The Cummings warming center
Updated September 21, 2026
What's happening
Somerville will run its winter warming center at the former Cummings School on School Street again this season, and the administration is already looking for somewhere else to put it after that. The city's after-action report on last winter reached the Council on Sept 10 and was referred to the Public Health and Public Safety Committee for Sept 30 at 6 p.m., after a floor exchange sharp enough that Council President Lance Davis cut it off (Sept 10 digest).
Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Amanda Najeeb Williams told the Council the city is "actively working to identify other locations for future winter seasons," will hold listening sessions with abutters before and after this season, and has sent the School Committee an updated memorandum of understanding for the building, which the School Committee owns. 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, built in 1931 at 93 School Street and extended toward Prescott Street in the 1960s, has not been a school in more than a decade. The city took the Prescott Street wing as an emergency winter warming center under a 2025 memorandum with the School Committee, and the wing operates 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 worse: a north wall separating from the roof, lintels with brick and mortar "ready to fall," no sprinklers or alarm. The idea of renovating the whole building into swing space and a teen center died on Sept 8 at a price of $28,295,541; see School buildings and the schools' other fights and The capital plan Somerville hasn't updated in four years.
What the neighbors said, and what the Council said to each other
The report's referral turned into the Council's first open argument about the center. At-large Councilor Kristen Strezo said concerns she had raised earlier, reports of street harassment of high-school girls and younger children by people near the site, were not "taken seriously," and hoped "anybody who is the father of daughters" would weigh young constituents' safety. 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 Davis ended the exchange and referred the item. Strezo said she would file a related order at the next meeting.
Between the barbs were 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 read the report as taking neighbors seriously, singled out the uncovered queuing area on Prescott Street as the problem to fix, and suggested a seasonal structure in the unused parking lot on the far side of the school. Ward 1 Councilor Matthew McLaughlin, who chairs Public Health and Public Safety, took the item for his Sept 30 meeting.
Why it matters beyond one building
The warming center is the reason Somerville's new shelter zoning treats low-rise neighborhoods differently. When the Land Use Committee amended the homeless shelter amendment on Sept 3, Ewen-Campen said his experience with the Cummings center, which "worked well in many respects" but posed real challenges in a neighborhood that is mostly Neighborhood Residence zoning, convinced him shelters there should need a special permit rather than open by right; the Council ordained it that way 10-0 on Sept 10. The center is also the last warm-weather test of the city's homelessness capacity before the rental assistance pool is projected to run dry this fall.
What's next
- Sept 24 — the next regular Council meeting, where Strezo said she would file an order on the center.
- Sept 30, 6 p.m. — Public Health and Public Safety takes up the after-action report.
- Before opening — Fire Prevention and Inspectional Services reinspect the Prescott Street wing; the School Committee's vote on the updated memorandum (outcome not in our sources yet); pre-season listening sessions with abutters.
- Winter 2026-27 — Cummings operates one more season. No alternative site is named in our sources.
- November — the capital plan, which Infrastructure has said will not carry a Cummings renovation. See The capital plan Somerville hasn't updated in four years.