CommonHealth

Boston's Pine Street Inn Secures Hotel Building In

Effort To Control Coronavirus

Updated July 13, 2020 By Lynn Jolicoeur

Movers unload mattresses from a truck into the Best Western Hotel on Massachusetts Avenue in
Boston. Pine Street is leasing the property near Boston Medical Center as part of a plan to avoid shelter
overcrowding ahead of another potential surge of the coronavirus. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

The largest homeless shelter in Boston, Pine Street Inn, has acquired a new
property for some of its guests as part of a plan to avoid shelter overcrowding
and another surge of the coronavirus.
Pine Street will lease a hotel at 891 Massachusetts Ave., near Boston Medical
Center. The round, brick building has most recently been a Best Western Plus.

Discarded material sits outside the former Best Western Hotel on Massachusetts Avenue in Boston.
(Jesse Costa/WBUR)

One-hundred-eighty shelter guests currently staying in a Suffolk University

dorm will move there, according to Pine Street Inn President & Executive
Director Lyndia Downie. The men and women were transferred to the dorm
starting in March as part of an effort to de-densify the shelter, which was
overcrowded.

But the move didn't come in time to slow the spread of the coronavirus. In
early April, 36%
36% of Pine Street Inn guests tested positive.
The largest homeless shelter in Boston, Pine Street Inn, will lease 891 Massachusetts Ave. in efforts to
avoid shelter overcrowding and another surge of COVID-19.

"We cannot go back to an [overcrowded] environment like that, because we will

just be back to a spread of the virus," Downie said.

Recently, 2% of guests at Pine Street Inn tested positive for the coronavirus,
according to Downie. She said the spread of the virus has been reduced largely
due to the population being spread out. The shelter has implemented other
safety steps since early in the pandemic, including placing portable hand
washing stations around the facility and hanging plastic curtains between
beds.
 (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

In the hotel building, guests will be housed two people to a room with their
own bathrooms.

"It's drastically different than shelter — obviously more privacy and the ability
to social distance and isolate if need be, which is something that we're unable
to do in the congregate shelters at the moment," Downie explained.

"We cannot go back to an [overcrowded] environment like that,

because we will just be back to a spread of the virus."
P I N E S T R E E T I N N P R E S I D E N T & E X E C U T I V E D I R E C T O R LY N D I A
DOWNIE
The homeless service organization has a one-year lease for the hotel. Housing
placement staff will work on site, and their goal is to place the people staying
at the hotel in permanent housing within that year, Downie said. The people
who will stay at the facility are largely elderly or frail and have underlying
medical conditions, meaning they're more vulnerable to COVID-19.

Other shelter providers have echoed the concern that their facilities cannot go
back to being overcrowded, as they were when the pandemic hit.

This article was originally published on July 13, 2020.

Related:

Coronavirus Testing In Boston's Homeless Community Shows Shelter Size And Density
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'We Need More Housing': Pandemic Exacerbates Challenge Of Finding Housing For Homeless
Adults
Homeless Shelter Pine Street Inn Sees Significant Drop In Number Of Positive Coronavirus
Tests
Worcester To Have State's First Modular Building Of Micro-Units To House Chronically
Homeless
Housing Authorities Play Integral Role In Keeping People Stable, Fed During Pandemic

Lynn Jolicoeur Producer/Reporter

Lynn Jolicoeur is the field producer for WBUR's All Things Considered. She
also reports for the station's various local news broadcasts.
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