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.

update 12/13

I haven't had the chance to post the past couple of days.

Tuesday morning I could not stop coughing so I went to Mt Auburn Hospital and they wound up keeping me for 2 nights. They took a chest x-ray and found some bronchitis and they decided to give me some IV for 36 hours....lovely.

I'm feeling better now.

I am thrilled that the goal of a laptop for my son for Christmas is in reach thanks to the generosity of people reading the blog. It humbles me.

Tonight I have to bite the bullet and try for a bed in a Boston shelter. I can't afford to wait for a one night bed at Harvard as you can not call for one until 9:30 and from all accounts the weather tonight will be nasty.

I made all my calls for the places I am waiting for but still no luck.

More later.

Monday was a long day

After staying with a friend over the weekend I am back at the Harvard Square shelter for a one night bed. Just looking forward to a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches and hopefully a good night of sleep. I am really tired and now I fear I caught a cold.

Days like Monday are tough when you are outside most of the day. It was just cold and raw and the day just dragged on. I kill time having coffee in Au Bon Pain or Starbucks on Church St or the Harvard Coop cafe reading. Luckily somebody always throws the NY Times away in the coffee shops so that kills time.

Still checking every morning for a long term bed...just seems like nothing is moving in the system.
I will be honest it does wear me down.

While waiting to call at 9:30 I met another person bouncing around. I got in and he didn't. He won't go to Boston and sleep and what he winds up doing boggles the mind.
He takes the subway to South Station and buys a ticket to Foxwoods for $26 ( he panhandles and sells Spare Change the homeless newspaper). Now for that $26 he can sleep 2 hours to Connecticut and then the casino gives him $25 back in coupons for 2 "free" bets and the 'all you can eat buffet'. Then later in the morning he comes back to Boston and the vicious circle starts again. It sounds nuts but that is what people do to survive.

Anyhow I can not wait until Saturday morning when I can re-apply for a 2 week bed here at Harvard. Again for those who have offered support thank you from the bottom of my heart.

More tomorrow

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.

Shelter stories - December 8th

First of all I am humbled by the generous support being shown to my family from strangers on the net. I will be in contact by email to those who have offered support. I can not thank you enough.

As I posted yesterday my 14 day bed at the Harvard Square shelter expired yesterday and I must wait 7 days to re-apply. I can call at 9:30 PM to see if they have a one night bed. For the next 2 nights I can sleep on a friends couch if need be. He lives in a Cambridge Housing building on Mt Auburn St that is owned by Harvard. He is not allowed to have somebody overnight on a regular basis but a day here and there they do not mind. This helps as many of the other shelters do not do intake on weekends so options become even more limited. At least I am secure until Monday morning.

I just want to tell you about 2 people I have met at the shelter.

A young woman with a 12 month old son finally got a motel room from the state yesterday. She had been living at the shelter and her baby was being cared for by the state. The woman had been in grad school at Harvard but things just fell apart when she got pregnant. Hopefully now things will start getting better for her.

Over the summer and fall I became friends with a man who has been living on the streets a long time. You can find him most days at Au Bon Pain at Harvard especially after 6 PM where he sits with his radio and listens to sports. The years on the streets have taken a toll on him and he is now 62. He moved to Boston in the early 60's from Maine and lived in a room in Davis Sq until 1988 when the rooming house owner cashed in on the real estate boom the subway brought to Somerville. He has lived on the streets ever since. This man has survived by collecting cans and that is hard work as it may take 8 or more hours to collect enough cans to make $20-40 a day. Each can is only a nickle so just do the math. However he now has trouble walking and can not can anymore and now has been forced to 'stem' in the square with a paper cup. He is not a daily drinker and in fact I have only seen him drink once in the months that I have known him. The truth is he is very sick and he needs to be seen by a doctor now.

He lost his ID years ago and he needs his birth certificate so he can get a state ID and social security card. He thought he needed to go to Maine for it but I found out today that we can order it online for $15.

http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/faq.htm#certificates

We found out he can use the shelter address for mail so hopefully we can get this done. He is a good man, just a stubborn 'Maniac'.

Still he is a prime example on how the housing market in Cambridge/Somerville has changed the past 20 years. There used to be numerous rooming houses in the Dana Hill, Central Square and Davis areas but property values skyrocketed. 20 years ago the area of Mass Avenue between Harvard and Central was not upscale. There were cab companies, gas stations, Mom and Pop stores all along the avenue. Rooming houses were on Dana St, Clinton St and Magazine where people could simply rent a room. Those days are gone. Another factor was rent-control being abolished in the 1990's. The rent control zealots wanted nothing to change but the Cambridge rent control board was still setting rates based on 1969 20 years later. It wasn't fair to the property owners but the zealots refused to find middle ground like they did in Manhattan where people who were in a rent control building could stay but if they moved the landlord could then charge market rate. The elimination of rent control in Cambridge, Boston and Brookline have had a devastating toll on people living from paycheck to paycheck. In Cambridge the problem is compounded by so many units now owned by Harvard and only made available to Harvard affiliates. Harvard does own 3 buildings that they let the city use for elderly and disabled persons but it is just a drop in the bucket.

I don't pretend to have an answer to the problem but something has to be done as things are only getting worse.

The kindness of strangers

I had coffee this afternoon with 'pinetreeblossom' and we had a nice chat. I was blown away by her kindness and I am deeply grateful.

I will try this weekend to send email to those who have helped out. My computer access today is very limited as the shelter is down to one computer that works. They have 3 older Dell desktops that Harvard threw in the trash but 2 of them will not even boot up now.

If anybody reading this has an old desktop collecting dust in a closet I am sure the students who run the shelter would be thrilled to give it a new home.

They can be reached at

Phone: 617-547-2841

Street Address:

66 Winthrop St.
Cambridge, MA
02138

Write info@hshsc.org to learn more about the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter Corporation

Tonight is my last night here as my 14 day bed expires in the morning and then I have to wait a week to reapply. I am not looking forward to the next few days but it is what it is.

Thanks for reading..more tomorrow

A thanks to some wonderful Harvard students

Since Thanksgiving weekend I have been a "guest" at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter.

Every winter since 1983, the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, staffed and directed by students at Harvard University, has provided food,housing, and a friendly, supportive environment for two dozen men and women each night during the five coldest months of the year.

I can not begin to tell you how wonderful these students are in trying to help people in need. Somehow they are able to juggle the workload of attending Harvard, maintain a social life and still have time to staff the shelter. It is clean, comfortable and they provide good food, warm showers, telephones, laundry and computer access. The students do this on their own through a student organization called the Phillips Brooks House. It is located in the basement of the University Lutheran Church located at 66 Winthrop St.

One of the students gave some blogging tips and showed me how to have ads on the blog from Google and Amazon that might bring in some income. For example the Red Sox ad on the right would mean that if anybody bought some Red Sox World Series souvenirs from Amazon a small percentage of the sale would come back to me. That actually applies to anything bought on Amazon as long as you enter the site from this blog. Plus I would be able to buy the the laptop from Amazon and get back a little rebate. Believe me every saved nickle helps.

this is how the shelter works

Staying at the Shelter:
Shelter Season: the shelter operates from the evening of Nov. 15th to the morning of April 15th

Hours: The shelter is open from 7PM to 8AM, except on Saturday mornings when it is open until 9AM

To reserve a bed:

2 week beds: Call in the morning at 7:30AM (shelter clocks are synchronized with national time, to check correct time call 617-NERVOUS) to reserve a bed. Beds are given out in the order of calls and are not guaranteed to be available. The shelter does not give away more than one bed per phone call.

Emergency one night bed:

What it is: When a guest with a reserved 2 week bed is not able to make it to the shelter that night, their bed is open for others to use as an emergency one night bed

How to reserve it: Call in at 9:30PM to see if any one-night beds are open. Beds are given out in the order of calls and are not guaranteed to be available.

If no beds are available, our staff will work to find available sleeping accommodations at other area shelters. T-tokens are available for referrals to other shelters only, and there is a 3 tokens per week limit per guest.

Guests with reserved beds must arrive at the shelter by 9:00PM unless they have informed shelter staff otherwise or risk loosing their bed. Guests with work-related reasons may come in later than 11PM upon verification of work.

HSHS is a dry shelter that provides a drug-free, alcohol-free, and smoke-free environment. Referrals to wet shelters will be made if necessary.

In my case the bed I had for 14 days will expire on Saturday morning and then I have to wait seven days to reapply for another 14 day bed. So for a week I have to scramble for a place to go. The Salvation Army in Central Sq is an option for 4 nights (then 4 out) but I don't really qualify for their long term program as I am not an alcoholic or drug abuser. I can also stay with a friend one night a week and also try for a bed in Harvard Sq at 9:30 PM. Because I am saving every nickle for Christmas that I can I will not spend money for the hostel in Boston.

The 'wet' shelters in Boston are so bad I would rather spend the night in the 'Hotel Citizens Bank'. Plus since there are no lockers there you may well wake up with your belongings missing. (somebody stole my sneakers one night at the Boston Rescue Mission on Kingston St downtown). Walking into South Station at 6 AM in socks is not a good way to start the day.

Still no luck on the long term beds in Waltham, Cambridge and Somerville. The reality is nobody with a bed is giving it up when it is 15 degrees out at 3 AM.

Again thanks for reading and for those who have offered support I am grateful beyond words.