Rep Targets Housing For Residents

State Rep. Kay Khan

By Rebekah Metzler

Waltham Daily News Correspondent, Wednesday, March 21, 2007

BOSTON - The decision on what will happen to the Walter E. Fernald Development Center is still a few months away. What happens if the state decides to sell the land?

Legislation filed by Rep. Kay Khan, D-Newton, would require the commonwealth to earmark a percentage of profits to provide affordable housing for former residents of state-run hospitals and schools for mentally ill or disabled residents.

Khan's bill would provide affordable housing for the former clients of state hospitals and schools that have been shut down or downsized.

The Joint Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets heard testimony on behalf of Khan's bill yesterday.

"When we get rid of state hospitals we need to develop and support long-term housing for those people," said Toby Fisher, the executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in Massachusetts.

In the 1980s, Massachusetts' deinstitutionalized many of its hospitals and schools before appropriate community based services were established, according to Khan's testimony.

"When we dissemble one source of support and housing for this population, we have an obligation to mitigate the consequences of this loss by investing in their needs," Khan said at the hearing.

Khan cited the Northampton State Hospital as an example of how the mass discharging of patients occurred before the proper services for them were established.

"Many of the former residents of the state hospital came to be Northampton's homeless population," Kahn said. "This homeless population remains a significant concern for the community."

Khan argued that requiring 25 percent of the profits or housing units go directly to the population that was formerly served by the property would help the community and the disaffected people.

"Passage of this legislation would dispense with much of the discussion and debate over whether or not the populations formerly benefiting from the property receive any support from the sale," Khan said.

Chris Norris, the assistant director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Association, and John Thomas, the deputy director of the ARC of Massachusetts, also testified alongside Khan and Fisher before the committee in support of the legislation.

Not everyone is sold on Khan's bill.

George Mavridas, who has a family member living at Fernald and used to be on its board, is skeptical of ARC's endorsement of the legislation.

Mavridas cautioned his unfamiliarity with this particular piece of the bill, but said that anytime you turn something run by the state over to the private sector, somebody stands to make a profit.

Mavridas favors turning Fernald into an intermediate-care facility rather than completely shutting it down.

Khan's bill is a refile of past legislation, but she said she is optimistic about its passage this time.