John Rogan
Prof. Kurkjian - Investigative Journalism
Rosie’s Place
and The Pine Street Inn
The economic crisis
that started in 2008 affected every aspect of the world economy. Top banking firms down to individual employees
felt some sort of economic hardship as losses trickled down. One of the hardest hit markets was the
housing market. Poorly approved mortgages along with the economic crisis
resulted in homeowners defaulting on mortgages and devaluing their existing
property. Many families were left with no work, nowhere to live, having to move
from eviction to eviction. This damage is still being felt to this day. I
wanted to take a closer look at how the remnants of the economic crisis were
being felt in the Boston area by looking at two of the area’s busiest homeless
shelters.
Rosie’s Place is a
woman’s homeless shelter in Boston’s South End. Outside No loitering signs hang
on the lawn’s short chain link fence, as women with all their possessions in
trash bags continually move so as not to loiter. A bus stop is out front and
transports many of the guests; most carry everything they have with them along
with their children. Children are registered to the mother and once inside must
stay with their mother’s the entire time. Many of the guests are older minority
women. Lunch is open from 11:30-1 and is
served from 12-12:30. Dinner is open from 4:30-7:30 and served from 6-6:30;
beds are given for a night in a lottery system. The entranceway to Rosie’s
Place is similar to that of a nurse’s station at a nice retirement home. A
whiteboard stands next to the front desk listing activities, the weather and
services for the day like acupuncture, legal counseling, self-defense, collage
making, cooking, alcoholics anonymous, substance abuse counseling and career
counseling. Employment opportunities are organized on a wall that leads into
the dining room. The dining room closely resembles the kind of dining room one
would find in a retirement home. Off the hallway leading to the dining room is
a shower room and lockers. Posters and public service announcements line the
walls offering services and classes.
Walking through the shelter and
feeling the energy of the people eating, as the cook made a last call
for seconds and one woman retorted “I haven’t even got firsts”, gives one the
sense of this place really being a place of hope. It seems brighter inside than
outside and the women’s faces seem less weighed down with thought as the ones
smoking cigarettes and trying not to loiter out front, before getting on the
bus to go find somewhere to sleep. I did come at the end of lunch so people who
are accustomed to being hungry had just been fed which could have accounted for
the light, almost playful attitude of the women in the shelter
The mission of
Rosie’s Place is: “to help out guests to maintain their dignity, seek
opportunity, and find security in their lives.” The helpful staff and the way
tired, homeless women respond to them gives one the feeling of a place where
people interacting and affecting each other, most likely hundreds of times a
day in little ways, genuinely provides help and relief to those who desperately
need it. A goal I found in common with the other homeless shelter I visited was
many of the workers were trying to get the guests out of the shelter and into a
job and some sort of living situation.
The goal of helping people get back on track is one of the most
redeeming values I found in either of the homeless shelters I visited. No
matter what the problem economic hardship, mental illness, or drug addiction
both places serve as a place where someone who has fallen on hard times can
make a successful comeback, if they put effort into it.
The Pine Street
Inn is located down the street about five blocks and directly faces I-93. Its
location is in the South End, but the fact that it is on I-93, I-90 and not far
from South Station makes it an accessible shelter for the homeless all over
Boston. The Pine Street Inn is huge. I had more associations with a large
hospital than a homeless shelter. Unlike Rosie’s place the entrance has a desk
and a guard. The kitchen, beds, and common areas are secure and open only to
guests and security. I asked the guard I f I could go in and look around and
she politely told me no and to go talk to the woman at the desk. I was
questioning the need for a guard at a homeless shelter when a man (weak or
intoxicated) began to slump against the wall as he was walking down the
hallway. The guard caught the man before he fell and said “ok, buddy, why don’t
we find you a seat.” The woman at the front desk after looking over for half an
instant asked if there was anything I needed help with. I said I was interested
in volunteer work and was writing a paper for Boston College. The woman at the
desk quickly called somebody and asked me to wait. There waiting room was
similar to most waiting rooms in hospitals or an ER. Large heating ducts
overhead pumped warm air everywhere into the building.
Scotty Wait came
to meet me in less than five minutes. Scotty is head of volunteer services. I
asked what would be the kind of work one would do to help the residents if I
volunteered. She took me on a tour of the kitchen, again huge, over fifty
different volunteers toiled away at separate parts of the kitchen, while full
trucks stocked with donated food came and went from the loading docks. I never
got a chance to see the guest’s kitchen or sleeping area because of the tight,
hospital-like security. The incident in the lobby enlightened me as to why they
might need such good security at a homeless shelter. On hearing I was from
Boston College she told me about the Pulse-4Boston community service actions
many Boston College students participate in which I had not known about. Scotty
brought me back out to the lobby, and conveyed how this was a very busy time of
year and any help could be used. I thanked her for the quick tour of the
kitchen and the information she gave me before going back to her office.
