families from around the state.

After sitting empty for three years, the state, Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance and Town of Leicester are working to accommodate the needs of families who need transitional housing by renovating and converting three dorms at the former college into shelters.

“What can you do with a dormitory? They don't really have a great purpose without really doing something with them,” said Leicester Town Administrator David A. Genereux. “This is doing something fabulous with them that is well needed.”

The first shelter, which used to be Barrett Hall on Flint Way, will open first, mid-to-late July, Genereux said. The other two, which used to be Hampshire and Berkshire halls, located next to each other on Main Street, will open by late August.

In 2021, the college shut down and was sold to the town of Leicester for $18 million. Since then, Leicester High School moved to the campus and its dormant buildings are finding new uses including the new shelters.

A fast conversion

The process to open the shelters moved fairly quickly, Genereux said, after the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities approached the town in early winter about acquiring property that could be converted into transitional housing.

A few options were shown, before the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities decided that the dorms were the best option, hoping to purchase them from the town. The town wasn’t willing to sell them, Genereux said, but was open to leasing them.

For a couple of months, the town’s board of selectmen and the state’s office went back and forth on terms and the language of the agreement before the board voted in June to approve the shelters.

The town will receive $2 million per year under the rental agreement, Genereux said. Some of the money will go to site costs, such as utilities and snow and trash removal.

“The town has a sincere need for the funds,” Genereux said. “Getting this money will make a big difference in making sure the town can maintain its operations. It doesn't cover everything that we need, but it certainly does help quite a bit.”

Not all people experiencing homelessness will be eligible to live in one of the shelters. Only families with children or women who are pregnant will be eligible, Genereux said.

The town wanted to make sure the families coming into the shelter were coming for "all of the right reasons," and that community concerns were also addressed.

Who will stay there?

“We didn't want to have anything having to do with drugs, alcohol, sex offenders, any of that,” Genereux said. “We wanted to make sure they're not rehab places; they're not places for single people.”

Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance Executive Director Leah Bradley said that once it became clear that the shelter would only serve families, people changed their minds about and warmed up to the shelter.

“Once we were able to answer the questions that folks from the town had, and make sure that they understood that this is really about making sure that children have a warm place to sleep, and they have food and all their basic needs met, they really did support it,” she said. “We’re really appreciative of that.”

The buildings are undergoing some upgrades, he said, such as making sure the Wi-Fi in the buildings have the proper security and firewall measures, and also making sure each can accommodate the needs of all of the families that will eventually move in.

“They've asked in each building that we'd have a duplicate kitchen setup,” Genereux said. “Each kitchen area will have two of everything instead of one of everything.”

They have ordered the new cabinetry and appliances and everything is on schedule, he said.

Renovations underway

Bradley said she was impressed with how quickly everything moved to get the shelters ready for families, from the approval process to the renovations.

“We really appreciate the town of Leicester and the state working with us to create solutions for homeless families,” she said. “We're in a crisis right now, and being able to use a site like the dorm really helps the families that are experiencing homelessness.”

While the state has signed the lease for the first year, the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance will provide services to families in the shelter including helping them find permanent housing to move out of the shelters.

Halfway through the first year of the lease, the state will open up a bid process for organizations to try and take over the lease and provide services, but the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance plans to make a bid to continue what they will start this summer, Bradley said.

The state will provide the organization funds to continue leasing the dorms from the town, as well as fund the services provided by Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance staff.

“The families are required to meet with our staff, at a minimum, weekly,” Bradley said. “They're required to follow the rules of the shelter and there's a comprehensive list of services that they have to participate in, while they're in the shelter.”

Massachusetts is a right-to-shelter state, which means that families are guaranteed emergency housing.

Families who meet with the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities and are deemed homeless have to be placed in a shelter within 24 hours. Those families are then referred to organizations like the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance to place them in shelters.

Families have not been selected to move into the shelters yet because of this process, Bradley said. But once they are open and families begin getting placed in the shelters, there will be a gradual move-in process, she said, to help families settle in more easily and get the services they need.

9-month stays

The families can stay in the shelter until they find housing, but the average length of stay is typically nine months, she said.

Typically, Bradley said, the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities has to place families within 20 miles of their home community to make things like getting to work and going to school easier. But because of the increasing need to provide shelter, the former residence halls will likely house people from around the state.

There is also a transfer process to try and help people move closer to their home communities when possible and with the residence halls increasing the number of shelters in the region, people may not have to travel too far to remain close to their schools and jobs, she said.

"Being able to provide something that's in a smaller community…really gives an opportunity for the families that are maybe more used to a suburban-type of setting, a setting that they are more comfortable with,” Bradley said.

People who become homeless are usually homeless for shorter periods of time when they are able to stay within their communities, she said.

"We're in a crisis right now and being able to use a site like the dorm really helps the families that are experiencing homelessness," Bradley said. "It's really going to help the town and us create a partnership where we can engage the community in addressing the issue."

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Old Becker College buildings being converted to shelters