Police aim to keep criminals out of shelters

Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said yesterday he is assigning a deputy superintendent to investigate the problem of criminals and ex-offenders who are blending in with the homeless population in shelters and then committing crimes on city streets.

"The shelters might need our help in dealing with people who are violent," Davis said in a telephone interview. "It's out of concern for people who work in the shelters and live in the shelters to make sure that those individuals who are committing violent acts are dealt with."

Shelter employees have said some homeless people, after cashing Social Security or unemployment checks, were robbed by others staying in the shelter, Davis said. Reported drug deals on Tremont and Stuart streets in the Back Bay and recent break-ins along Newbury Street, including at posh stores Valentino and Louis Boston, were connected to people who listed shelters as their main addresses, Davis said.

The deputy superintendent, who has not been assigned yet, is expected to communicate weekly with shelter directors and several community police officers who already work with the homeless. Davis said he hopes that by working more closely with advocates for the homeless, police will be able to drive down the crime rate in some neighborhoods, safeguard shelters, and distinguish between those people who may pose a threat and homeless people who are simply looking for a place to stay.

In 2005, about 930 people arrested told police that they lived in shelters, he said.

But Davis said he doubts many of them were actually homeless.

"That's not a solid number because a lot of people wouldn't want to list the addresses of where they really live," he said.

The police commissioner's statements come as the city is trying to address the rising number of homeless on city streets.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino today plans to announce an initiative to address public safety and health concerns related to the city's homeless population. "I asked our human service agencies along with our public safety officials to come up with a multi faceted approach to helping provide services to our homeless community while ensuring the safety of them and our neighborhoods from the small number of individuals that have been causing trouble," he said through a spokeswoman.

The annual homeless census has been completed and shows an increase from last year's count of 261, said Jim Greene , director of the city's Emergency Shelter Commission.

He declined to provide the number because it has not been released to the public yet.

Many of the homeless tend to congregate around Downtown Crossing, the Back Bay, and the South Station area, neighborhoods where they feel safer, he said. But some have serious alcohol and substance abuse problems, have mental health issues, or are elderly and have been living on the streets for several years, Greene said.

"The needs are very great and growing," he said. "We need to do all we can do to prevent this."

Davis said he did not know what was causing the problem of crime among the homeless, but said many of the perpetrators had just left the prison system.

Some shelters said they have seen an increase in the number of people leaving the prison system and heading straight to their facilities.

At St. Francis House , a shelter on Boylston Street, advocates have seen a spike in the number of prisoners applying for the shelter's 14-week substance abuse and reentry programs. In the last two years, the Pine Street Inn, another shelter, has seen a 25 percent increase in the number of homeless reporting a criminal background, said Lyndia Downie , shelter president.

"Because people are self-reporting, my guess is that's probably conservative," she said.

But advocates for the homeless said the ex-offenders who walk through their doors usually want to change their lives, not re-offend.

"Our experience is that people are very motivated not to return to prison," said Karen LaFrazia , executive director of St. Francis, who added she has not seen an increase in crime inside the shelter. "If people from the police department to the administration to the Legislature are invested in public safety, they need to understand that they need to invest in [housing and job] programs."

The city plans to seek more housing opportunities, particularly for elderly homeless people, expand treatment programs, and call for more state funding for reentry programs for offenders leaving the prison system, Greene said.

Davis said the police department plans to work with Greene's office and shelter directors to identify homeless people with substance abuse or mental health problems.

Greene said the department's plans are welcome.

"For the police to gather people . . . who may be looking to blend into a homeless population to perpetrate their crimes," he said, "I think most homeless people I know would support police efforts to weed out those elements."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.