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NEWS HEALTH
Revere’s decision to open warming space at senior center every night draws skepticism The warming center will be open every night starting Saturday through end of March
Revere Senior Center on Wednesday,January 11, 2023 in Revere, MA. (Staff Photo By Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
By LANCE REYNOLDS | lreynolds@bostonherald.com |
PUBLISHED: January 11, 2023 at 6:45 p.m. | UPDATED: January 11, 2023 at 6:48 p.m.
The city of Revere will be opening an emergency warming center at the Rossetti-Cowan Senior Center on Saturday despite some harsh debate between the City Council and backlash from senior residents.
The warming center, a temporary refuge for unsheltered homeless individuals and residents who are without power, will be open every night from Jan.14 through March 31. The center used to only operate during winter storms and the harshest arctic temperatures.
Though it’s been weeks since the region has seen a consistent streak of cold temperatures, the warming center being open every night a week is viewed as a necessity, City Councilor Marc Silvestri told the Herald on Wednesday.
“We have a growing population that is unsheltered,” Silvestri said. “We’re not opening the floodgates here. It’s to show that we do care and that we care about everybody. (Homelessness) is a crisis the country is facing.”
The warming center is not a shelter since it doesn’t provide beds or food, Mayor Brian Arrigno told the City Council on Monday. Malden-based nonprofit Housing Families Inc. will be staffing the center, and just 15 guests will be accommodated per night.
More than a handful of Revere seniors told the City Council they believe the senior center is not an appropriate location for the warming center, citing COVID-19 concerns. They implored city officials to look elsewhere for a suitable site.
City officials said the daily operations of the senior center won’t be interrupted by the warming center, which will be open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. The senior center opens at 8:30 a.m. Those using the warming center won’t have access to the building’s first floor.
“We sympathize with the homeless people,” resident Joanne Woods said. “We don’t want to see them homeless … We play bocce, they’re never going to get that room cleaned in two hours in the morning.”
Controversy stirred during Monday’s meeting when Silvestri, the city’s director of veterans services, highlighted his past experiences working with the homeless.
“They’re not all bad people,” he said. “They want a place to stay warm. They want a place to stay alive. That’s what we’re looking at.”
The city councilor mentioned recent snowstorms across the country that killed dozens. The exchange continued with one resident chiming in, “Forget about the seniors. You people want us to vote for you?”
Silvestri responded, “We’re talking about people’s lives here, and you know what, if I have to lose some votes to save some lives, then I will do so. People are going to die in the street, and if you’re going to look them in the face and say you’re OK with it, then do so, but I am not, I am not OK with burying people because it’s 15 degrees out.
The senior center, designated as the city’s emergency warming center last January, has served as a temporary place for people to either warm up or cool down depending on the season for about a decade, Arrigno said.
“I will be very honest and say when we’ve done it it’s been poorly planned,” the mayor said. “In the past, we’ve scrambled to pull it together.”
The City Council approved Councilor Dan Rizzo’s motion for Arrigno to investigate alternative locations, but following Monday’s meeting, the mayor reiterated all other options had been exhausted.
“It really struck me when they talked about it being designated as if somehow the senior center was this historic landmark or something,” Rizzo said. “We can make a warming center wherever we want. This is our city.”
Tags: Homeless Revere seniors
Lance Reynolds | General assignment reporter
Lance Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for the Boston Herald. A Mansfield native, Lance launched his full-time reporting career at the Republican-American in Waterbury, Conn. He previously spent time on the Herald’s high school sports desk as a correspondent. Lance is an adventurer, highlighted by a trip to Ecuador and a semester abroad in Tanzania as a student at St. Michael’s College in northern Vermont.
lreynolds@bostonherald.com
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