As arctic cold grips Boston, volunteer group brings help to people sleeping outdoors

On a recent night — the latest in a string of dangerously cold ones — a crowd gathered on the sidewalk outside South Station in Boston. Dozens of people who are unhoused waited their turns to get help from a group of area residents who had come to hand out food and clothing.

The weekly outreach effort has become a lifeline for some. At the start of the evening, the temperature was 11 degrees.

The volunteers are with Community Offering People Encouragement, or COPE. They go to South Station every Wednesday evening, along with some Saturdays during extreme cold, to distribute items to anyone in need.

The 35 people who volunteered for this night called people up to their tables and handed out socks, underwear, hats, gloves and foot warmers, as well as toiletries. They let people pick from jackets, sweatpants, sweatshirts, boots and shoes they had laid out. They had an easy banter with the people they were helping. In some cases, they gave a hug.

At another table, they handed out bowls of homemade chicken and rice, soup, sandwiches and hot chocolate.

Bob MacMillian walked away with a pair of jeans and other clothing items,. The 69-year-old said he became homeless more than a decade ago after he lost work rehabbing houses. He doesn't like shelters, he said, because he's been in some that weren't clean. So he sleeps outdoors, moving around after he gets kicked out of places.

His big duffle bag on wheels sat near him on the sidewalk, holding blankets and two sleeping bags. But his key to getting through the worst winter nights are hand warmers — the kind that come in the little plastic packets.

"You get a bunch of them," MacMillian said. "You throw them inside your blankets."

He looks forward to the weekly arrival of the volunteers outside South Station.

"This helps us out a lot. If it wasn't for people like these people, we'd be up s--t's creek without a paddle," he said.

"There's no place I would rather be than on the sidewalk with these people. They're so kind, and they're so grateful."

Suzanne Fareri-Early

Suzanne Fareri-Early of Quincy leads COPE. She and the other volunteers call the people they help out on the streets "friends."

"There's no place I would rather be than on the sidewalk with these people," she said. "They're so kind, and they're so grateful."

Fareri-Early started the effort almost 13 years ago. She said she suddenly felt compelled to pick up some second-hand coats and take them to people on Boston Common. She asked some girlfriends to join her.

The grassroots organization now has about 150 volunteers and a warehouse to store donated items. Fareri-Early said COPE has grown so much that she plans to apply for nonprofit status.

The group eventually chose the transportation hub as the base for their outreach because people experiencing homelessness often hang out there to stay warm. Once the station closes at midnight, they have to leave. Some who aren't comfortable going to a shelter sleep on the sidewalk outside the facility, while others move to different places to hunker down.

On this night, Fareri-Early arrived with her SUV stuffed with brand new items purchased and sent by people across the country who had heard on social media about the group’s work.

"There's so many people that have relatives or kids that have untreated mental illness or alcoholism or drug addiction, and they're out here," Fareri-Early said. "That's why this is what they can do to help and feel OK in their heart and their soul. And it's heartbreaking."

Fareri-Early said she noticed a change this time among the people the group serves. Several of them were agitated. The recent stretch of arctic weather has worn them down. They're not sleeping. Some had their campsites buried in snow.

Volunteers saw one woman whose fingertips looked like they were developing frostbite. Fareri-Early and another volunteer — an EMT — got down on the floor with the woman inside South Station. They tried to convince her to go to the hospital, and she got upset, screaming that she didn't want to go.

Fareri-Early put an arm around the woman and spoke calmly. Another volunteer brought soup to help warm her up. The EMT determined her fingers would be OK. Fareri-Early later said the woman eventually became less anxious, and hugged and thanked her.

As the volunteers started to pack up, they saw one of their regular visitors, Rene Marquez. He had made it just in time.

The 43-year-old said he's been unhoused for a couple of years and that he doesn’t drink or do drugs, so he doesn't like staying in shelters with people who've been using. He gets through the extremely cold nights by moving between public places, such as the library and the bus terminal, until they close. But that means he eventually ends up outside.

He's working with case managers at some local nonprofits in hopes of securing an apartment, he said. In the meantime, the help from the COPE volunteers makes a difference.

"I'm just very grateful for them doing that. They don't have to come out," Marquez said. "If you ask them for something, they'll bring it to you."

Armed up with some warm food, new socks and restaurant gift cards, he walked off to find his next stopping place.