A day after Boston Mayor Marty Walsh revealed the location of Boston’s new homeless shelter, WGBH took a tour of the existing temporary facility – the South End Fitness Center.
It’s not quite time to pack up the long rows of military-green cots in this gymnasium, but come the end of January, at least 100 shelter residents will be able to move to a new shelter at 112 Southampton Street.
“I’m not totally disgusted with the way my life is now. I’m optimistic things will get better.”
Richard is a 56-year-old man staying at the South End Fitness Center with about 250 other men. They share 6 toilets, 3 urinals and open showers. He’s spending the day reading on his cot and says he’s working to get into long-term housing. But right now, he misses Long Island.
“There’s good days and bad days. Sometimes I get a cot like this. Other days if I come in late, I’m stuck on a mat. It’s hard sometimes. There’s a lot of depressing days. They have counselors here, who you can talk to and help you with your housing. That’s what I’m concentrating on.”
Many of the homeless disperse into the city during the daytime – walking, socializing, visiting counselors or clinics, attending 12-step meetings. Back on Long Island, they could receive most services in one place.
“There’s definitely some logistical things that we haven’t been able to replicate.”
Liz Henderson is the director of emergency shelter services for the Boston Public Health Commission. She says the temporary shelter has worked, with help from other organizations, but she’s looking forward to moving to the Southampton Street building.
“We’re very grateful that we can now plan for getting out of here and having more beds and all being under one roof again.”
But the mayor’s office is calling the Southampton St. building a “temporary long-term” solution. And it’s still not clear what will happen to Long Island, except that it’ll be at least three years before the bridge is rebuilt.
“We’re doing our best to get what we can off the island at this point, with the restrictions around the barge and the ferries and so forth. But it certainly would be great to get our supplies off the island to put in the new facility but I can’t guarantee it unfortunately,” Henderson said.
Shelter guests like Richard say they don’t want to be homeless. In fact, his goal is to never have to return to Long Island.
“This is just a temporary thing for everybody. If you have it too comfortable people will get lazy and not want to do things for themselves.”
