Oct 30, 2009 7:35 pm US/Eastern
Budget Cuts Will Take Toll On Homeless Shelters
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
A shelter already overflowing with need, will soon have even less to offer.
The Pine Street Inn is taking a big hit thanks to the State's budget cuts. By their estimate, they are losing $1.7 million or 12 percent of their remaining budget this year.
It;s money they say they don't have.
"It's sizable and significant and I don't see how, before the winter, we can enact any of this and I don't want to put people out when 5 degrees below zero," said Lyndia Downie.
Stan Dymek is a guest at the shelter. He has two Harvard degrees and was a successful engineer. He lost his job, his pension and has no family.
Stan has stayed at the Inn for the past two years on and off. It has given him a place to go, it has given him a chance.
"If you have no idea where you will spend the night it makes it rough," said Stan
The problem isn't the cut, say officials but the size of the cut.
Shelter officials believe they are taking a bigger hit than other human services agencies and want to know why.
"We were willing to take cuts, but we took a disproportionate amount... 93 percent of the cuts in that account are on the backs on homeless men and women and we don't understand that," said Downie.
She hopes the Governor will reconsider, or they will have to cut beds and services with winter right around the corner.
The shelter has received the same funding for the past eight years and it was already operating at a deficit.
30 other homeless shelters in Massachusetts are facing similar situations.
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