Condemned

A Roxbury neighborhood service center is being kicked out by its landlord, the Knights of Columbus, because it handed out condoms. Once.

Cityscape by Sarah McNaught

Staffers at the Parker Hill/Fenway Neighborhood Service Center believed Patrick O'Donnell when he walked into their offices two years ago and claimed to be HIV-positive. That was their only mistake. Now, because of his apparent deception, an agency that has provided hundreds of poor residents with crucial services finds its survival in danger. The Mission Hill Gazette reports that the landlord, the local Knights of Columbus council, has ordered the center out of the building because it gave O'Donnell the condoms he requested.

For months, workers at the center have carried on as usual. They were confident that the dispute with the landlord could be resolved, says John Drew, vice president of the city-run antipoverty organization under whose auspices the center operates. But Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) and local politicians have failed in their attempts to keep the facility where it is. Members of the Roxbury Knights of Columbus Council 123, the Catholic organization that owns the building, have announced that the council will not renew the neighborhood center's lease when it expires on June 30. And they are refusing to reverse their decision.

Located just a few blocks from Roxbury Crossing at the corner of Faxon and Tremont Streets, the Parker Hill Center has been serving its neighborhood for 14 years. It administers more than a dozen services, from food and fuel assistance to job training and health care for the elderly. Until recently, a brand-new job center was going to be one of them.

Now, disconnected phone lines, boxes of unused instructional materials, and a row of empty cubicles are the only traces of what was intended to be a place for hundreds of people to practice typing, brush up on interview techniques, work on their résumés, and apply for jobs.

"We were so excited to open this room up," says the center's acting director, Alison Carter, as she scans the abandoned office sadly. "But there is no sense in opening the program here when we are not being allowed to stay."

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The incident at the center of this story is an odd one. In 1996, Patrick O'Donnell entered the center and requested condoms. O'Donnell, who teaches Catholic catechism classes at the nearby Mission Church, could not be reached for comment, but Carter says the personal information O'Donnell supplied in his client application forms was not truthful: he apparently identified himself as a person with HIV, and he added that his roommates were practicing unsafe sex. He said he wanted to take the condoms home to encourage less risky behavior. (Matthew J. McDonnell, attorney for the Roxbury Council Knights of Columbus Building Association, says that the Knights of Columbus had nothing to do with O'Donnell's actions.)

The center does not normally distribute condoms, so the staffer who met with O'Donnell contacted a family member at a nearby health facility and asked for advice, according to Carter.

"She obtained about $40 or $50 worth of condoms from her relative and gave them to the man," Carter says. "Obviously we don't [normally] distribute condoms, or we would have had them on hand. Although she went against policy, it shows to what extent our staff will go to assist someone in need."

Apparently, O'Donnell then contacted the local Knights of Columbus council and reported that condoms were being distributed at the center. According to ABCD's John Drew, center staffers assured the landlords that O'Donnell's experience was an isolated incident and would not happen again. The Roxbury council seemed satisfied with this assurance.

According to one source, however, the state Knights of Columbus council was not satisfied. Members of the Roxbury council covered the Knights of Columbus sign outside the center "in an effort to resolve the situation," says McDonnell, but the state council reportedly threatened the local council with termination of its membership unless it ordered the center out of the building.

Asked about the claim that the local council made its decision under pressure, McDonnell responds: "I'm not at liberty to make that kind of disclosure. It's not my place to comment on comments made by other council members." He acknowledges, however, that the local council has a good rapport with the center and hopes to maintain some relationship with ABCD in the future.

Still, neither Drew nor Representative Kevin Fitzgerald (D-Jamaica Plain) has been able to persuade the council to change its mind. Meanwhile, the center is looking for a new home.

"We've sited another property, but we are not leaving until we have a place to go," says Drew, adding that the space they have in mind must be rezoned before the center can move in. "I'm hoping we won't have a problem," he says. "This is a very important program and a necessary part of many people's lives in this part of the city."

Michael, a client at the center, attests to that; he says that if it weren't for the center's kindness, he would have starved.

"That food pantry has saved my life," says Michael, a single man in his mid-30s. "You take that center away from people like me and you have a big problem on your hands. Endangering the well-being of hundreds of people because someone went out of their way to help someone else -- even if it was against the rules -- is downright wrong."

Sarah McNaught can be reached at smcnaught[a]phx.com.