The latest appointee to the city's Emergency Shelter Commission has plenty of experience dealing with the problems of people who have no place to go _ he's been homeless himself for the past two years. Michael McGuire, 71, who immigrated from Northern Ireland to the United States 37 years ago and worked as a house painter for much of his life, was appointed to the commission by Mayor Raymond Flynn. The mayor announced the appointment at a Thanksgiving dinner at the Long Island Hospital Shelter, where McGuire has lived for the past year. City officials had decided to appoint a homeless person to the panel and McGuire impressed the mayor with his ability to get along with people and his concern on the issue of homelessness, said commission director Ann Maguire. ``He is someone who had been working his whole life and, all of a sudden, he became homeless. That is a perspective that is a little different than other people we're dealing with,'' she said. McGuire said he hopes to make the most of his new position. ``I'll try to do what I can,'' he told The Boston Globe in a story published Saturday. ``I'm not a politician. ... I'm a nice guy and I'm not trouble. Maybe I can help people.'' McGuire said he is content at the shelter: ``Everybody is friendly, the nurses are lovely and they don't holler at you.'' However, he said the menu could use a little revision. ``You get a lot of macaroni here,'' he said. ``Let's see a hamburger once in a while.'' He also would like to see things like a pool table, table tennis, shuffleboard and card tables at the shelter. And he would like to move into an apartment of his own. McGuire, who was divorced about 25 years ago and has four children living in Florida, said in a telephone interview Saturday that he moved from Florida to New Jersey in the 1970s, and retired in 1977. He wouldn't say where he lived in New Jersey. He said trouble began two years ago when he came to Boston by train with a casual acquaintance he met in Penn Station in New York City. After he got off the train, his friend disappeared and he found himself stranded in a city where he knew no one. He said he started drinking and hanging out in the street. Police referred him to Boston City Hospital where he was directed to the Long Island Hospital shelter. The other commission members are a minister and representatives of the city Department of Health and Hospitals, the city Public Facilities Department and the Pine Street Inn shelter.
