MOURNING THE DEATHS OF TWO HOMELESS MEN
Shannon Lally, Orion Adey die hours apart on Friday
LOWELL >> In life, Shannon Lally was a mass of complications and contradictions. He had a reputation for both sweetness and belligerence, of lucidity and disordered behavior. But he was best known for almost a decade of living on the streets of Downtown Lowell, sitting on a bench or sprawled out on a section of sidewalk, copping for spare change or a cup of coffee.
Lally died early afternoon on Sept. 29, following an unspecified medical emergency. According to witnesses, he collapsed in front of the former Lowell Five Bank on John Street not far from Boarding House Park. Lowell police, fire and Pridestar Trinity EMS responded, but were unable to revive him. He was 48 years old.
WCAP 980 AM Morning Show host Gerry Nutter last saw Lally panhandling in front of the radio station on Market Street.
“For whatever reason Shannon was always decent to me and always very appreciative when I gave him food or a couple dollars,” Nutter said by text. “In fact, last Wednesday, he stopped me and I told him I didn’t have anything and he said ‘that’s OK. I just wanted to thank you for all the times you’ve treated me so nice.’ When we left the studio Thursday morning, Ray Boutin, who brings us Cote’s Market food gave Shannon the rest of the spinach pies, and all likelihood that was his last meal. It’s a nice memory.”
Following Lally’s death, a memorial was set up on a bench on John Street. An array of brightly-colored flowers decorated the length of the bench, as did a balloon, stating “I love you.”
The memorial also included a photo of Lally lying on a pile of blankets, propped along a fence running next to a sidewalk. In his hands is a sign that states,
“Welcome to Paradise.”
Several people stopped to check out the memorial on Sunday afternoon. Most of them had good things to say about Lally.
“I always saw him up there,” said one man, pointing toward Merrimack Street. “It’s sad.”
Sitting nearby the memorial on Sunday was Marvin Winston, another man who has become a staple of the streets of Downtown Lowell. Winston said he had known Lally since he started living on the street about 15 years ago.
“Nice guy, man,” Winston said. “He’s been homeless for a long time and never complained about it. He was always in a good mood.”
Lowell Police Deputy Superintendent Mark Leblanc could not be reached for comment, but Winston said he believes Lally was smoking marijuana that might have been laced with fentanyl.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is prescribed to treat severe pain, and is used mostly in the treatment of cancer patients. It is a potent narcotic — almost 100 times stronger than morphine and can be used to lace street drugs and marijuana with sometimes deadly results.
Lally was the second death of an unhoused person in Downtown Lowell on Friday. Winston said Orion Adey, 33, died at the Lowell Transitional Living Center on Middlesex Street, almost a mile from where Lally was found. Photos of Adey were included in the memorial, and Isaiah Stephens, the managing director of LTLC, confirmed his death.
“We at LTLC are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of both Shannon and Orion,” Stephens said by email. “Being unhoused doesn’t make a person worthless. They are human just like us. Shannon was an institution at LTLC during winter protocol. Orion was a sweetheart. While neither has stayed at the Center in quite some time, they would both occasionally stop by for toiletries or just to say hello. Both of these men were caring and genuine. Both of these men had hopes and dreams. Our hearts go out to their loved ones, and we wish them nothing but comfort and strength in this difficult time.”
Except for raw head counts, Lowell does not provide publicly available homeless demographics. Without metrics, it’s hard to determine whether the same-day deaths are a routine occurrence or a harbinger of a more troubling trend such as drug exposure, lack of health care or other conditions that plague a community that generally lives on the fringes of society.
As of Sept. 12, the city’s
Homeless Initiatives tracker listed a total of 291 individual homeless (excluding unhoused families with children), of whom 165 — like Lally — are unsheltered. That figure represents a 41-person increase over the July numbers.
Since January, the city has cleared at least four major ad-hoc homeless encampments, including Plain Street off the Lowell Connector in the first two weeks of the new year; the so-called Dog Park in Centralville, which was cleared in June; South Common, which was cleared in July; and Kyan Street under the Acre neighborhood’s School Street Bridge in September.
The LPD has increased its surveillance of known gathering places of the unhoused population to police open-air drug and alcohol use.
But with the number of people in need of shelter almost double the available resources, doorways, park benches and other outdoor spaces in Lowell act as de facto housing for the at-risk population.
LTLC’S winter protocol plan, which runs November through March, aims to ensure a warm, safe bed for unhoused individuals. The Winter Bed Program adds at least 80 to 100 extra cots for anyone seeking shelter form the cold.
Currently, there are 12 agencies, churches and social service organizations in Lowell that provide unhoused individuals with winter outreach, shelter and services, but only one — the Lowell Transitional Living Center — provides overnight shelter in the city.
The client-centered emergency shelter, based on Middlesex Street, has provided shelter and care to adults for 35 years. It was founded in 1986 in response to the number of homeless individuals living on the streets of Lowell, and is now the largest homeless shelter and support organization north of Boston.
Neither next of kin nor funeral arrangements could be for found for either Lally or Adey, but Brew’d Awakening Coffeehaus owner Andy Jacobson remembered Lally as a “unique individual.”
“He had his battles which anyone who met him knows,” Jacobson said by text on Monday. “He has been coming to the store for years, several times a day. Over the years I have interacted with him at the store. And if you respected him, despite sometimes being tough on him, he respected you back. I was always amazed that somehow he remembered names, faces and a little fact about those with whom he interacted. He always was friendly and said hello to customers while sitting on the couch drinking a coffee and eating a grilled ham & cheese. It is sad to hear about his passing. But at least he is at peace now.”
Reporter Aaron Curtis contributed to this story.