DeLong says it was an unpleasant stay at a Boston homeless shelter that instigated her political awareness of the plight of the homeless.

"I hated their condescending attitude," DeLong says. "It gave me the first glimpse that I was still a human being--upset at not being treated as an equal."

She says the incident gave her "a healthy dose of reality" and motivated her to "use my skills for getting things started that I learned at Harvard."

She used these skills to help found Bread & Jams, an organization that serves meals on the Cambridge Commons and provides transportation to shelters at night.

DeLong says the organization where she presently works, the Cambridge Furniture Bank, serves 800 households a year and provides stable and temporary employment to 65 people.

"We provide for people moving from homelessness to housing," she says.

DeLong says she is also the executive director of Solutions, the agency which runs the Furniture Bank, as well a group that provides moving aids for the disabled and a children's clothing exchange.

She says Solutions and the Furniture Bank are run mainly by individuals who are either homeless or formerly homeless, "developing and implementing their own solutions."

DeLong says many of the clients give back their time to the Bank after receiving furniture. "Then they move on to the next step of their lives," she says.

She says the Bank's greatest difficulty is maintaining funds and paying its own employees decent wages. She says the budget for last year was only $32,000.

"We need money desperately," she says, "and we definitely need furniture. I have had to cash in my retirement and savings to keep the bank going."

Macy says Harvard students have worked with the Bank in various capacities over recent years.

For the past two years, Harvard's First year Urban Program (FUP) and the Alternative Spring Break Program have contributed time to the Bank. DeLong says that Harvard's 5th and 25th year reunion classes will also work at the Bank this year.

FUP leader Ilana S. Ruskay '94, who worked at the Bank this fall, says she was impressed with both DeLong and her work.

"She's amazing a remarkable human being, committed to helping others," Ruskay says. "She has a tremendous amount of vision."