he region's dominant electric utility company yesterday told
one of the city's largest homeless shelters it plans to cut off its
electricity next week.
NStar won't treat the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans, which
houses hundreds of the city's homeless every night, differently than any
other client, officials there said yesterday. For years, the shelter has
owed the utility more than $150,000, and the utility wants its money.
''The bottom line is: When you sell something, you get paid for it,''
said Mike Monahan, NStar's spokesman. ''We're going to cut them off.
That's the notice. They have to pay. We have done everything we can do to
resolve this.''
If NStar follows through with its threat, shelter officials said they
would effectively be shut down. The lights would go out. Their
refrigerators, where they stock food for about 350 people every day, would
lose power. All the computers would go down. The elevators in the 10-story
building off Government Center, necessary for scores of disabled vets,
would stop running.
''We lose our electric power, the whole place collapses,'' said Jim
McIsaac, the shelter's chief executive and a retired Navy captain.
''Everyone else has been working with us, but the truth is we're going
through very hard times. We have absolutely no reserves -- we're running
on fumes.''
The reason the electric bill has ballooned -- it peaked at $250,000
before the shelter paid NStar $88,000 three weeks ago -- is the confluence
of a tight budget, rising demand for the shelter, and past mismanagement,
McIsaac said.
Like other shelters throughout Massachusetts, the veterans shelter saw
its state subsidy cut this fiscal year by 15 percent -- or about $450,000
-- to $2.1 million.
At the same time, with the city's homeless population rising to record
levels, the shelter has seen its capacity swell.
On Thursday night, for example, with state and federal dollars
supporting only 190 beds, the veterans shelter had 361 men and women
sleeping on beds and cots. At one point this winter, for the first time in
the shelter's history, people were forced to sleep on the floor.
Though the refuge is struggling with rising gas and heating bills -- it
also owes about $50,000 for steam -- it's also trying to overcome a
management problem that allowed its electric bill to lapse about five
years ago, McIsaac said. Over several months, the bill grew to more than
$100,000, and with interest compounding since, the shelter hasn't been
able to catch up with its payments.
''We're not totally innocent here,'' said McIsaac, who took over the
shelter two years ago. ''We should have come up with a payment plan and we
didn't. It's a mistake we made.''
Though McIsaac said he never received a call from NStar officials
before receiving notice yesterday, Monahan said his company has repeatedly
sought a payment plan from him over the past three months.
''They continue to owe us a substantial amount of money,'' he said.
''We serve nursing homes, hospitals, and residences, and we cannot place
the burden of that sum of money on our other customers.''
Officials at the Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services, which
oversees the shelter and provides it about $180,000 a month to cover
payroll, said they don't have problems with the current
administration.
''Every one of our service providers is having a hard time with cash
flow,'' said Tom Kelley, the veterans services commissioner. ''The truth
is the people taking care of the veterans in these shelters are angels of
mercy, and they're doing the best job they can, considering the
circumstances.''
The shelter owes NStar $162,000, McIsaac said. On Monday, he plans to
meet with the electric company's financial officers, and he hopes they'll
cut the shelter some additional slack.
''Are they really going to shut us down in the middle of the winter?''
he said. ''If they do, it would be a total social disaster.''
David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com.
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