Homelessness Strikes Native-born and Immigrants Alike

The seasonal drop in temperature worries more than just those who don’t have roofs over their heads. It worries people like Nelson Bennett, a supervisor at Pine Street Inn, Boston’s largest homeless shelter, and Oscar Alicea, a Salvation Army volunteer in New Hampshire. Both of them know all too well what the homeless in New England face every winter.

During his nighttime shift, Bennett leads a crew of eight workers riding in a van to distribute food, blankets and tickets to stay in a shelter, to 35 homeless people.

Alicea, a Puerto Rican who came to the US in 1976, is a van driver for the Salvation Army.  He picks up bell ringers -- Salvation Army staff who stand in front of stores to collect money from passersby, on behalf of the charitable organization -- in Nashua, NH, and gives them rides to Wal-Mart and Market Basket stores.

A reporter of EthnicNEWz.org rode in both vans and saw that among the homeless were Asian, Hispanic and African immigrants.

According to a 2008 report of the Commission Related to Ending Homelessness in the Commonwealth, Massachusetts has a total of 24,000 homeless people, of which 5,000 are in families, and 10,000 are children.  Boston has 7,000 homeless individuals, according to a census conducted in 2007 by the office of Mayor Thomas Menino.

There are no official numbers to indicate the percentage of immigrants, but Alicea estimates that 75 percent of those who seek the Salvation Army’s support in Nashua are newcomers from Latin America and Africa.“With the economy the way it is, more Brazilians, Hispanics, and African refugees are losing jobs, that’s why they need our help,” says Alicea, who himself lost his job as a mechanic in March and is struggling to raise his five children.

“We treat everybody the same way.  We don’t care if you’re native or immigrant. Homelessness can happen to anyone,” says Bennett, a son of Honduran immigrants working with homelessness for seven years.During a van ride last April, Pine Street Inn workers spotted at least four immigrants. A man from Vietnam rested under a heavily-lit Kid’s Footlocker storefront, where he got a new pair of socks that he wanted.

Another person from Cape Verde snoozed on the corner of State and Central streets, in downtown Boston. Bennett carefully laid a blanket on him and left.Jill Roncarati, a physician assistant for the Boston Healthcare for Homeless Program, rides in the Pine Street Inn van twice a week. “In the first contact with patients, you need to build their trust on us,” she says.The most common illnesses the homeless have are liver disease, cancer, hepatitis, pneumonia, bronchitis and skin infection. Some 80 percent of her patients require psychological assistance.

The Boston Healthcare for Homeless Program is based out of Jean Yawkey Place, a $35 million medical complex named after the philanthropist wife of Tom Yawkey, the former owner of the Boston Red Sox. The complex includes a 104-bed inpatient clinic, a pharmacy and a dental clinic.

While homelessness can be caused by an array of factors, says Roncarati, some are more frequent than others, such as mental illness, history of substance abuse and, in the case of war veterans, post-traumatic stress disorder syndrome.“As soon as my disability kicks in I’m going to Florida. No more winters for me,” says a homeless Iraq War veteran.Bennett estimates that veterans represent at least 20 percent of the city’s homeless population. On a recent cold night, a man who served the US Army in Beirut during the ‘80s waited for assistance at a bus stop in South Boston. It was 11 p.m. and the man carried a plastic bottle of water filled with beer. The detox shelters, places equipped to treat substance abuse patients, were all full that night. The man got soup, a cup of hot chocolate, and a blanket and spent the night right there.The Interagency Council on Homelessness, a taskforce chaired by Massachusetts Lt. Governor Tim Murray, recommended a new system to fight the problem. The plan, which is underway, includes the creation of regional service-coordinating entities to link people with prevention services, housing and jobs.

In New Hampshire, Alicea understands exactly what the people most in need have to endure. Three years ago he was unemployed and had no food to offer to his five kids.“So I swallowed [my] pride, went to KFC and asked for all the leftover food they had,” he says. For at least a month, the Alicea family lived on the fried chickens and mashed potatoes donated every night – the supply would make for good meals during the day, too.This winter, on a stipend of $25 a day (daily eight-hour-shifts), volunteer bell ringers of the Salvation Army will work to make sure other families can keep warm and fed. But they have hardships of their own.“It’s hard right now. I can’t make ends meet. I go to a soup kitchen and can’t get in,” says Susanne Marchant, a volunteer at Nashua’s Salvation Army and a former deli manager who is disabled now.In Boston, Nelson Bennett will not trade his third-shift job for any other.

“I go home everyday feeling good. I don’t mind working at night. This is the best job I ever had,” he says.For Roncarati, the best reward comes when she sees “a former client moving into an apartment of his own,” she said. “Homelessness can happen to anybody. We should not look down at anybody because of their financial hardships. Nobody is exempt from that,” concludes Bennett.More on homelessness:
pinestreetinn.org
bhchp.org
armyonitsknees.org

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