A judge has cleared the way for the opening of a 26-bed homeless shelter in a church near Somerville’s Davis Square after opposition from neighbors worried about the effects on their neighborhood and property values from crime, drug use and noise.
The homeless shelter is a religious use entitled to protection from a state law known as the Dover Amendment, said judge Diane Rubin of the state Land Court in a Monday ruling. The law says no zoning or bylaw will “restrict the use of land or structures for religious purposes.”
“This ongoing engagement, shared use of space and support for unhoused individuals is religiously significant,” Rubin said in her ruling about work at the First Church of Somerville at 89 College Ave. “First Church’s involvement in the shelter, while not inherently religious in nature, are components of a broader religious project.”
The case against the shelter opening and being run by the Somerville Homeless Coalition was on behalf of two residents. Rubin found that one of the plaintiffs retained the right to appeal her ruling.
Update on April 10, 2026: The target date for starting operations at the new shelter is no earlier than May 19, said Michael Libby, executive director of the coalition and manager of the shelter. “As part of our original commitment to the community, we are providing at least 30 days’ notice prior to the shelter’s opening,” Libby said in an email. A meeting with nearby residents was called for late April “to engage in an open, constructive conversation about how the shelter will operate.”
That plaintiff, Jane Becker, has a home directly across the street from First Church’s side entrance on Francesca Avenue, and has found guests of the church’s once-a-week meals program eating on her stoop and other “bothersome” results of the its charity. Other complainants live farther and have undermined or failed to prove their case, Rubin said.
Becker’s fellow plaintiff, Maren Chiu, worried about diminution of property value on the homes she owns in the neighborhood, but Rubin found those fears “undercut by the fact that after learning of the proposed shelter, Chiu and her husband agreed to purchase a third property in the neighborhood” – and that home went for $1.7 million, described as the “midpoint of the market.”
The plaintiffs’ case was further weakened by the presence of a 16-street shelter run by the coalition for more than 40 years at 64 College Ave. The larger shelter is meant as a replacement because it is run-down, inaccessible to people with disabilities and cannot be expanded, the coalition has said.
Plaintiffs tethered their claim of diminution of property value to safety concerns, but Rubin found them “speculative”: The existing shelter is professionally managed and hasn’t been the source of signifiant complaints. Three police reports of incidents in Davis Square had been introduced to the case, but “there is no evidence before the court establishing that guests of the existing shelter were involved,” the judge said.
There has been a quadrupling of homeless in the square in recent years – to as many as 40 in January 2024 from nine in January 2023 – but that couldn’t be tied to a shelter with a set number of beds and low turnover, the judge found.
City rejected a complaint
Somerville inspectors looked at the church in September 2023 and gave the green light for its ground-level Duhamel Hall to be converted into use as a shelter. The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals considered the case from six neighbors opposing the shelter and in August 2024 found unanimously that the shelter use was allowed. After that loss within the city, the neighbors filed a legal complaint Sept. 6, 2024, leading to a July 31 hearing, Aug. 20 court visit to Davis Square, an Aug. 26-27 trial and closing arguments Nov. 17.
Despite the plaintiffs’ support for the church and coalition – Chiu attended the church from around 2005 to 2018, and she and her husband supported the coalition since 2013 with fundraising help and least $50,000 in donations – they were upset by the lack of notice, and that the shelter would be “low-barrier.” That means applicants are allowed even with a history of drug addiction, mental health conditions or convictions, as with the current shelter since 2023.
Michael Libby, executive director of the coalition and manager of the shelter, said he asked the state for permission to exclude registered sex offenders from the “low-barrier” admission rules – the request was rejected – as a reasonable attempt at accommodation to neighbors’ worries, the judge said. “Libby was thoughtful and forthright both about the challenges of operating a ‘low-barrier’ shelter and how the coalition will manage those challenges … the coalition’s operations, staffing and facilities plans will substantially temper potential impacts.”
Prayer led to decision
The process leading to the church and shelter working together was long and thoughtful too, Rubin said. Her ruling includes several pages outlining steps taken toward the agreement, including a repeated “discernment process” of prayer, scripture reading and gatherings “to determine what God might be calling the congregation to do,” and in each step over the course of years, members of the 210-member church opted to partner with the coalition. There was “overwhelming support” shown, the judge noted.
Though the coalition will pay monthly rent on a five-year lease, the rent cannot be found to be the reason the church agreed to host the shelter, Rubin found. The church and its congregation donated $10,000 to the coalition in 2024 and 2025 while the shelter could not operate. “I find that rent was not the motivation for First Church’s decision,” Rubin said.
“This congregation has chosen to host the proposed shelter in order to ‘to make God’s expansive love and justice real through radically inclusive sanctuary, authentic connection, spiritual exploration and transformative community engagement,’” the judge said, citing the church’s vision statement.
A voicemail was left Tuesday with Libby about next steps at the church. A staffer at the coalition’s Davis Square offices said leaders had just learned of the ruling and could not speak to it immediately.
As with the existing shelter, guests will be allowed at the church between 4 p.m. and 8 a.m. daily. Staff is on hand to enforce a code of conduct, and loitering is not allowed out front or nor trespassing on neighbors’ property, the coalition told the court. Approximately three times a year, a shelter guest has been immediately discharged because of a rule violation, Libby said.
A visit to the Becker home on Tuesday found no one at home.
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