The St. Joseph’s House shelter for the homeless, which has been located on Winter Street in Hyannis, will be relocated to West Main Street, in Hyannis, later this year. It’s a change designed to benefit both people needing shelter and those who provide help to them.
The shelter, owned by the nonprofit Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC), is operated by Catholic Charities of the Fall River Diocese, under a contract with the state. HAC’s Chief Executive Officer Alisa Magnotta said the time had come for a new facility to help a growing homeless population.
“When I first started at Housing Assistance in 2017, we had a case load of about 50 to 80 depending on if it was summer or winter, our homeless outreach team knew all their names, all their stories, were trying to actively connect them with services and housing. Today that caseload is over 500,” Magnotta said.
“Every town has a group of homeless that are living in their cars, living in encampments, and we reach out and try to connect them with services. The bottom line is it’s a community problem and requires a holistic approach.”
The existing shelter houses up to 50 people a night in a building that started life as a single-family home. For years it also housed HAC’s offices, which later moved to the West Main Street building. With those offices now relocated to Independence Park in Hyannis, the building became available.
Magnotta said that was fortuitous, because landlords are not willing to rent space to a shelter for the homeless.
The new site will be much larger than the Winter Street building and will comply with Americans With Disabilities Act as well as provide more space for various day programs, meal programs and connection with medical professionals for the homeless. But, the new site will not house any more people at night than the existing Winter Street building.
Catholic Charities CEO Susan Mazzarella told the story of a shelter guest, a woman in her 40s, who is dealing with her second bout of cancer, and who also has a child with developmental disabilities.
“The first time she had cancer it wiped her out financially, and that’s how she ended up in this cycle of homelessness. Could you imagine being in a shelter and undergoing chemotherapy and radiation? These are the faces of people in the shelter. It’s not just the stereotype. That does exist but doesn’t comprise the panorama of who are the homeless, who are affected by the fact that there are no affordable housing options, particularly here on the Cape,” Mazzarella said.
“The new shelter gives them that space for co-located programming so we can bring other resources in and not expect the person who is the poorest and most disenfranchised and vulnerable to have to go from location to location to location to get the services they need,” HAC’s Magnotta said. “That was the vision. Let’s dream big, as big as we can for this population. What do they need in order to have the best chance of not coming back. The best chance of saying yes to their new ,ife and making different choices.”
Cassi Danzl, HAC’s Chief Operating Officer, noted that the segment of the homeless population that’s been growing the fastest in recent years is people over age 55.
She said whatever the age of people needing shelter, it requires tremendous coordination among agencies to help them. She said the availability of services varies from town to town, but Falmouth is a good example of well-coordinated services involving several agencies.
The new shelter aims to replicate that approach.
“These people get together weekly and look at ‘what are we dealing with? How can we bridge these gaps? So that we are approaching the problem from a systemic point of view so that people aren’t falling through the gaps as they are navigating the entire spectrum of services.”
Planning for the move of St. Joseph’s House has been in the works for months. It will likely take place in September or October of this year. HAC has information about the planned move on its website, HAConCapeCod.org/St-josephs-house-shelter/
