Area homeless shelters gear up for winter

11/18/04The Boston Rescue Mission needs socks. If you're out walking around all day or night in the slush and snow, if you don't have a car to drive in, you don't have a job, you don't have a place to live, dry socks really matter.

Dry socks are but one of the many details that Boston's homeless shelters have to deal with in winter. A mid-November snowfall meant that the busy season started a little early for Boston's homeless shelters this year. Each winter, shelters gear up for another season of doing whatever they can to keep Boston's homeless alive.

Shelters start to gear up for winter as early as September, according to Marie Sullivan of the Boston Public Health Commission Homeless Services Bureau. Shelters check to make sure beds are in good repair, do inventory, and generally "dust everything off."

They also work with regular donors to coordinate and make sure they get enough of what they need.

Shelters receive support from a wide mix of public funding and support from individuals, churches and businesses. To maintain support, shelters work on a number of fund-raising and awareness campaigns.

For example, Marie Sullivan presents a program called "Challenging Minds Challenging Homelessness" at area schools. Instead of asking for a speaking fee, she works with the schools to organize a community service project, such as a sock drive or bake sale.

All this is done to serve the more than 6,200 people in Boston that may be homeless at any given time.

During the summer months, many homeless choose to remain on the streets. While Long Island Shelter's official capacity is 350, they may only fill 270 beds on any given summer night, according to Sullivan. At Boston Rescue Mission, only 30 of 120 beds have tenants on a summer evening, according to Community Relations Director Tim Marks.

But when winter hits, like that mid-November snowstorm, the shelters whirl back into action. Long Island may try to fit in more than 400 people on a snowy winter night. Boston Rescue Mission may see up to 200.

Unlike some shelters and programs, these facilities are considered "wet" facilities, meaning that people do not have to be sober to enter them. As long as people aren't belligerent or at medical risk, they are taken in.

If people are belligerent, dangerously intoxicated, or in need of immediate medical attention (for physical or psychological problems), the shelters call 911 and the police or an ambulance -- or both -- will come to retrieve the person.

But most people are let in.

"We'll take in as many as possible," said Marie Sullivan. Sullivan said she and her staff would set up cots, put people on benches, and basically do whatever they could to accommodate as many as possible.

If one shelter runs out of room, they will call other shelters to see where else there may be room.

Several programs, such as the Pine Street Inn, have rescue vans that can transport people from one shelter to another, or rescue people off the streets.

Woods Mullin Shelter has a room where people "in bad shape" can sober up if they need to.

In short, these shelters may be the last resort for people before jail or the hospital or worse.

Homeless populations can be difficult to pin down. The city of Boston performs a "homeless census" one night a year in December. The most recent census was December 8, 2003. On the night of the census, volunteers traveled the city on foot and by car to count people on the streets and gathered numbers from various shelters and programs.
Nearly 2,000 people were in shelters that night, 230 out on the street.

These numbers are not comprehensive, but they do provide a snapshot.

"We do our best not to (turn people away)," Sullivan said. "If we do, we're basically signing their death warrant."