Homeless advocates look to Hub
Seniors program a national model
In the lobby of the Anna Bissonnette House in the South End, several senior citizens sat at a table yesterday afternoon and studied their bingo cards. In an elevator, a man with gray hair and creased skin complained about the cost of a flight to Europe. And in her one-bedroom apartment, Estella Morris, a 65-year-old who spent five years sleeping on park benches and under bridges, held up colorful tapestries that she weaved.
The residents of the 40-unit, red-brick house on Washington Street share similar backgrounds. They are all older than 50 and were once homeless in Boston. But now, they benefit from a program that has drawn the attention of homeless advocates in Los Angeles and other cities grappling with significant senior citizen homeless populations.
Hearth Inc. provides living space for senior citizens at seven facilities throughout Boston and provides on-site elder care and other services, said Mark Hinderlie, Hearth's chief executive officer. "We've looked around, and there really isn't anyone else out there with our focus on providing housing along with healthcare, personal care, and other things. That has gotten us a lot of national attention."
Hearth will hold its annual meeting today, and Ruth Schwartz, the executive director of Shelter Partnership Inc. in Los Angeles, will attend via videoconference.
In 2002, while on a brief visit to thank a major donor in the area, Schwartz said she was surprised to learn about efforts for the homeless in Boston.
"We have done case studies on projects in New York, San Francisco, San Diego, and Seattle, and other cities, but we didn't find any other organization that was focused solely on older homeless adults in the exhaustive way that Hearth is," Schwartz said. "Because of the excitement generated by the Hearth model, we've started moving on several projects here."
There are about 6,900 homeless people in Boston. In the city's annual homelessness census in 2004, the first time researchers categorized senior citizens in its street count, the findings indicated that about a fourth of the homeless population was at least 55, said Jim Greene, the director of the city's Emergency Shelter Commission. He said the rate has now dropped to about 18 percent because of increased outreach linked to housing.
Hearth operates seven complexes in Boston that provide housing to 136 clients. Since it was created in 1991, Hearth has served about 1,300 people through a combination of outreach and housing.
At each location there are nurses, property managers, resident assistants, personal care homemakers, overnight managers, and activity staffers. The Ruggles Affordable Assisted Living Community in Roxbury is the first such facility in the state exclusively for low-income and frail senior citizens who had been homeless. Hearth also operates two homes in Jamaica Plain that operate as cooperatives.
The organization relies on a $5 million budget, of which about a quarter goes to administrative costs. The rest goes toward creating a more comfortable life for the clients in their "twilight years," Hinderlie said.
Morris plans her days around making quilts, crocheting, and playing bingo at the house in the South End. With the exception of a large-screen television that dominates her living room, home is a mixture of creature comforts.
She was evicted from her home about six years ago and had to give away all her possessions because she couldn't carry them and couldn't afford to keep them in storage.
"When you're homeless, people think you're nobody." she said. "No one plans to be homeless." 