Thursday, 4:30 PM
Homeless advocate sues over firing
By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff
SANDWICH -- For more than a decade, Livia Munck Davis fought for her dream of a farm on Cape Cod where once-homeless men and women would live and work together. Through relentless controversy, she steered a steady course for the groundbreaking project known as Dana’s Fields, convinced that one day it would become a reality.
Instead, Davis says, her dream was dismantled. In a lawsuit filed Monday in Barnstable Superior Court, she asserts that she was unjustly fired by her longtime employer, the nonprofit Housing Assistance Corporation, the project’s developer, because she opposed its plans to dramatically scale back the number of homeless people to be served by the new program.
Slated for 47 acres of former farmland in Sandwich, town officials approved the Dana’s Fields development two weeks ago after years of battle between its proponents and some nearby homeowners. Neighbors argued that housing for the homeless would drive up crime rates and depress property values. In time, their opposition forced project leaders to retreat from the model Davis first championed.
Instead of having dormitory-style beds and jobs for as many as 60 homeless Cape residents, Dana’s Fields will contain a range of reduced-rent apartments, mostly reserved for Sandwich residents and employees. Apartments will be rented for roughly $350 to $750 per month, to tenants who earn between 30 and 70 percent of the area’s median income, officials said. Ten rooms will be set aside for homeless people.
With the shift in mission, Davis argues in her lawsuit, Housing Assistance Corporation violated the trust of private donors who supported the original concept, as well as the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which helped the agency buy the land in Sandwich with a $250,000 grant.
A spokeswoman for the department said officials are reviewing the changes in the project. "They may have to pay the money back if the project doesn’t meet the grant requirements," said the spokeswoman, Kristine Foye.
The director of Housing Assistance Corporation, Rick Presbrey, said he sees no reason why the funding would be lost. The redesign was a practical necessity because of neighborhood opposition, he said, and will not stop the development from fulfilling its mission of helping the homeless.
"We all like to be idealistic, but at the end of the day, sometimes you have to be practical," said Presbrey.
