My son has a laptop!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to you all but my son is the proud owner of a new laptop.

The manager at the local Staples store came through bigtime for me as he was able to get me the following for $599 ( plus tax )

Dell® XPS M1330 Notebook PC
As one of the thinnest and lightest notebooks in its class, the XPS M1330 is a truly portable notebook.
Intel® Core 2 Duo T5450 (1.66GHz) processor
2GB installed memory
120GB Hard drive
SuperMulti DVD drive
13.3" WXGA TrueLife™ Wide Display
Built-in Dell Wireless Bluetooth capability
2.0 Megapixel Integrated Webcam
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
1 year warranty

Staples has been selling it for close to $1100 but the store had a special Christmas Eve sale.

I had enough from the donations and saving what I could to get him a wireless mouse as well and his Mom is going to get the bag for him.

He is beyond thrilled and I am so grateful to all.

Meanwhile in the real world Christmas Night was a little bleak at the shelter. Some volunteers promised to provide Christmas dinner and they never showed letting the poor students who did not go home to scramble to feed everyone. It wasn't the big dinner they had planned but there was nothing they could do.

I will be at the shelter until Saturday morning and then have to see what other options are out there. All the agencies are shut down this week and nothing is moving.

Over in Boston they had a big meal at Pine Street Inn
Homeless in Boston served a Christmas meal, with a side of compassion

Yes the homeless are well fed on Christmas and Thanksgiving but sadly there are 363 days in a year.

I will continue to blog and let you know how the battle is going.

Again thanks for all the support......

Now that the laptop dream has been accomplished the donation button will still be there if anybody feels like getting me a cup of coffee I'm just trying to save whatever I can so I can get off the streets.

12/21 The longest night of the year

At 1:08 Saturday morning the winter solstice will arrive marking the longest night of the year. I think about the people outside even more today.

The City of Boston *thinks* there are less people living on the streets this year.

City experts predict drop in homeless numbers

I think they miss a lot of people who are not downtown. I know of 20-30 persons who have a mini tent city near the Public Theater on Soldiers Field Road in Allston ( or is that Brighton? ). In any event every shelter is above capacity, it it shows no sign of slowing down. I know that long time street people have never seen so many people sleeping around Harvard Square.

I am feeling better today and looking at the best available laptop option for my son. I thank the person who sent the links last night in a comment that was very helpful. I plan now to pick it up Monday morning when I will know how much is available to spend. I can put in a little bit but the reality is my government check does not go very far over 31 days. So much of the day is spent killing time indoors where it is warm and you have to buy a coffee here and there so they leave you alone. $2 at a time adds up.

The Harvard Sq shelter is now using volunteers from the church upstairs to keep in running as most students have left for the holidays. I am just thankful I am there through Christmas and don't have to worry about a bed until a week from Saturday. Maybe by then I will have good news but the reality is most service agencies will be closed next week as everybody has left for the holidays.

Again thank you for all your help.

let it snow...NOT

Because of the snowstorm yesterday I decided to be "safe" I would use the Boston system as there was no way I wanted to be without shelter Thursday night.

I should have slept at Hotel Bank of America.......

I got to the intake early in the afternoon and it was a complete madhouse. Even the most hardened streetperson knew to come in last night. I was finally processed and given a ticket and told to wait for the next bus....and then the fun began.

Standing outside as the snow came down waiting and waiting for a bus to arrive. Finally one appears after 90 minutes one arrives and the driver does not want to go back out again. Finally he was ordered to do so and 70-80 people crammed into a bus that seats maybe 40. I was not lucky enough to get seat and frankly the bus reeked.

The shelter we were assigned to is in the middle of Boston Harbor and you have to go to Quincy to get to the bridge. What should have been a 30-45 minute trip lasted almost 5 hours. I have never seen gridlock like this in Boston since the 78 blizzard.

I'm still not feeling that great and standing in the snow for 90 minutes isn't going to be good for me and by the time we got to Long Island I was starved and my legs were hurting after standing all that time.

The shelter itself was pure bedlam as many staffers could not get there. I think I got about an hour of sleep at most.

Tonight I will try for a late bed at Harvard and if that doesn't pan out I can stay with my friend as it is a weekend. Most important come tomorrow I can re-apply for a 14 day bed that would get me through Christmas.

Please don't think I am whining but frankly I am worn out.

