Boston's Iconic Shelter
For the exclusive use of X. LI, 2015.
HKS751
Case Number 1989.0
Budget Woes and Worse Ahead…
Pine Street Inn, Boston’s Iconic Homeless Shelter, Re-Thinks its Strategy
In the early 2000s—after a 15-year push to create emergency shelters for the burgeoning homeless population in U.S. cities—shelter funding began to decline, nationwide. For Pine Street Inn, Boston’s foremost homeless shelter, with 715 beds in five facilities, the first sign of trouble came in the form of several consecutive years of level funding. But in 2004, the situation worsened; Pine Street’s revenue dropped from $29.6 to $26.9 million. In alarm, Pine Street Inn Director Lyndia Downie and the Pine Street Board of Directors commissioned two studies in
2004 to help them make $1 million in immediate cuts to the budget and, in addition, reassess their long-term organizational strategy. One study analyzed the costs and benefits of different Pine Street programs; the other analyzed the length of stay for each newcomer to the Pine Street shelter system over a year-long period.
Both studies were useful, Downie said, but data from the latter would prove life-altering for the 40-year-old homeless shelter, locally famous for its willingness to take in the most difficult and impaired segment of the city’s
1
homeless population. Five years and one pilot project later, Pine Street was at a crossroads, as its Board considered a proposal, developed by Downie and Board Chair Mary Jo Bane, to reduce demand for its shelter beds by placing the biggest consumers of Pine Street’s shelter services—the “chronically homeless”—in supportive housing, where they would receive intensive supports, tailored to their needs. Over the next five years, Downie and
Bane hoped to increase Pine Street’s portfolio of housing by 300 units and reduce its shelter operation by 300 beds. It would mean a radical organizational change for Pine Street—shifting its longtime center of
HKS751
Case Number 1989.0
Budget Woes and Worse Ahead…
Pine Street Inn, Boston’s Iconic Homeless Shelter, Re-Thinks its Strategy
In the early 2000s—after a 15-year push to create emergency shelters for the burgeoning homeless population in U.S. cities—shelter funding began to decline, nationwide. For Pine Street Inn, Boston’s foremost homeless shelter, with 715 beds in five facilities, the first sign of trouble came in the form of several consecutive years of level funding. But in 2004, the situation worsened; Pine Street’s revenue dropped from $29.6 to $26.9 million. In alarm, Pine Street Inn Director Lyndia Downie and the Pine Street Board of Directors commissioned two studies in
2004 to help them make $1 million in immediate cuts to the budget and, in addition, reassess their long-term organizational strategy. One study analyzed the costs and benefits of different Pine Street programs; the other analyzed the length of stay for each newcomer to the Pine Street shelter system over a year-long period.
Both studies were useful, Downie said, but data from the latter would prove life-altering for the 40-year-old homeless shelter, locally famous for its willingness to take in the most difficult and impaired segment of the city’s
1
homeless population. Five years and one pilot project later, Pine Street was at a crossroads, as its Board considered a proposal, developed by Downie and Board Chair Mary Jo Bane, to reduce demand for its shelter beds by placing the biggest consumers of Pine Street’s shelter services—the “chronically homeless”—in supportive housing, where they would receive intensive supports, tailored to their needs. Over the next five years, Downie and
Bane hoped to increase Pine Street’s portfolio of housing by 300 units and reduce its shelter operation by 300 beds. It would mean a radical organizational change for Pine Street—shifting its longtime center of