In Massachusetts, frigid temps drive homeless indoors, strain heating budgets
For the past three winters, Ishmael Rodriguez has spent most winter nights in Boston sneaking into bus stations for a few hours after midnight and riding the red and orange T lines as soon as they open in the morning. But during especially frigid weeks, like this one, temperatures dipping to the teens push him inside churches and shelters.
Across New England, which has some of the harshest winters in the country, the high cost of living in areas like Boston has made it harder for residents to afford heating bills or access warm shelter. In Massachusetts, nearly 30,000 people experienced homelessness in 2024 while 10% of the state's population lives in poverty, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census, respectively.
This week, Massachusetts residents are conserving heat in their homes to avoid exorbitant electric bills. Freezing weather has also brought Boston's unhoused communities to a standstill, as people stay put for periods in shelters and warming centers.
“At night it’s very, very brutal," said Rodriguez, 58, who has been homeless since 2021 when he lost his job on the kitchen staff at Boston's Suffolk University.
Temperatures will remain well below freezing through Thursday, and there's a chance of snow this weekend, a trend that's persisted all week.
Like Boston, other Massachusetts cities including Worcester and Lowell have funds available for hundreds of families who need help paying for heat. But some people don't have electricity or a proper heating system, said Alex Porteleki, who manages a hardware store in the Boston neighborhood of Roslindale.
So far this month, Porteleki said he's seen four people purchase miniature propane tanks to power portable camping heaters.
“We do get people coming in here who look like they’re living outside," Porteleki, 49, told Paste BN.
'There is compassion'
On Wednesday, Rodriguez was eating pretzels, drinking coffee and making crafts at Emmanuel Church, an episcopal congregation nestled between Boston's upscale Back Bay and Beacon Hill neighborhoods.
Rodriguez said he prefers to live outside most of the year because there are too many people with mental health problems in the city's shelters. In recent years, there are also new crowds of migrants bused from the southern border, he said.
But "this week has been very, very cold and I don’t stay outside," Rodriguez told Paste BN over a phone interview from the church's warming center.
He's stayed at a few other warming hubs, including some that just offer people a place to lay on the ground and send them on their way in the morning, he said.
“You have heat but then at a certain point you have to go," Rodriguez said. “There is compassion but it needs to be more.”
Winter brings memories of homeless neighbors
This winter, Emmanuel Church Events Administrator Robb Scholten said he's grateful a homeless woman who lived outdoors in the neighborhood for 14 years recently got a subsidized apartment of her own.
"At least I know she's OK," Scholten, 58, told Paste BN.
Emmanuel Church's warming center, a space open during winter months for people seeking refuge indoors, had about 65 visitors Wednesday, including Rodriguez. That number is usually closer to 100, but it was so cold in Boston this week that homeless service providers throughout the city told people to stay put at all costs and not venture out of homeless shelters for errands.
"This community usually spends a lot of time on the streets traveling from one event to another," Scholten told Paste BN. "They know they can get a free lunch one place and dinner another place."
In Roslindale, Porteleki said he still thinks about a well-liked homeless man in the neighborhood who would visit the Ace Hardware store. When the man was living out of his car during the winter of 2007, he died overnight after the vehicle ran out of gas, Porteleki said.
"He just didn't wake up one morning," Porteleki said.
Cold homes and electric heaters
Because much of New England's housing stock is so old, residents often struggle to heat their dwellings effectively, Porteleki said. If you're not careful, you could wind up with a "four-digit" heating bill, he said.
Scholten said he turns down the heat in his home as low as he can stand it overnight, and during the day while he's at work. It just "doesn't make sense" to pay for any heat while he's not home, he said.
Porteleki said throughout New England, people with enough housing but not enough income to meet other needs are going without adequate heat right now, turning down thermostats as low as possible without risking frozen pipes. Whole sections of homes are "no-go zones" this week, he said, and people are likely huddling next to portable electric heaters plugged into the wall, wrapped in blankets.
"People are suffering in that regard too," Porteleki said.