FITCHBURG - At 54, Jackie L. Hensley never imagined she would be living in a homeless shelter, but said she is glad Our Father’s House is there with the subzero temperatures in the region.
Not wanting to be a burden to her adult daughters who both live out of state, Ms. Hensley started sleeping in her car on Clinton Street in September 2016. That was the area she knew, she said, close to her former Congress Street apartment where she was evicted from after a drug raid where police found bullets in her apartment.
Placed on probation with no place to live and dealing with a crack cocaine addiction, she slept in her car until November that year when she started sleeping in the upstairs hallway cubby of an acquaintance’s home. She would later have a bed to sleep in at another friend’s house, where she remained drug-free until she was told she had to leave. Back living in her car from spring through the summer of 2017, she began using, again, and police told Ms. Hensley she could no longer live in her car.
“Someone complained,” she said at Our Father’s House, that is open 24/7 during record-breaking low temperatures the day after a snowstorm that dumped more than a foot of snow on the region. “They said their kids couldn’t play outside. If anything, I would protect their children, not hurt them. People are afraid of homeless people, but they don’t realize they are just one paycheck away from being where I am.”
She slept in an empty lot near her car on pieces of foam with comforters. Friends would bring her food at times and she would stop at Our Father’s House at night to get food. Struggling with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder from childhood trauma, Ms. Hensley said she was sexually assaulted while going to the bathroom behind a building close to where she slept.
Seven weeks ago, she stopped using drugs and moved into the shelter.
“If it wasn’t for Our Father’s House, I would be out in the cold and dead by now,” she said. “Kevin (MacLean, director of homeless services) does a great job. It is a stable environment. I haven’t used in seven weeks since I’ve been here.”
Previously, she said she would hang out in parks during the day, at the bus station, a coffee shop if she could find money for a coffee, or the library.
“You find a lot of homeless people at the library during the day,” Ms. Hensley said. “You find a book and act like you’re reading it. Unfortunately, there is no place around here for people to go if you’re homeless. There is a need for people like Kevin to give us a place to go.”
“I’m extremely grateful to be here right now,” she added. “I can’t imagine being out in the weather like this. I don’t know how I would survive it.”
Mr. MacLean said people staying at the 28-bed shelter usually have to find someplace to go during the day until the shelter opens in the evening, but during the brutal cold, the shelter is staying open to its clients all day. He said there are a few beds available.
People try to force their standards on the homeless, he said, expecting that they go inside during frigid temperatures, but they cannot be forced to come indoors.
“The homeless are survivors,” he said. “We put a lot of our standards on them and say they should not sleep outside in sub-zero temperatures, but some of the people I’m engaged with didn’t want to come in.”
About 40 homeless people live outside in the Fitchburg/Leominster/Gardner area, he said, and likely 40 others he doesn’t know about.
Shelter life isn’t for everyone, he said.
“This is the first year that I’m actually worried,” he said. “I spoke with Fitchburg officials last week and said we have to do something or I’m afraid we’ll find somebody dead in the spring.”
Mr. MacLean partnered with the city and Salvation Army to set up a warming station where people can grab some soup, blankets, coats and just warm up.
The warming station, manned by volunteers, is open noon to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday, 739 Water St., at the Fitchburg Salvation Army.
“But there are still die-hards who won’t come inside,” he said. “We’re dealing with a lot of mental illness and substance abuse. For me to say, ‘Come inside,’ it’s not an option for some. They don’t like the idea of conformity and walls around them. That’s what we think makes sense, but it’s not what makes sense to some of the people who we work with.”
He said the United Way also provides money for Our Father’s House and other organizations to pay for hotel rooms for people who are homeless and are at “imminent risk of death” if there are no shelter beds available.
“You have to be homeless,” he said. “Some people call up and say, ‘I’m homeless,’ and not every agency has the manpower to verify their story. There is abuse. If you’re doubled up living with friends or not in a situation you like and you can convince them you are homeless and stay in a hotel for a week, you might do it.”
Despite the bitter cold, Mr. MacLean, who has worked at the shelter eight years, said his job is easier in winter because he can follow footsteps in the snow or see more clearly with no vegetation.
“It is easier to check on homeless camps during the day, but it’s all about timing” he said. “Sometimes I’ll go back five times and not find someone and leave my information. I do my best to get them to come in for a few days. Some people like to stay near the methadone clinic and camp out in walking distance of the Fitchburg clinic. It is their routine to wake up, get their dose and go about their business. One guy I engaged in his tent didn’t want to open the tent because he didn’t want to let cold air in. He said, ‘I’m OK in here, warm under the blankets.’ It was -6 (degrees) out.”