Boston's Cold War

BOSTON'S COLD WAR

Date: January 24, 2003 Page: A18 Section: Editorial

ON FRIGIDLY cold nights, what is more important: a homeless person's right to stay on the street or the city's duty to keep people safe by forcing them indoors?

In New York and Philadelphia there is no question. When the temperature drops, officials can legally force homeless people inside. Boston lets people decide for themselves, and many choose the streets. Boston officials understandably want to protect people's rights and dignity. But it's time to change. The city needs a law that would let officials clear the streets on the coldest nights. This violation of personal rights is acceptable when conditions are life-threatening.

The law should be carefully written and narrowly defined to prevent abuse. The single goal must be protection from severe weather, not clearing the streets of homeless people. Great effort would have to be taken not to drive them into hiding where daily outreach workers couldn't find them.

But this law would be only a small Band-Aid on a massive problem. Brutally cold nights should inspire a new look at homelessness services, which need more year-round funding and innovation. Winter shows how bad street life can be, but homeless people face crises and death in all four seasons.

In fierce cold, Boston could also try enticing - instead of forcing - people inside by offering more options. Aware that shelters are overcrowded and sometimes volatile places, some homeless people refuse to go.

The city should experiment with options such as opening spaces in other buildings that probably wouldn't have cots but could offer chairs, coffee, and food. Offering people the privacy of a hotel room on the most chilling nights is another option worth trying.

Better is year-round prevention that gets people off the streets before winter arrives. This might have helped Bob Gurney, a homeless veteran who died this week in a makeshift hut under the Southeast Expressway. Gurney once had an apartment, but when his rent went up he was evicted.

To prevent such deaths, the city needs single-room-occupancy buildings that could provide permanent housing. These units should come with appropriate services such as mental health and substance abuse counseling.

New York and San Francisco offer different versions of the "Housing First" model. New York advocates place people in single apartments and offer services. San Francisco officials have entire buildings that offer apartments and treatment services.

There's an impulse to play guardian angel on the worst nights. But the real work is to crack the codes, to figure out what combination of support will compel most people off the streets. New York activist Sam Tsemberis found that when he asked homeless people what they wanted, they typically had one answer: a place to live. Giving them this would protect against winter cold, summer heat, physical and mental illnesses, despair, and hopelessness every day of the year