Boston City Council Hears Sharp Pushback on BMC's Shattuck Campus Housing Proposal

BOSTON — April 4, 2024 — Boston City Council scrutinizes BMC's oversized Shattuck Hospital redevelopment proposal. The Committee on Public Health, Homelessness, and Recovery held a hearing April 4 on Docket 0512, filed by District 7 Councilor Tanya Fernandez-Anderson, examining Boston Medical Center's proposal to redevelop the 13-acre Shattuck campus in Franklin Park. BMC's Rob Koenig, Vice President of Strategic Programs, acknowledged the original submission — which included 272 clinical beds, 174 shelter beds, and up to 405 permanent supportive housing units against an RFP minimum of 75 to 100 — must be scaled down following community backlash. Former state Senator Diane Wilkerson, a resident one block from the site, said community members "haven't gotten an answer to a single one" of their questions through BMC's engagement process and noted the state auditor is investigating whether the proposal violated DCAM contracting guidelines by exceeding the RFP's scope by roughly seven times. Recovery specialist Leah Randolph, citing an 85 percent success rate in prior small, culturally specific programs in Roxbury, argued that "modalities cannot be mixed" on a single large campus. BMC said no revised plan has a firm timeline and that construction could not begin before 2026 at the earliest.