Shelters straining to meet demand

By Steven Rosenberg, Globe Staff, 11/23/2003

SALEM -- Unemployment, soaring rents, substance abuse, and mental illness are contributing to an increase in homelessness north of Boston, area shelter directors say. But even as the shelters try to accommodate the high demand for beds, most are fighting to offset state budget cuts that have stretched their emergency services.

At the Lynn Emergency Shelter, the demand for a bed has never been higher, said Kathie Trogler, the shelter's program manager. Until August 2002, 77 people were able to sleep every evening in the basement of the shelter on Willow Street. Since then, cuts in funding from the state Department of Transitional Assistance have reduced the shelter's staff, allowing it to help fewer people. Last year, it served 60 people a night; this year, just 44 men and women will be taken in each night.

....Other shelter directors north of Boston also said they are seeing more homeless knocking on their doors than ever before.

''We've had nights already where as many as 32 people have shown up," said Ralph Johnson, the shelter director at Action Inc. on Main Street in Gloucester. Last summer, an average of 26 people stood in line waiting for a bed at the shelter -- six more than the shelter can hold. In the winter, the capacity jumps to 26, and when people are turned away, they're allowed to sleep at the Gloucester Police Station.

While those who suffer from mental illness make up a majority of the homeless in the shelter, Johnson said the economy, driven by high rents, is creating a new type of homeless person -- one who is educated and unemployed. ''We've got guys who come in with college degrees," he said.

For the full article, see page one of the Globe North section of the Boston Globe on 11/23/03

Steven Rosenberg can be reached at rosenberg@globe.com.