I walked around the building, finding many
locked doors. There is a separate entrance for admitting women, I found, as
well as a private garden called Estelle’s Garden where many homeless women sat
and watched the afternoon. The area around Pine Street Inn is notably grimmer
than the rest of Boston. Many of the homeless walk the streets waiting to get
in. I counted more than five hypodermic needles on the ground from my walk back
to my car. The proximity of the highway begins to make sense as any apartment
building even somewhat close has barred doors and windows. The vast underground
living area under the highway Ric Kahn spoke about begins to make sense. On
sidewalks was the common unsettling sight of broken car window glass, and one
especially in a fresh pile that looked like it could have been smashed last
night.
A representative
from The Pine Street Inn, Barbara V. Trevisan, was able to answer some
questions I had about working at the shelter and mostly how services and the
overall running of the shelter has changed since 2008. When asked how the
running the shelter has changed since 2008 Barbara responded: “We are more focused on strategies to get people
out of shelter and into housing with support services – this is a more cost
effective – and humane way – for people to live. We have found that an average
of close to $10,000 per year, per person, is saved in healthcare, emergency
room and public safety costs when people are housed.” A strategy I heard also
at Rosie’s Place. Its goal is to get people into some sort of housing through
services, whether that is subsidized housing or a career plan to pay for a
place to live. These shelters are not just stopovers where people spend the
night then are flung back out onto the streets. Teams of volunteers and social
workers try to make it into more of a program to turn one’s life around,
receive treatment, get a job, and find a place to live. When asked how many
people find themselves homeless, Barbara responded:
“Job loss, no support system or safety net, mental illness, addiction,
loss of connection with family.” Most people in these shelters just need a jump
start to get them out of a recent bad life event like addiction or home
eviction. When asked have you had to expand resources since the financial
crisis of 2008 she responded: “We have been working on strategies to get people
into housing and out of the shelter – this has led to a 35% reduction in
individual homelessness over the last several years, which may sound
counterintuitive.” Asked if it was the same as before 2008, she responded: “We
are very fortunate to have a group of supporters who have realized how
important an organization like Pine Street is to the community – who have
continued to support us throughout this time. The funding we receive from
city/state/federal governments is much more focused on housing as the solution
to homelessness.” This answer I believe shows the real change since 2008. Their
strategy has really changed, most likely due to the spike in economic problems
in 2008 and the economic stimulus packages local state and federal governments
have been providing since the crisis. The hardest hit area was the housing
market and “the more focused” funding from city state and federal services
ushered in a new strategy of getting people off the streets and into subsidized
housing. When asked if the amount of personal care has changed since 2008, she
responded: “Case managers are assigned to work with guests to connect them with
services like healthcare and job training and housing. They are much more
focused on long-term solutions than in the past.” Again a sustained effort by
workers at these shelters to give a long term solution to the housing crisis,
guests are coached and pushed to turn their lives around; not just given a bed
and a meal for the night. When asked how the shelter deals with the physically
and psychologically ill and how that care has changed since 2008, she responded:
“If someone is in need of medical care, depending on the situation, we have a
clinic on site that is run by Healthcare for the Homeless. If they are more
acutely ill, we may send them to Boston Medical Center for care.” It seemed
like this time of year was particularly busy for the shelters so I asked how
many people stay here around this time of year, Barbara responded: “On any
given day, we have about 1600 people that we work with – about 730 in our
shelters, 760 who now live in Pine Street’s permanent housing and the balance
through our street outreach or in our job training programs. A majority of
guest stay for a relatively short period of time (a few days to a couple of
weeks)” I asked if she found it hard working here, she gave an answer that
really sums up the attitude of many of the workers and volunteers at these
Shelters, she responded: “No, [I] actually find it inspiring that people can
still have hope even though they are facing major challenges in their lives.”
Both these
establishments deal with a problem drastically affecting America on the ground
level, in our neighborhoods, and our streets. This really cannot be said
enough, but seeing volunteers answer five questions at once or cooks serving up
hot food or someone simply saying “can I help you” to someone who looks
emotionally and physically drained gives one the greatest gratitude for all the
volunteers and social workers that make a service to humanity like this
possible. The attitude is contagious, as people who have been hungry and in the
cold for however long finally have someone who cares, and slowly you see a
weight almost lifted off the people in the shelter, a great sense of relief,
that transmits into something intangible, the result of so much donated money,
inglorious work, and genuine human caring, something rare and hard to find for
a lot of people today, hope.
