City Approves Plan for Shelter

The City of Cambridge yesterday approved a plan to open a temporary shelter for the homeless in the Massachusetts National Guard Armory on February 15, but the project awaits state approval.

Under the plan approved by the city Executive Office of Human Services, the new shelter--to be located on Concord Ave.--would have twenty beds and would supplement the two existing shelters in Cambridge until a permanent site can be found, organizers said.

Shelter Inc., a private organization in Cambridge which cares for the homeless, would operate the shelter, said organizer Jim Stewart, who directs the First Church Emergency Shelter on Garden Street.

Although state officials had originally said that the armory would not be available for use as a shelter until mid-March, the Reverend Monica E. Styron, one of the organizers of the potential shelter, said yesterday that she was confident that the state would approve the February 15 opening date.

Styron, who is chairman of the Harvard Square Clergy Association said she expects to receive official approval from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Human Services. The office must approve the plan because it owns the armory in conjunction with the Massachusetts National Guard.

State officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Because funds have not yet been found to pay for the shelter, Styron said "We really need the backing" of the state human services office in order to secure permanent state funding for the shelter.

In addition, organizers of the new armory shelter will ask the city of Cambridge for $25,000 to help finance the start-up costs, Stewart said.

"I know the City Council has voted to do whatever they could to help the homeless, and I'm hoping they'll make their commitment concrete," Stewart said.

Although organizers said they are optimistic that the armory plan will work, they said that more must be done to help the homeless, since the armory would only be a temporary shelter site.

The new shelter is "sufficient only in the sense that it's all we can do right now," Stewart said, adding that two homeless people have already died this year in Cambridge from overexposure to the cold.

"It's the first step in about five or six years [toward caring for the homeless] outside of the churches," Styron said.