City Armory to House New Women's Shelter

This winter the state will fund an additional 400 beds for Boston's homeless people at a cost of $1.5 million, and the city of Cambridge will provide 20 to 30 more beds for homeless women in the city's National Guard armory, a state official said yesterday.

Andrew Dreyfus, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Human Services, said the 400 extra beds will go mostly to shelters in the Braintree National Guard armory and behind the Commonwealth armory at Boston University.

The Cambridge shelter, which will admit homeless women from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m., will be open from November 15 through May 5, according to James Stewart, a local advocate for the homeless.

"This will make it possible for those Cambridge residents who can't be served in the existing system to have shelter at least for the winter," Stewart said.

Dreyfus said these beds would supplement the 25 existing state-funded shelters in Boston.

Dennis P. Culhane, an adviser to the Boston Union of the Homeless, questioned the wisdom of spending $1.5 million for shelters when, in his opinion, providing housing is the only viable solution to the problem of homelessness.

"$3700 per bed for the winter--they may as well get people apartments for that amount of money," Culhane said.

Homeless women, many of whom have been victimized by men, cars, only feel secure in single-sex shelters, said Stewart. "Ninety-nine percent of the women on the street have been abused, so it's really important to have a safe shelter where they can feel comfortable," he said.

With approximately 500 homeless people in Cambridge by the activists' estimate, and only 120 beds available, hundreds are still without shelter every night, Stewart said. That estimate is up from 300 last winter. "Every year more and more people are put out on the street; so it's a mounting crisis," he said.