Homeless Kept Away By Cage

The ventilation grates of Holyoke Center, where many homeless people have spent cold winter nights, are now covered by a large iron cage.

According to Hathaway H. Green, director of communications at Harvard Planning and Real Estate, the move came in response to tenants and customers who repeatedly expressed concern over "inappropriate behavior such as drinking and defecating" by homeless people camped near the recently renovated arcade.

"There have been a lot of concerns about physical safety," Green said.

Green maintained that Harvard is committed to "fair and decent treatment of all people, including the homeless, who use Holyoke Center's public spaces."

But "everybody was in agreement where it was not appropriate for people to congregate there during the day," he said.

After some instances of physical threats to employees and passers-by, both Harvard and homeless advocacy groups agreed on the need for the grates to keep the homeless at a safe distance, according to Green.

Macy DeLong, coordinator of the homeless empowerment group "Solutions at Work," said the grates would be an appropriate place for homeless people to occupy temporarily "only if people behaved appropriately and treated it as shared community space," DeLong said.

"Even some homeless people who needed the grates [had] felt unsafe," DeLong said.