THE PLIGHT of the city’s homeless population has taken on a new urgency in Boston this Thanksgiving, after the sudden closure of the city’s main emergency shelter on Long Island. Inspections last month revealed that the only bridge reaching the island was unsafe, forcing the city to shut the facility and several other related social-service organizations. That decision, while necessary, has taken a severe toll. Without the beds, other shelters in the city hastily took in hundreds of “Long Island refugees.” Some former residents are now sleeping in hallways and lobbies — or on the streets.
But the crisis has also created an opportunity the city should seize: it’s time to permanently relocate the city’s homeless beds to more convenient locations in the city, closer to welfare agencies, churches, and public transportation, in order to give the residents better access to services, build stronger pathways to permanent housing, and eliminate the possibility of a single freak accident again cutting off the range of services that were housed on the island. The city is in the process of doing that anyway, as it plans a temporary shelter in the South End, and should start studying permanent mainland locations, too.
Read more on BostonGlobe.com
But the crisis has also created an opportunity the city should seize: it’s time to permanently relocate the city’s homeless beds to more convenient locations in the city, closer to welfare agencies, churches, and public transportation, in order to give the residents better access to services, build stronger pathways to permanent housing, and eliminate the possibility of a single freak accident again cutting off the range of services that were housed on the island. The city is in the process of doing that anyway, as it plans a temporary shelter in the South End, and should start studying permanent mainland locations, too.
Read more on BostonGlobe.com
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