Shelters Scramble to House Displaced Long Island Homeless from Winter Storms

With the closing of Boston’s largest homeless shelter on Long Island last October, local and temporary shelters are working to get displaced guests out of the winter weather.

Barbara V. Trevisan, director of communications at the Pine Street Inn shelter in Boston, said that the organization has experienced a large influx of people recently.

“With the weather and the closing of the [Long Island] shelter, we’ve definitely had an overflow of people here for many of the nights this winter,” Trevisan said. “We definitely don’t turn anyone away at this time of year.”

According to Trevisan, the shelter has run out of normal beds and at times has put down emergency cots in the lobbies and dining areas. She said that Pine Street Inn has accommodated many who had lived on Long Island.

The city has created more shelter space to address increased winter demand. In January, a new temporary shelter with a capacity of 100 people opened in a city-owned building on Southhampton St. in Boston. In early spring, the Boston Public Health Commission plans to increase the space to upward of 490 beds.

A BPHC-run temporary shelter at the former South End Fitness Center in Boston houses more displaced guests, but is capped at approximately 250 people, according to BPHC spokeswoman McKenzie Ridings.  The Long Island Shelter, which was closed after the city shut down bridge connecting it to the mainland, had a capacity of 700 people.

Many smaller shelters in the Boston area, however, have not had the capacity to assist with the overflow of people searching for a place to stay. The Somerville Homeless Coalition, for example, has only 16 beds, which are always filled.

“We didn’t see any change, and I think you’ll find that’s true for all the shelters on this side of the river,” executive director Mark Alston-Follansbee said. “We’re small and have a fixed number of beds.”

This is not the only winter Boston shelters will have to deal with the issue of displaced homeless residents. The Long Island bridge may take five years, as well as $90 million, before it is replaced.

—Staff writer Annie Schugart can be reached at annie.schugart@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @AnnieSchugart.