A former prison in Norfolk has opened as an overflow shelter.
On Wednesday, 22 families on Massachusetts’ emergency assistance family shelter waitlist arrived at the former Bay State Correctional Center. The state plans to eventually host 140 families, or about 450 people, at the facility.
“They will be phasing in over time. It will be a small number to begin,” Norfolk Select Board Chairman Jim Lehan said at a town meeting Tuesday night.
Town officials and community members have expressed numerous concerns surrounding how the small town can support the hundreds of people who will reside in the shelter, and how the shelter residents will interact with people who live in town. But Lehan said because the state owns the building, the town can’t block their decision of how to use it.
Bay State Correctional Center closed in 2015 and has been vacant since. The state earmarked the property earlier this year as a place to house the influx of migrants and residents in need of housing. In the last year, the state migrant population has more than doubled to 7,500, with another 750 on emergency assistance waitlist.
The Norfolk shelter has a temporary occupancy permit that will last for six months. The state can then renew it or apply for a permanent occupancy permit.
Lehan said a few of the town’s concerns have been resolved. The state agreed to provide on-site ambulance service for several hours every day, as well as a health clinic, vaccination clinics and 24-hour security.
But Lehan said the state has been a “nightmare” to work with during this planning process, and there remain more questions than answers.
Resident John Nolan said he’s particularly worried about the impact to the fire department, police department and the schools.
“My first instinct is to fight it,” Nolan said. “I don’t want to appease anybody. I don’t want to try to make the best of a bad situation. I want to fight it.”
Resident Margaret Soderlund said she has mixed feelings over the shelter.
“There is fear here. A lot of fear. I’m sure everybody in here has fear of this,” Soderlund said. “ And then on the other side, I want to go help these people because they’re not all bad people. They’re just trying to make a life for themselves, too.”
She said is nervous about the migrants’ arrival to town, but she hopes it “all works out.”
Jessica Scanlon of the NorfolkStrong.org, a grassroots community group formed to assist the town in welcoming the migrants, said the community needs to engage in civil discourse about the shelter. She said residents owe it to each other to move forward with respect and dignity.
“We would also like to publicly recognize the heartache that some of our current residents are experiencing in the face of racist, xenophobic and threatening rhetoric,” Scanlon said. “Our kids are watching. We as a community need to come together.”
Concerned Citizens of Norfolk will hold a rally at the town center at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Meanwhile, NorfolkStrong.org has an event planned for Saturday.
The town schools will hold a Bay State Shelter Parent Information Session on July 11 from 6:30-8 p.m. at King Philip Middle School. Education administrators will address their plans for the arriving students.
