Tension is still high between Boston officials and homeless men and women who have been displaced from a Boston Harbor Island after the city held its first meeting Wednesday night to address the October 8 closure of the Long Island bridge.
That forced a sudden evacuation of a shelter housing 700 people, who now need a place to stay.
Still angry over having to leave the Long Island shelter, former residents took their frustrations out on city officials last night.
Cleve Rae, 58, was one of the 700 residents of the Long Island shelter and says he was only given three hours to move out.
"Kind of like tumbling down a long hill, I didn't know where I was going to land, I didn't know what was going to happen next."
The city opened an emergency shelter in the South End Fitness Center, but Rae says conditions there are rough.
"The cots are so close together that if you stand next to your cot your knees are touching the cot next to you."
The sudden influx of homeless has also overwhelmed other non-profits.
“We are providing shelter for 45 women in this building. Every night at 6 o’clock we start getting ready for the women to arrive and they’re here for the night and they leave in the morning.”
Pooja Bhalla of Boston Healthcare for the Homeless in the South End says she’s had to move staff out in order to accommodate the influx – but worse, they’ve lost track of people they ordinarily care for.
“Since this happened this has been a crisis situation. Because from the evening that it happened, many people have been lost to care. Many are probably not seeking shelter. And as we enter into the winter months, how are we going to be handling the overflow issues?”
Spare Change, a newspaper written and published by the homeless community, has been covering the Long Island shelter for years. Founder James Shearer says the city should have called a public meeting on the bridge closure much earlier.
“What took them so long? This has been going on for a month, over a month, and city officials are just getting to it.”
He’s also upset that former Long Island residents have not had a chance to retrieve personal items.
“When the island was closed people had to up and leave their belongings there. So there are personal possessions, pictures, stuff like that that are still out there on that island. I think that’s the really sad part.”
Some of the officials at the meeting said they might use ferries to reopen Long Island, but Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley says there’s a larger issue.
"This isn't about just protecting one celebrated ideal shelter, it begs a larger question, we need more housing, we need more affordable housing and we need more treatment beds.”
City officials say they are building another temporary shelter on a lot beside the southeast expressway – to open sometime this winter. Meanwhile, many former shelter residents say their only option is to live on the streets.
Boston’s chief of Health and Human Services, Felix Arroyo, and Victory Programs Director Jonathan Scott discussed on Greater Boston whether the city should have been better prepared to deal with the closure of Long Island:
