City, shelters scramble in the cold

With temperatures expected to remain below 20 degrees until tomorrow afternoon, city officials and social service agencies scrambled yesterday to provide needy residents with emergency shelter and heating supplies to help them through what was expected to be one of the coldest nights so far this season.

City vans patrolled Boston neighborhoods, picking up homeless people and taking them to shelters. Those who did not want shelter were given blankets and hot soup. Shelters laid out extra cots and mats.

Meanwhile, charity groups raced to deliver thousands of dollars in heating oil to low-income residents who were running low.

''We are dealing with the issues as they come forward," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday. ''Everybody will have an opportunity to come in from the cold. On a mat, on a cot, or in bed, everybody who does not have a home will be let in to a shelter."

Temperatures were expected to plummet to as low as 9 degrees this morning, with strong wind gusts making it feel more like minus 7 degrees, said Tracy McCormick, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Taunton.

''It's going to be really, really cold," she said. ''Bundle up."

The freeze was triggered by an arctic air mass from Canada and is expected to persist until tomorrow, when temperatures should climb to the low 30s, McCormick said.

The frigid weather is uncommon for this period, when daytime temperatures are usually in the mid-20s, McCormick said.

The record low for this time of year was in 1898, when temperatures hit zero degrees, she said.

In preparation for the crowds that cold weather usually brings, shelters opened their doors early yesterday evening, many setting out bedding on every inch of free space.

''We are laying out mats row by row next to each other on the floor," said Mary Nee, executive director of Friends of the Shattuck Shelter in Jamaica Plain.

''It may not be ideal, but it's necessary at this point," she said.

At Pine Street Inn, the shelter's 700 beds were spoken for by late yesterday afternoon, but volunteers continued to drive through the streets last night, picking up homeless people who needed a place to spend the night.

''It's more important to have people come in, even if it's crowded, than to risk having people out in the cold," said Shepley Metcalf, a spokeswoman for the shelter.

Last year, there were more than 6,000 homeless people in Boston, according to the city's annual homeless census. Menino said the city would perform this year's census on Monday night.

Residents who worried about staying warm tied up phone lines at City Hall and social service agencies yesterday. Many asked for heating oil or said their buildings had faulty heating systems, officials said.

Boston's Inspectional Services Department received about 30 calls in the past month from tenants complaining of heating problems.

State law requires all landlords to have heating systems capable of providing heat at a minimum of 68 degrees at night and 64 during the day.

Residents with heating concerns can call the city's ''No Heat" response team at 617-635-5322 Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. or contact the mayor's 24-hour hotline at 617-635-4500, Menino said.

Beth Chambers, director of community services for Catholic Charities of Greater Boston, said she received more than 50 calls from people requesting heating vouchers yesterday.

''They were not just calls; they were calls of absolute desperation," she said. ''These are people who have no oil, who have no heat. They don't know what to do."

Robert Coard, president of Action for Boston Community Development, said the organization has received calls from 25,000 households in Boston, Newton, and Brookline requesting fuel assistance this year, up from 18,000 households last year.

With oil prices approaching $3 a gallon, low-income families were struggling to find discounted oil yesterday, Coard said.

''It's disastrous," he said. ''Many of them get by on space heaters, and that's dangerous. They shut down the rest of the house and live in the kitchen with heat from the stove. They pile on blankets and do anything to stay warm."

Emma Correia, 76, of Roxbury, has almost run out of the tank of oil she bought last month with money from Action for Boston Community Development.

She said she plans to huddle in bed all day today under piles of quilts and layers of thermal underwear, hiding from the bitter cold that aggravates her arthritis.

''I can't even go outside, not when it's cold like this," she said. ''I am just praying, asking the Lord to give us a mild winter this year."