Massachusetts Attorney General speaks out on Cape Cod shelter battle that has raised concerns among migrants

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell has weighed in on a case brought by the local Zoning Board of Appeals, finding that a controversial homeless shelter proposal on Cape Cod, which had raised concerns about the plight of migrants, is a protected educational use.

Campbell's office has sent a letter to the Dennis Zoning Board of Appeals urging a “quick and smooth” resolution of the proposal, which has been causing a rift between the city and a regional nonprofit housing agency for months.

This is the first time in recent memory that the Attorney General's Office has become involved in a local ZBA matter, a spokesman for the office told the Herald on Tuesday.

Local opposition, including from neighboring Harwich, delayed the consolidation of applicant Housing Assistance Corp.'s three family shelters into a central building in a former 128-bed nursing home in South Dennis.

Residents and officials questioned how lawyers and Dennis's planning commissioner concluded that the project met the criteria of the Dover Amendment – a state law that exempts agricultural, religious and educational uses from certain zoning restrictions.

The concerns sparked an objection by the Dennis Planning Board last month to the building commissioner's issuance of a building permit to HAC in late July. The Cape Cod Commission, a regional panel, concluded the project would not have a regional impact and denied a discretionary referral to the towns of Dennis and Harwich.

In a letter to the ZBA on Monday, Assistant Attorneys General Margaret J. Hurley and Esme Caramello wrote: “The Dover Amendment creates a comprehensive umbrella of protections for the use of land for educational purposes, and in the Attorney General's view, the HAC's proposal fits neatly within that framework.”

Hurley and Caramello highlighted the educational and work materials HAC would provide in the 5,200-square-foot facility, which can house up to 79 homeless families or 177 individuals. The building is only accessible through an addition on a main road in neighboring Harwich.

Adult residents would be required to complete HAC's “Ending Homelessness Course.” The program includes lessons on “budgeting and financial literacy, navigating various government benefit systems, tenancy law, and life skills such as self-sufficiency, cooking, and housekeeping.”

In addition, tenants would receive individual advice on the topic of “securing a new apartment,” which, according to the Attorney General’s Office, is “a form of experience-based education that not only aims to solve an immediate housing problem, but should also serve as training for independent housing searches in the future.”

The families would live in 25 square meter rooms with a guest toilet, refrigerator and microwave and share a communal kitchen and shower. The cramped rooms lacked televisions and chairs.

The average length of stay is about nine months to one year.

Priority, officials said, would be given primarily to single mothers of infants and young children, not migrants. Some members of the Dennis and Harwich communities remained skeptical during the migrant crisis in Massachusetts.

Tensions surrounding the proposal boiled over earlier this summer when HAC attorney Robert Brennan vented his frustration at the Dennis Planning Board for making “false statements” linking the project to immigrants during a May hearing.

“You're stumbling here,” Brennan told the panel. “I understand immigration is a problem. Our immigration system is broken. That's not the issue. That's not what this is about.”

Board member Rich Hamlin disagreed with Brennan's argument, saying the attorney's criticism did not accurately reflect the board's concerns.

“I don't care who lives here, period,” Hamlin said. “For me, this issue is a very simple one: the Dover Amendment. It's not the primary use of this facility, period.”

The facility would be funded by the state's emergency shelter assistance program, which operates migrant shelters throughout Massachusetts.

However, this fact “does not change the analysis” that the Dennis sanctuary meets the conditions of the Dover Amendment for a protected educational purpose, the attorney general wrote in its letter.

“Given the affordability crisis affecting families across the state, finding and keeping housing can be extremely difficult,” the letter states. “Every dollar a homeless service organization like HAC spends fighting for its right to help these families is a dollar not spent helping them.”

“The people of the Commonwealth, whom the Attorney General represents, have a strong interest in seeing this and similar cases resolved quickly and smoothly,” it concludes.