Rendering of the Yawkey Housing Resource Center at Father Bill’s & Mainspring in Quincy
Rendering by the Narrow Gate Architecture
Gift will support Quincy development that re-envisions approach to ending homelessness.
The following is a press release issued by Father Bill’s & MainSpring
[QUINCY, Mass., Thursday, November 4, 2021] As the region and nation struggle with a homelessness crisis exacerbated by the pandemic, the Yawkey Foundation is providing nonprofit organization Father Bill’s & MainSpring (FBMS) with a $2 million transformational gift toward its innovative Housing Resource Center development in Quincy. This gift supports a new property and service-delivery model that aims to end homelessness on the South Shore and across Southern Massachusetts.
FBMS, a regional leader of services to prevent and end homelessness, is set to break ground on its development this month. The agency is re-envisioning how a community assists individuals experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness by replacing its overnight emergency shelter with two new buildings consisting of a day center, an emergency shelter, and on-site efficiency apartments.
The new approach would dedicate more staff and resources to homelessness prevention, diversion, and rapid re-housing, thus reducing the overall reliance on overnight shelter.
The new property, located at 39 Broad Street, will be called the Yawkey Housing Resource Center, in honor of the Yawkey Foundation’s longtime support of FBMS and its legacy of providing support to the region’s most vulnerable and underserved. Since its founding in 1977, the Yawkey Foundation has made contributions to hundreds of nonprofits providing critical services to those in need in Massachusetts.
“Throughout their lifetimes, the Yawkeys quietly and generously supported organizations providing basic needs for countless vulnerable individuals and families,” said Maureen H. Bleday, Chief Executive Officer and Trustee of the Yawkey Foundation. “The holistic, compassionate, and dignified care provided to those most in-need by our long-standing partners at Father Bill’s & MainSpring will be even more impactful with the new Housing Resource Center, and the Trustees consider it an honor to perpetuate Tom Yawkey and Jean Yawkey’s philanthropic legacy with this grant.”
This $2 million commitment from the Yawkey Foundation serves as a lead gift in FBMS’ “A Path Home” campaign to raise $10 million privately toward the project’s capital and programmatic expenses.
“The way our community ends homelessness is with a bold plan that invests in the upstream services that help more people stay in their homes and avoid shelter, and that’s exactly what the Yawkey Housing Resource Center will do,” said John Yazwinski, President & CEO of FBMS. “And the way this plan becomes a reality is with the help of compassionate philanthropic leaders like the Yawkey Foundation. We are grateful to the Foundation for being an early believer in our vision.”
The Yawkey Housing Resource Center will be constructed at 39 Broad Street, located across the street from FBMS’ existing emergency shelter, Father Bill’s Place, which will be knocked down as part of the City of Quincy’s plans to build a new Public Safety Complex.
The first phase, expected to be completed by the spring of 2023, is a two-story, 16,000 square-foot building comprised of FBMS program and training spaces, shelter beds and services, administrative offices, and a healthcare clinic.
The second phase, expected to break ground in the spring of 2022 and be completed by the summer of 2023, is a four-story, 20,000-square-foot building comprised of 30 units of permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless individuals. FBMS currently operates more than 600 permanent supportive housing units for formerly homeless individuals, families, and Veterans across Southern Massachusetts.
About Father Bill’s & MainSpring
Father Bill’s & MainSpring (FBMS) is the leading provider of services to prevent and end homelessness in Southern Massachusetts. The agency, founded in the early 1980s by a group of interfaith and community leaders, helps more than 5,000 people annually who are experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness, achieve more self-sufficiency through a range of services including homelessness prevention, emergency shelter, employment programs, and more than 600 permanent supportive housing units. FBMS, a proud partner of the United Way of Greater Plymouth County and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit agency with administrative offices in Quincy and Brockton and program offices throughout Southern Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.helpfbms.org.
About the Yawkey Foundation
The Yawkey Foundation is dedicated to perpetuating the philanthropic legacy of Tom and Jean Yawkey, whose eight decades of quiet generosity supported individuals and families in the communities that were closest to their hearts – Massachusetts and Georgetown County, South Carolina. Having awarded more than $500 million to date in charitable grants to organizations focused on Health Care, Education, Human Services, Youth and
Amateur Athletics, Arts and Culture, and Conservation and Wildlife, Yawkey Foundation is committed to preserving and sustaining the charitable values of the Yawkeys by investing in impactful nonprofits providing resources, opportunity, and dignity to the vulnerable and underserved. For more information, please visit www.yawkeyfoundation.org or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook for the latest announcements.