Harbor Homes will operate its winter emergency homeless shelter in a new location this season after the Oak Bluffs zoning board of appeals approved a temporary conversion of its women’s group home for a new use.

For several years, the organization had been operating the seasonal shelter out of a building on the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services campus. But, with the campus being rebuilt, that building was demolished.

At Wednesday’s zoning board hearing, Lisa Belcastro, the director of the Harbor Homes winter shelter, told officials that while the organization continues to look for a permanent location, the nonprofit’s building at 111 New York avenue offers a solution for this winter.

The shelter operated for part of last season out of the basements of the Federated Church and Saint Andrew’s Parish Hall in Edgartown, but Ms. Belcastro said that a second winter at the churches is not feasible, necessitating a temporary stopgap solution.

“After an extensive search to find alternatives, our building is our best option at this point in time,” she said.

Harbor Homes operates two full-time affordable residences, one for men and one for women, in addition to its seasonal shelter. Currently, the New York avenue facility houses up to six women and engages residents in educational and communal living programming.

Ms. Belcastro said the women currently living at the New York avenue location will be relocated to a different property in Oak Bluffs that the organization will rent for the winter, and where programming will continue as normal.

She said overnight shelter guests will not stay in long-term residents’ bedrooms, as they will be undergoing renovations throughout the winter. According to Harbor Homes, the property requires no renovations to be suitable for use as an overnight shelter. Ms. Belcastro told the Gazette that space on the ground floor will be divided into men’s and women’s dorms for sleeping, with the basement used for its kitchen and living room.

The winter shelter is expected to begin operation on Nov. 1 and run through April 19.

The ZBA voted 4-1 to approve the change in use, but under several conditions, including that Harbor Homes file letters of approval from the town’s community preservation committee and Island Housing Trust, with which Harbor Homes purchased the property. Harbor Homes will also have to clearly state its timeframe for the change of use in its application, and the zoning board will confirm the decision’s legality with the town’s general counsel.

According to zoning board administrator Jessica Downey, there is a mechanism for reconsideration. "We'd have to talk to town council about the circumstances that would allow that, but yes, I think it does exist," she told the board members.

Wednesday’s hearing was well-attended by Oak Bluffs residents, many of whom live on or near New York avenue. Attendees expressed concern about the temporary use change possibly violating a deed restriction on the property designating it as affordable housing for women, specifically.

Attorney Marilyn Vukota, present at the meeting as legal counsel for Harbor Homes, said that a women-only designation is “not enforceable” as part of a deed restriction and said that the change of use will still qualify as affordable housing.

“The restriction that’s recorded is actually just an affordable housing restriction,” Ms. Vukota said. “Whoever drafted it used the same language as the application, which said, ‘a women’s home [or] women’s housing,’ but you can’t restrict the house to only women. That would be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.”

“The only thing that’s going to change is that instead of just women living there full time getting these services, it’s going to be men and women during a certain restricted time period, receiving the same services,” she added.

The winter shelter will be open from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. each evening, with no intake of new guests past 7 p.m. Maximum capacity will be 25 overnight guests and guests must be at least 18 years of age. Last year’s shelter averaged 10 to 12 guests per night with a high of 16 guests, Ms. Belcastro said.

Zoning board member Leah Brown, an attorney for MV Mediation, shared attendees’ skepticism about the proposal’s potential to violate deed restrictions on the property. She voted against allowing the use change, wanting to first seek further legal advice.

“We have a fiduciary duty to the public to make sure we’re not breaking any laws,” she said.

Several attendees expressed safety concerns about the winter shelter, fearing that guests could put them and their properties at risk. Some abutters alleged that a male guest of a tenant at the women’s shelter was trespassing on their properties and making them feel unsafe.

Ms. Belcastro confirmed that the man in question was the boyfriend of a woman staying at the home. She said no formal complaints had been brought to Harbor Homes’s attention prior to a recent abutters’ meeting held at the property.

“I’m always enforcing the rules, and that’s my job, and I take it very seriously,” she said. “If there’s a problem in the neighborhood, it will be addressed, and it will be addressed immediately.”

The new location for the winter shelter comes during a moment of transition for the organization, which is still seeking a new executive director after Brain Morris resigned earlier this year, and interim executive director Michael Bellissimo finished his term at the end of August.

For Harbor Homes officials, the use change agreement is a step toward protecting unhoused Islanders during some of the year’s coldest months.

“It’s an important cause, and we can’t do it without the towns and the county, and we acknowledge that,” Ms. Belcastro said.

The article has been updated to more accurately reflect zoning board administrator Jessica Downey's response to a question by ZBA officials.