News and Press Releases

Homeless advocate is honored

The Daily News Tribune, April 28, 2008
By Kerri Roche, DAILY NEWS STAFF

WALTHAM — Described by colleagues as a force to be reckoned with, Anna Bissonnette still holds onto the spitfire attitude she relied on as a founding member of a local organization driven to end elder homelessness in 1991.

Now just days away from the age of 76, Bissonnette, a Waltham resident, was honored as a "Living Legend" Friday by her peers - the Massachusetts Nursing Association.

Hearth Inc., which Bissonnette founded with six other women, has successfully provided permanent housing for more than 1,300 people in residential buildings at six sites, including Dorchester, Roxbury and the South End.

"She's like a force of nature. She has an astonishing amount of energy," said Hearth's CEO and President Mark Hinderlie.

As a public health nurse and faculty member at Boston University Medical, Bissonnette could not ignore the growing numbers of Boston's elderly homeless. In the mid-1980s, while gentrification forced many in the older population out of neighborhoods like the South End, Bissonnette treated many of those who ended up in shelters.

"There was nothing else to do except try to find programs to service these people. That's how I got into it - not because I was particularly inclined to work with the homeless, but the homeless problem happened in our midst," said Bissonnette.

Originally known as the Committee to End Elder Homelessness, seven women with experience in housing, finance, health, human services and administration, founded Hearth.

Today Bissonnette still sits on the board of directors with co-founder Ellen Feingold.

Diana Laskin Siegal, Sandra Albright, Joanne Bluestone and the late Ruth Cowin and Elsie Frank, rounded out the team of women who pioneered the services and opportunities available to the homeless.

After first setting up a program with the city's housing authority to use unoccupied apartments for temporary, transitional housing, "it wasn't long before the demand outgrew the supply," said Bissonnette, who served as the board's chairwoman for 15 years before stepping down.

Shortly after, Hearth established a small rooming house in Jamaica Plain for nine women. That was followed by the redevelopment of a warehouse in the South End, creating another 43 units of housing.

Still a part-time practicing nurse, Bissonnette offers vital experience and ideas to the newer board members, said Hinderlie.

"She's a nurse and she has a nurse's sort of unflappableness," said Hinerlie. "She really doesn't take 'No' for an answer. She can get so much done in a short period of time, it's just amazing. You really feel that you must do whatever it is. She makes you believe that things can actually happen."

Hinderlie said Bissonnette is responsible for the visible drop in elder homelessness.

During Boston's annual homeless population count, in 2002, 770 people on the streets were over 60.

Most recently, that number dropped to 70.

"We didn't do all of them, but we did a lot of them," said Hinderlie.

When Bissonnette is not spending her winters in France or time with her spouse, Marion Kenneally, she has spread her focus to teaching medical students how to administer influenza vaccinations at over-60 sites throughout the city.

She also serves on the board of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Aging Task Force, which is also a growing and unidentified problem, said Bissonnette.

"It's sort of been the story of my life identifying problems and trying to find solutions. You just can't walk away," said Bissonnette.

Although the majority of her work is centered in Boston, Bissonnette knows the homeless population extends past the city's borders.

"I live here in Waltham and I worry about the increasing number of homeless people right in our city. I would like to help out right here at home," said Bissonnette.

Preparing for her night in the spotlight at the cocktail reception, dinner and award ceremony, Bissonnette said, "Sometimes your peers are often your most incredible critics...so I see this as a very significant honor."

Kerri Roche can be reached at 781-398-8009 or kroche@cnc.com.