Anguished questions, urgent pleas for service restoration and calls for accountability rang out from the overflowing crowd of over 400 at the Blackstone Community Center on Wednesday, November 12, at a city-sponsored forum on the future of homeless and human-services programs displaced when the Long Island Bridge closed last month. According to Huy Q. Nguyen, interim executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), before the bridge closing there were an average of 450 homeless persons in shelter and an additional 265 in transitional programs on a typical night on Long Island. A range of BPHC and privately run programs for substance abuse treatment offered a wide spectrum of services including case management, addiction counseling, life and career skills training and legal advocacy. Two panels, one comprising Walsh cabinet members Nguyen, Chief of Health and Human Services Felix G. Arroyo and Public Works Commissioner Michael Dennehy; the other comprising City Councilors Ayanna Pressley, Tito Jackson, Frank Baker, Michelle Wu and Charles Yancey, addressed the crowd of former Long Island clients and service providers from Boston and the suburbs; neighborhood organization leaders and community members. Jerome Smith, the mayor's Chief of Civic Engagement, moderated the panel presentations and audience comments.

The cabinet members offered opening remarks and answered comments, while the city councilors greeted guests and listened, noting audience concerns and promising action. Responding to repeated, angry calls of "Where's the Mayor?," Smith eventually explained that Mayor Walsh could not attend because he had been released from the hospital earlier that day after treatment for kidney stones.

The forum was organized by the Mayor's office in collaboration with City Councilor at Large Ayanna Pressley, who chairs the Committee on Healthy Women, Families and Communities. State Representatives Aaron Michlewitz and Byron Rushing and Council president Bill Linehan also attended. Pressley stated, "In the short term, our priority is to make sure that everyone has access to services by December 1. In the long term, this isn't about constructing an ideal shelter; it's about creating permanent housing and access to substance-abuse treatment services." Arroyo's comment, "This is not a Boston problem, this is a regional problem," was echoed by audience members. Baker suggested reaching out to FEMA and state agencies for assistance, and several commenters wondered why this hadn't already been done. Jackson garnered cheers when he advocated using the projected $90 million cost of a new bridge to develop mixed-income housing "so that we all can live together and no one is swept to one side."

The cabinet members presented a slide show listing shelters, substance abuse and human-services sites that were shuttered by Long Island's abrupt October 8 evacuation, as well as sites that were considered as interim shelter and treatment options. A building next to the former BPHC Frontage Road methadone clinic is being considered as an emergency shelter, but a large facility on Drydock Avenue was dismissed due to the amount of work it would require to become a shelter. Ferry service to Long Island was rejected due to logistics, state licensure and cost. Dennehy said that the state Department of Public Health, which provides much of the funding for substance abuse treatment, would not license ferry-based services. Two other options in Mattapan were the BPHC-owned "Transitions building" and a former adult day center.

Homeless attendees gave disturbing accounts of sleeping outdoors at Macy's, under bridges and in the woods, where they are subject to violence, robbery and hypothermia. One woman spoke tearfully of receiving three phone calls in as many days reporting that homeless friends had died, and another put the death count at six in the month since Long Island's closing. Former Long Island client and personal care attendant Lisa Jenkins spoke of the problems of homeless women and homeless workers. Jenkins, who reported sleeping on a discarded couch in the woods, told the panels that women are underserved in shelters since Long Island closed. "I am not an uneducated woman; I am a PCA. I am a professional woman. There are a lot of women who are professionals or going to school to become professionals, and it's wrong for them to be overlooked because we are as human as men," Jenkins said. She also explained that sign-up time for shelter beds often is scheduled during the day, effectively shutting out homeless people who are at work until after the beds are assigned.

Many homeless were angry that they still have not been able to recover belongings left behind in the last-minute evacuation. Nguyen responded, "I hear that you are frustrated, I hear that you are dissatisfied, I hear the imperative for more women homeless beds and better conditions. I also hear something that I think some folks don't know: that a lot of homeless guests are working and they need to be able to access their jobs from shelter." A homeless advocate wondered how the homeless whose personal belongings and documents are still on the island can verify their homeless status so as to retain their place on the waiting list for Boston Housing Authority housing. Nguyen suggested, "Come in and speak with one of our case managers."

Addicts, mothers and counselors spoke emotionally of the need for consistent access to treatment and of overcoming their own addictions. A woman who visited Long Island many times with her addicted son pointed out that Massachusetts has an epidemic of opiate addiction and the highest overdose rate in the country. She said, "That might be an avenue to get some help financially" to restore interrupted addiction services.

The audience had many suggestions for alternative facilities, including utilizing closed public buildings for shelter. A wheelchair-bound senior who has been living outdoors asked why shuttered schools can't be used as shelters. "Would you put your mother outside if there weren't a bed available?" she asked. She said further, "Please take that $90 million dollars to fix the Long Island Bridge and spend it on housing vouchers." Longtime South Ender and engineer David Sprogis suggested requesting the Army Corps of Engineers and Seabees to help with transport to and from the island. Sprogis said, "There is a really simple solution and the fact that it has not appeared makes me wonder whether there is a different agenda going on here; whether the city wants the island available for real estate development." After more than two dozen audience comments, the session ended around 9:30 PM with a plan to create a task force including government officials, community members and human-services clients to create short- and long-term plans to restore homeless, mental health and recovery services.