There was another contribution yesterday so the goal is getting closer. Thank you again.

Hopefully I will have more time tomorrow to email those that have been so kind.

More tomorrow

as of yesterday Blogger has made it easier to make comments

After just two short weeks of testing on Blogger in draft, OpenID commenting is now available for all Blogger blogs. This means that your friends and readers can leave authenticated comments on your blog using their blog URLs from OpenID-enabled services such as WordPress.com, LiveJournal, and AOL Journals, or with their AOL/AIM accounts.

So how many homeless are there?

First of all thanks to the generosity of readers to the blog we are halfway to the goal of getting my son a laptop for Christmas. Thank you so much.

So just how many people are homeless in the Boston area? I don't think anybody really knows for sure. Both Boston and Cambridge conduct a census every year and the numbers they announce are laughable.

For example last year this article appeared in the Globe

Police aim to keep criminals out of shelters

Mayor also plans new initiative on the homeless

The annual homeless census has been completed and shows an increase from last year's count of 261, said Jim Greene , director of the city's Emergency Shelter Commission.

261 in the City of Boston????? Are they nuts??????

The article also gives one of the reasons some people would rather sleep outside.
Shelter employees have said some homeless people, after cashing Social Security or unemployment checks, were robbed by others staying in the shelter.

Cambridge also does a census and while the numbers seem low they certainly are more accurate than Boston.

Number of Homeless In City Increases

Census finds 22 more homeless people in Cambridge than last year

There are 455 homeless people in Cambridge, 22 more than in 2006, according to the census, conducted in January. Nearly 12 percent of those individuals were not in any sort of shelter.

Although this year’s increase may reflect more temperate weather—there was a snowstorm during last year’s survey—it might also demonstrate that homelessness is increasing, or that more people have relocated to Cambridge because of a lack of services in other areas, according to Meghan Goughan, director of the Cambridge and Somerville Program for Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation’s First Step Street Outreach Program

Before I got sick I traveled a bit and I don't think the problem is as bad as cities like San Francisco and Seattle where the homeless seem to be everywhere but it still is a problem here in the Boston area. Boston and Cambridge also attract homeless people from other cities. Brookline has no homeless services to speak of yet you can't tell me they have no homeless people.

The City of Cambridge has a handbook for being homeless in Cambridge and details all the services available. I think many readers will be astonished at what is available.

Resource Guide for Persons Homeless in Cambridge (PDF)

Boston has many options and here are some links.

Pine Street Inn

Friends of Boston's Homeless

Boston Rescue Mission

St. Francis House

Shattuck Shelter

Rosie's Place

The City of Boston runs 2 large shelters which frankly are scary.

Woods Mullen Shelter
Woods Mullen Shelter is an emergency shelter operated by Boston Public Health Commission Homeless Services Bureau. Woods Mullen Shelter is located at the corner of Melina Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue near the Boston Medical Center. Woods Mullen Shelter provides food, emergency clothing, health care and case management services for anyone who is in need. We are open 24 hours. We have190 beds available for adults 18 and over (124 beds for men and 66 for women). Tickets are given out on a first come first serve basis beginning at 3:30 pm.
The other one is located in the MIDDLE of Boston Harbor
Long Island Shelter
There are 386 beds available for adults 18 and over (333 for men and 53 for women). Transportation is provided from our intake site at 784 Rear MassachusettsAvenue (Woods Mullen Shelter) from 3:00pm to 7:00pm daily. MBTA buses transport guests from Long Island Shelter back to Boston every morning.,Breakfast,lunch and dinner meals are served to guest in our beautiful diningroom overlooking the City of Boston Skyline.

In Cambridge there are 2 long term shelters that I am waiting for something to open up

First Church Shelter

Shelter, Inc.

In Somerville
Somerville Homeless Coalition

In Quincy and Brockton

Father Bills & MainSpring

In Waltham

Bristol Lodge

Statewide list of shelters

My hope is that by reading this and checking out the links I can make people aware at just how bad things are out there. Based on my observations I would say half the homeless will be that way for the rest of their lives. They have given up. That will not happen to me.

Some scam the system. One trick I was told about is to show up at an emergency room and say you want to 'kill yourself' and the state will hold a person for a week or more at $2-3,000 a day of taxpayer money. People do this just to get 3 meals and a cot and makes it harder for people who really need psychiatric care to get a bed.

Thanks for reading.