Finding Homes for the Homeless

Boston’s homeless people may be without places to live, but they’re not without help. The Pine Street Inn works to provide the city’s estimated 6,000 homeless not only with shelter, but also with many other services designed to keep them off the streets.

The inn is a nonprofit group founded in 1969 by the since-deceased Paul Sullivan, a recovering alcoholic alarmed by the plight of those living on Boston’s streets.

Last year, Pine Street Inn helped 8,000 people who came through its shelters by cooking meals, providing job training, and offering housing to those who needed it, including those attempting to overcome mental illness or substance-abuse problems. The charity operates on a $30-million annual budget, garnered mostly from government funds, but with $4.5-million from private grants and donations.

The charity also offers vocational classes, which give Pine Street Inn clients the chance to learn the clothing, computer, cleaning, and food-services trades. As an incentive, Pine Street Inn provides job trainees with living quarters separate from the charity’s three homeless shelters.

The group has placed a premium on getting to people on the streets where they live. During the day, Pine Street Inn’s paid staff members hit the sidewalks in search of the city’s poorest and neediest citizens. At night, as shown here, Pine Street Inn workers get mobile, using two vans to patrol Boston’s back alleys and main thoroughfares from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Financed by the city of Boston and Fleet Bank, the vans are staffed by doctors, nurses, and counselors who deliver food, clothing, and health care to those they encounter. The vans also offer the homeless transportation to clinics, shelters, and detoxification programs.