Nora Lee Davis is not ashamed to say it: she’s a homeless person in Boston. She made mistakes. She mismanaged her finances. She funneled her money into a nasty drug habit that caused her to lose her home. But she isn’t ready to be written off yet. As she puts it, "A mistake put me here, that’s all. I’m still a good person."

Davis, a 55-year-old retired machinist from Detroit, is one of the 1000 women who have recently turned for shelter to the Pine Street Inn, a 110-bed homeless women’s shelter in Boston. Lately, while participating in one of Pine Street’s three two-year transitional programs, she has rediscovered her zest for life — her love of knitting, food, music, dancing. "I love life," Davis enthuses. "I really do."

And that’s one of the messages she hopes to impart this Thursday, when she will speak at a benefit in honor of Pine Street’s 10th anniversary. Ever grateful to the organization’s staff for helping her regain her footing, Davis has agreed to share her struggle at the April 25 event at the Westin Copley Place hotel — something that she’d have never imagined even six months ago.

Back then, she had pretty much hit rock bottom. Her addiction to crack had led to a host of health ailments, including bacterial spinal meningitis, pneumonia, and heart trouble. After hanging around the wrong crowd for "far too long," Davis got behind on her bills, was robbed, and lost her housing in the spring of 2000. "It went downhill from there," she says. "I lost my spirit. I just lost all hope."

Eventually, she fled her family and friends in Detroit because, she says, "everybody I knew dealt with some type of drug." The environment, in other words, was too tempting. Soon she was hopping from place to place, from Wichita Falls to Chicago to Atlanta. She made her way to Boston last November, seeking shelter from the cold in the downtown Greyhound bus terminal. But as night fell, a police officer approached. "He told me, ‘You have to go,’ " she recalls. "He said, ‘You’ve been here all day. You can’t be here anymore.’ " Rather than simply shoo Davis away, the officer escorted her to Pine Street, where she’s resided ever since.

For her, Pine Street has been an inspiration. Its counselors have helped her rebuild her life. Under a program for older homeless women, she now works at the inn, folding towels, mopping floors, and making beds. She earns $5.25 per hour, a nominal portion of which goes to pay her rent. She attends 12-step classes for recovering addicts. With the aid of Pine Street, which she calls "the best shelter in Boston," she says, "I can now say I will never, ever go back to drugs again. Ever. My life has changed."

While things are looking up for Davis, her work at the shelter has made her acutely aware of the state of homelessness in Boston. "It’s very bad," she says. On the night of December 10, 2001, in fact, the City of Boston’s annual homeless census counted as many as 1427 homeless women — a 77 percent increase from a decade ago. Every day, Davis sees the demand for shelter beds far outstrip the supply. "There are a lot of new faces here," she says. "They come and have to wait for beds. Everyone knows Pine Street is about the best shelter in Boston." Obviously, she adds, "they need more shelters like Pine Street in the city."

The Pine Street Inn benefit dinner will be held on Thursday, April 25, at the Westin Copley Place hotel. For more information or for tickets, call the inn at (617) 482-4994, or donate online by visiting its Web site at www.pinestreetinn.org.