Finding Boston’s Way Home
Recently I visited with Ansley Fortune at his new apartment in Roxbury. He had already decorated his walls with the flags of his native Trinidad and his adopted home of America, along with a prayer asking “that our lives may be an inspiration.”
Ansley told me about his life. He worked as a security guard, a delivery driver, a laborer, and a kitchen worker in our city. As he approached retirement age, though, he found himself without a home. In all, he spent 10 years on the streets and in shelters.
At a “housing surge” event put on by the City and our partners in July, Ansley finally got the supports, services, documentation and approvals he needed to get housing — all in the same day. He was in his new place by September.
I asked Ansley what it felt like to have a home to call his own after so many years on the streets. “I love it,” he said. “It’s like I’m starting again.”
Two years ago, we made the painful but necessary decision to close the Long Island Bridge when, after years of neglect, it had become too dangerous to use. I knew on a personal level the impact this change would have. You see, Long Island was part of the story of my own recovery. For years I drove out there every other week to share a message of hope with detox residents. I fought in the Legislature to protect its programs against wave after wave of budget cuts. Those men and women and the people who help them are not statistics to me. I know many of them, and I’ve shared some of their experiences.
I believe people need more than just a safe shelter bed. They need pathways to health and homes.
So closing the bridge was a wrenching moment, but it was part of our growth as a city. It meant we would no longer keep the problem out of sight and out of mind, but instead take a hard look at what people experiencing homelessness face on a daily basis, and what we can do better to help them secure a home.
We took on the challenge together. Public servants, nonprofit providers, and people of faith worked day and night to design new ways to not only keep homeless men and women safe, but to get them the services and the homes they need.
In the wake of the bridge’s closure, we released Boston’s Way Home, our plan to end veteran and chronic homelessness. I am amazed by how everyone who works with the homeless committed to creating this plan and making it work. Because of their collective efforts, we have been able to completely reform the way we deliver services to homeless people.
The facts are indisputable:
- We built a state-of-the-art homeless shelter on Southampton Street in the heart of our city. With capacity for more than 400 guests each night, the Southampton Street shelter features triage and case-management staff to get guests on pathways to housing and services the moment they walk in the door.
- All 742 shelter beds from Long Island have been replaced.
- All of the recovery programs are either open again or have found new locations. Victory Programs will soon break ground on a beautiful new facility.
- We added $1.3 million in city funds in our 2016–2017 budget and secured $2 million more in federal funds to provide triage staff at Pine Street Inn, rapid rehousing rental help, expanded family shelter, and permanent supportive housing.
- We now have a centralized technology platform to match homeless individuals with the housing and services they need. Our first match happened last month.
- We created 100 new permanent supportive housing units. These units provide formerly homeless people with disabilities the support they need to remain stable.
- We are working our way through a name-by-name list: every chronically homeless person in the City of Boston has been identified, and we are systematically helping each of them find housing.
Perhaps most remarkably:
- We have ended chronic veteran homelessness in the City of Boston. Through our Homes for the Brave initiative, we have housed nearly 800 veterans, and cut the overall number of homeless veterans by 44 percent in just over 2 years.
- We are on track to end all chronic homelessness by 2018. This year we have housed 190 chronically homeless people, ending a combined 1000+ years of homelessness.
We are proud of this unprecedented progress, and grateful to all the dedicated people who made it possible. Please see our one-year summary to learn more.
One of our key strategies is to simplify what was a very complex system. Resources and services for the homeless come from a wide variety of sources. Paperwork can be hard to manage for all of us. Imagine doing it without a stable address, a place to keep your possessions, or often even a telephone. This was a challenge we had to solve. So we invested in front-door triage staff who connect shelter guests directly with the services and resources that meet their specific needs.
Another great example of this simple and personalized approach is the “housing surge.” It’s a one-day event that brings together, in one place, all the housing and service providers, city, state, and federal staff, resources and case managers, needed to get a person on a direct path into housing.
We held our first housing surge at the Pine Street Inn the week before Veterans Day last year, and focused it on chronically homeless veterans. That day, we helped 60 veterans on the path to housing and we got 28 of them into rapid rehousing programs and in addition issued 14 housing vouchers right away. Since then, we’ve held surges serving more than 200 people in all, including 164 who got permanent housing resources on the spot. It was at a housing surge for seniors at the Laboure Center in South Boston that Ansley and others got what they needed to secure a home.
The surge is also a great example of the closer, more active relationships we’ve forged with our partners over the last two years. Each event is supported by as many as 30 agencies and nonprofits working side-by-side in close communication. Since coming together around this plan, we’ve learned better how to complement each other’s strengths and create a more seamless system.
Take Ansley’s apartment in Roxbury. It’s right next door to another Boston Housing Authority building, where the Upham’s Corner Health Center runs one of its PACE centers, the Medicare- and Medicaid-funded Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly that’s an alternative to nursing home care. The center has been able to provide the wrap-around services that many of our formerly homeless seniors need, while housing vouchers have given these same seniors the stability they needed to make use of such services.
After visiting with Ansley, I stopped by the program. I found about 20 seniors talking, reading, and listening to music from their different cultures. Their recreational area was surrounded by well-staffed medical facilities, kitchens, and activity rooms. Friendly staff were on hand to provide for their needs. A group of Latina seniors told me they were muy bien, and I told them I felt the same.
I spent some time talking with Joe Maiden. Joe was born in Mississippi and came to Boston as a young boy in the 1960s. He spent the last 17 years, all of the 21st century so far, homeless. He said he had started paperwork for housing at different shelters he stayed in, but the red tape always proved too much. He’d submit forms but it was hard to follow up when he was moving around. He couldn’t believe it when the July housing surge got him squared away in a single day, and in an apartment by the end of the summer. He lives a couple of miles from the PACE program and takes a bus over most days. Joe still needs some basic furniture for his apartment — and yes, we take donations. But he told me the hardest part so far is learning to sleep on your own schedule, instead of a shelter’s. It’s a new kind of freedom. “I love it,” he said.
We’ve come a long way in how we serve the homeless in Boston. But I don’t want you to think everything is rosy. The needs remain great, even for those on a path to housing. We currently have almost 100 veterans and other chronically homeless individuals who have housing vouchers, and in many cases supportive services, but have not found studio or one-bedroom apartments in Greater Boston that they can afford. Vouchers at the moment can’t cover more than $1,387 for a one-bedroom and some cover less. Please help us spread the word to landlords.
Helping the homeless is a personal issue for me, and I hope it is for you too. People experiencing homelessness are residents of our city who deserve dignity and respect. I meet veterans who served our country proudly, but feel like their country turned its back on them. I meet immigrants wondering what happened to their American Dream. I meet seniors like Ansley and Joe, and I can’t imagine how someone my mother’s age could survive on the streets. I’ve heard parents talk about making a motel room or a car feel like home for their kids. I’ve seen how hard it is for addicted people to stay sober when you’re out in the cold. Housing the homeless is a priority for the City of Boston, and it always will be as long as I’m mayor and a single person is without a home.
I’m often asked about the future of Long Island. Right now, I don’t know. We are keeping the infrastructure of the island viable, so that all of our options remain open. Soon, we will begin a planning process to determine the right uses. I am committed that recovery services will be a part of any future. And I am looking ahead — to all Boston’s streets and neighborhoods, and to the day when we can say that we have ended chronic homelessness here in the City of Boston.
Thanks as always,
Marty
To learn more about our plan, please follow us at our new Twitter presence: @BostonsWayHome. And visit the initiative’s new home on boston.gov to learn even more.
