How the homeless population suffers throughout severe weather conditions.
by Morgan Adderley
Freezing temperatures. Snowstorm after snowstorm. Impossible transit systems. Mountains of snow. All of these phrases, and many more, can be used to describe the Boston winter of 2014-2015. It was simply brutal. And yet, as awful as this winter was for me, I could not help but reflect on my privilege. You see, no matter how cold it got, or impossible my commute seemed, I always knew that I was trekking through the snow to get somewhere – my home. For over 7,000 homeless people in the city, that is not an option. To be homeless in itself is a terrible predicament, but to be homeless in the winter can be a death sentence. Lack of warm clothing and unfettered exposure to the elements can lead to everything from frostbite to hypothermia. And the snow makes even the most common of tasks a trial. The Boston Globe interviewed two homeless men, Shawn Grady and Didi Gilbert, on their experiences of surviving the winter. both said, “The cold is always expected…but the snow is what makes things difficult. When you can’t lie down in the grass or sit on a park bench, you’re left to continuously wander while carrying all of your possessions.” They went on to detail their experiences of struggling to find refuge in a café or lobby, knowing that they were being judged and constantly having to move on to the next location. Thus, the weather proves an inescapable enemy.
Many people assume that shelters are the answer. However, the solution is never that simple, and a key fact remains that there is too little space to go around. Thus, the solution is to keep everyone moving. , “There’s this weird bureaucracy that turns everything into an obstacle course,” Gilbert said of the way homeless care is structured. “You wake up in one place, then you have to leave, then you go somewhere to be warm, then somewhere else for food.”” In Boston, this issue was further compounded by the closing of the Long Island Shelter in October 2014. The city’s main homeless shelter, it catered to over 700 people until the only bridge connecting it to the Boston mainland was condemned. The city lost one-third of its available beds.
There are groups and agencies who volunteer to help. There is Boston Warm, a “coalition of local clergy” which formed in direct response to the Long Island closing. They currently run two day centers in the city and advocate for better solutions for the homeless. There is also Pine Street Inn, an organization which combats homelessness, offers emergency shelter, and has over 670 beds. A complete listing of available resources will be provided at the end of this article.
As the New York Times put it, this was truly “Boston’s Winter from Hell.” And while we all suffered, this title reminds me of Dante’s Inferno, in which the Italian poet described nine circles of hell. While hell is still hell, the homeless suffer on another level. If our circle consists of fighting the weather until we can return to our dorms, how awful must their circle be, without even that assurance, and all the advantages which accompany it?
May this bit of perspective help guide us all through the remainder of “Snowpocalypse 2015,” and inspire us to help in any way we can.
Resources:
- Homeless Shelter Directory: Boston, MA: http://www.homelessshelterdirectory.org/cgi-bin/id/city.cgi?city=Boston&state=MA
- Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless: http://www.mahomeless.org/
- Boston Public Health Commission: http://www.bphc.org/whatwedo/homelessness/emergency-shelter-commission/Pages/Emergency-Shelter-Commission.aspx
- Friends of Boston’s Homeless: http://www.fobh.org/
