Harvard Square Homeless Shelter Debuts Renovations To Adapt To 6-Month Stays

The Harvard Square Homeless Shelter unveiled the renovation of their space on Friday as it adapts to a model allowing shelter guests to stay for the entirety of the 6-month operational season.

The physical renovations include the installation of 16 DOME Sleep Pods, which are designed specifically for emergency housing and provide three walls of privacy, a bed with storage underneath, and a lockable wardrobe.

While many existing shelters operate off of a goal to shelter as many individuals as their capacity allows for, HSHS volunteers said it is also important to provide increased stability for guests to remain in the shelters for longer periods of time.

“It’s transformative,” said Julie B. Wilson, a Harvard Kennedy School lecturer and president of the HSHS Corporation, which primarily raises funds for HSHS capital projects.

Though the change in stay times, piloted during their past season, comes in response to state regulations forbidding shelters from asking guests to leave based on the length of their stay, shelter staffers said it also reflects a need to improve the quality of services they provide, including the physical space that shelter guests sleep in.

“While the shift was driven by changes in state policies, I think where it’s really impactful was in reassessing, ‘What’s that key thing we’re trying to do? What’s the core piece of our mission?’” HSHS Administrative Co-Director Breda Page Violette ’24 said.

HSHS has historically provided 21-day stays in the shelter using a lottery system, in which an individual is guaranteed a bed for those three weeks — a model Page Violette said only works temporarily.

“It wasn’t much more than a brief time of stability before suddenly being thrown into instability again,” Page Violette said.

“Maybe you’d get here, you’d have a week to breathe, to rest,” she added. “And then suddenly, you’re two weeks away from thinking about where to go. There’s no space to think about, ‘What is long term?’ You’re just fighting for the next step.”

Still, the change will accompany a minor reduction in the shelter’s overall capacity, HSHS Administrative Co-Director Kira Nagoshi ’24 said.

“There is a very real trade off between allowing folks to stay with us for longer and the number of people we’re able to serve — a significant one,” she said.

Page Violette and Nagoshi said HSHS has expanded its additional services over the past year, including helping those staying in the shelter navigate housing lists and establish relationships with case management workers.

“We’re not just trying to provide immediate short term shelter, but we’re also trying to be a bridge to other resources for folks,” Page Violette said.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart or on Threads @laurel.shugart.