Homeless shelter zoning

Updated September 22, 2026

What's happening

This thread is over: on September 10 the City Council ordained the homeless-shelter zoning amendment 10-0, with At-large Councilor Kristen Strezo not answering the roll call, and Mayor Jake Wilson approved it September 15 as enactment 221213 (Sept 10 digest). Shelters are now allowed by right, with a required neighborhood meeting, in Urban Residence, Mid-Rise 3 through 6, High-Rise and the Powder House School and Assembly Square Mixed-Use districts. In Neighborhood Residence, the low-rise district that holds 74 percent of the city's zoned parcels and about 23,000 homes, they need a special permit, a compromise the Land Use Committee cut on September 3 when it amended sponsor Lance Davis's "permitted" to "special permit" and recommended the amendment 5-0 (Sept 3 digest).

The story

The amendment grew out of the Somerville Homeless Coalition's move between two churches on College Avenue in Davis Square, which exposed that standalone shelters depended on the Dover Amendment's exemption for religious uses, and that the shelter definition had been inadvertently dropped from the zoning ordinance during the MBTA Communities changes. Council President Davis wanted the zoning "crystal clear" so the city would not need Dover to host a shelter. Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen, the Land Use chair, said the Cummings School warming center in his ward, which "worked well in many respects" but strained a largely Neighborhood Residence neighborhood, convinced him a special-permit process is appropriate there. Domestic-violence shelters, sober living and supportive housing stay outside the item; they proceed under Dover or are already permitted as group residences.

What's next

• The first special-permit application for a shelter in a Neighborhood Residence district, or the first by-right shelter with its neighborhood meeting, is the test of what the Council enabled; watch Before the boards.
• Davis flagged a possible follow-up amendment adding family housing stabilization and youth shelters as distinct use categories. Context: zoning tracker, rental assistance and housing stability.