Winter packs homeless shelters in Western Massachusetts
January 02, 2011 at 1:12 PM
The Republican
When the first cold blast of this winter hit, Gene Jiles slept on the floor of the cafeteria at Friends of the Homeless shelter in Springfield. That’s how crowded it was.
He’s not complaining. Last year he was sleeping outdoors in the cold at Riverfront Park next to the Connecticut River.
Jiles grew up in the city’s North End neighborhood, one of nine children. He is 46, legally blind, a former drug addict. He’s seen his father maybe five times in his life.
A couple of people used to bring him sandwiches last winter by the river.
“I don’t know how I would have survived without them,” said Jiles.
Some don’t survive. Jayne DeCoste, another client at Friends of the Homeless, said a homeless friend of hers in Boston, a Vietnam Veteran, froze to death one winter.
When she was there, she used to sleep in an electric company’s substation if the door was unlocked.
“I got pneumonia in one lung,” said DeCoste, 50, who graduated from North Quincy High in eastern Massachusetts and worked as a legal secretary before drugs and alcohol brought her down.
Friends of the Homeless has 150 beds year-round, 24 more in winter.
To read more, follow this link: www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/01/winter_packs_homeless_shelters.html
Kathy Tobin
After almost thirty years covering the news for television affiliates in Western Massachusetts, Kathy joined Friends of the Homeless in the fall of 2009 to help raise money and the profile of the organization to fulfill its mission. As Director of Development, Kathy is available to help you understand the work we are doing and how you might contribute to end homelessness in our community.