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The Cummings warming center

Updated November 8, 2026

What's happening

Somerville's emergency overnight warming center will reopen in December at the former Cummings School, for adults experiencing homelessness during the coldest months, and the Council finally gets to talk about it on Tuesday, November 10. That night at 6:30 p.m., Public Health and Public Safety, chaired by Ward 1 Councilor Matthew McLaughlin, takes up "the persistent issue of homelessness," including the running of the center at the Cummings Building, 42 Prescott St., and reports of "street harassment" there. The meeting is on Zoom (Independent, Nov 8). The city held an informational meeting for abutters on October 27 at the Central Library (City of Somerville eNewsletter, Oct 16; outcome not in our sources yet), the first of the pre-season listening sessions the administration promised in September. The administration is also looking for somewhere else to put the center after this winter.

The Somerville Homeless Coalition, which now serves more than 4,500 people, is preparing for the extra demand. Hannah O'Halloran, its director of homeless services, said the need grows every winter: "the City of Somerville opens up a warming center, which tends to increase the number of people staying in Somerville." Besides the warming center, the other places to sleep are the coalition's own shelter and St. Patrick's Homeless Shelter for Women. The coalition is weighing whether to extend its shelter and engagement-center hours for cold weather and snow (Somerville Times, Nov 5). On November 30 the coalition and the library's social-work program are running a "How to Be a Good Neighbor" training on engaging with people who are homeless or spending time on the street (City of Somerville eNewsletter, Nov 6).

The November 10 session picks up what the committee left hanging in September. On September 30 it met for just 35 minutes, with At-large Councilor Kristen Strezo absent, and kept last winter's after-action report (26-1339) without discussing it, because city staff were responding to the Teele Square fire that night (Oct 8 digest). It also kept two related items. One is a resolution (26-1305) asking the Director of Health and Human Services to discuss the street harassment that abutters and pedestrians have reported on Prescott Street, on School Street and around the center when it's open. The other asks for monthly updates on homelessness (26-0106), on which staff passed out a handout (Legistar). The Independent's preview doesn't list item numbers, so which of these are formally on the November 10 agenda isn't in our sources. Four residents' written comments on the center were placed on file at the September 24 Council, and resident Barbara Phillips's comments reached the Council on October 8.

On September 10, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Amanda Nagim-Williams told the Council that the city is "actively working to identify other locations for future winter seasons." She said it will hold listening sessions with abutters before and after this season. She added that the city has sent the School Committee, which owns the building, an updated memorandum of understanding (Sept 10 digest). The School Committee's Sept 14 agenda carried a vote to authorize the superintendent to sign it (agenda); the outcome is not in our sources yet.

The story

The building

Cummings was built in 1931 at 93 School Street and extended toward Prescott Street in the 1960s. It hasn't been a school in more than a decade. Under a 2025 memorandum with the School Committee, the city took the Prescott Street wing, at 42 Prescott St., as an emergency winter warming center. The wing runs on an emergency certificate of occupancy that stays valid only while Capital Projects and DPW keep certain building systems running. Fire Prevention and Inspectional Services will reinspect it before this season opens (Raiche and Henry memo, Sept 1). The School Street wing is in worse shape. Its north wall is separating from the roof, its lintels have brick and mortar "ready to fall," and it has no sprinklers or alarm. On Sept 8 a plan to renovate the whole building into swing space and a teen center died at a price of $28,295,541; see School buildings and the schools' other fights and The capital plan: fix it first, borrow last.

What the neighbors said, and what councilors said to each other

When the report was referred on September 10, the Council had its first open argument about the center. Strezo had earlier raised reports of people near the site harassing high-school girls and younger children on the street, and she said those concerns were not "taken seriously." Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen, whose ward holds the building, said he had "no idea" why a colleague was implying he did not care about residents' safety: "I find it, frankly, insane." Strezo called that "disrespectful," and Council President Lance Davis ended the exchange.

The argument still produced two concrete ideas. At-large Councilor Jonathan Link said overcapacity and the lines it produces are "probably one of the big causes" of neighbor complaints, and urged the city to bring in the Somerville Homeless Coalition. Ewen-Campen singled out the uncovered queuing area on Prescott Street as the problem to fix. He suggested a seasonal structure in the unused parking lot on the far side of the school.

Why it matters beyond one building

The warming center is the reason Somerville's new shelter zoning treats low-rise neighborhoods differently. Ewen-Campen said Cummings "worked well in many respects" but posed real challenges in an area that is mostly Neighborhood Residence. That experience convinced him shelters there should need a special permit. The Council ordained it that way 10-0 on Sept 10 (Homeless shelter zoning), and any successor site will run into that rule. The center is also the last test of the city's homelessness capacity before the rental assistance pool is projected to run dry this fall. The Homeless Coalition also runs the Emergency Displacement Fund for the 43 residents burned out of their homes in the Teele Square fire (Teele Square hotel at the Pit).

What's next

  • November 10, 2026, 6:30 p.m.: Public Health and Public Safety on homelessness, the warming center and the street-harassment reports, on Zoom. The same meeting takes up rats and dumpsters (The rodenticide fight).
  • Before opening: Fire Prevention and Inspectional Services reinspect the Prescott Street wing. The School Committee's vote on the updated memorandum is still pending in our sources, as is the outcome of the October 27 abutters' meeting.
  • November 30, 5:30–7 p.m.: the Homeless Coalition's good-neighbor training at the Central Library.
  • December 2026: the center reopens at Cummings for one more winter. Our sources don't name an alternative site.
  • By December 1: the Council acts on the capital plan, which Infrastructure has said won't include a Cummings renovation. See The capital plan: fix it first, borrow last.