Before Christmas, a survey found that 74 percent of people were worried about the levels of homelessness in Britain. The survey, commissioned by the charity Crisis, measured attitudes towards the 236,000 people experiencing homelessness across Great Britain today, and its findings seemed positive – 61 percent of people felt “angry, upset or frustrated” about homelessness…
News
Cambridge votes to add gender neutral option to birth certificates
The Cambridge City Council voted unanimously last Monday to draft a home-rule petition allowing residents to amend birth certificates to a third gender category, “X,” rather than male or female, as well as streamlining the change process. The proposed bill is intended to accommodate residents who identify as neither exclusively male nor female and to…
Boston receives millions to support chronically homeless in the city
Boston has been selected as one of the communities to receive federal funding from HUD for the creation of housing and to support homeless assistance programs. Mayor Martin Walsh announced the funding in a press release on Wednesday which states that nearly $26.3 million will be used to benefit Boston’s Way Home, a program dedicated…
The True Cost of Food
How much would you expect to pay for the most basic plate of food? The kind of thing you might whip up at home – nothing fancy, just enough to fill you up and meet a third of today’s calorie needs. A soup, maybe, or a simple stew – some beans or lentils, a handful…
Local groups call to end Southeast Asian Deportation
About 50 protestors gathered outside the Bristol County Jail and House of Corrections in North Dartmouth, Mass. on the evening of January 23, to raise awareness on the deportation of Southeast Asians and to demand that the Sheriff’s office end its partnership with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “It’s important for us to…
Boston sees continued success housing the homeless, but still more work to do
Mayor Marty Walsh at the 2014 opening of Southampton Street Shelter. Photo: Zengzheng Wang. On Thursday, Boston officials announced that their push to end chronic individual homelessness has resulted in housing 301 individuals since the start of 2016. This is in addition to the 846 veterans they have housed since 2015. The new numbers reflect…
Elizabeth Warren kicks off campaign in Lawrence
Elizabeth Warren made her presidential campaign official in Lawrence, at a Saturday morning kick-off event that alluded to the mill city’s history of labor strikes and long lineage of immigrant communities. The Massachusetts senator’s speech was full of talking points on issues ranging from corruption in Washington, D.C. to the racial wealth gap. But it…
Horace Seldon: Fighting Injustice, Celebrating Civil Disobedience
Horace Seldon was happily lying on his back, waving his hands and feet in the air the first time Shay Stewart-Bouley saw him. Shay was just starting out as Executive Director of Community Change, Inc., the anti-racism non-profit Horace founded in 1968, and she was at the organization’s forty-fifth anniversary party. It also happened to…
Arts & Culture
Buy Me Boston: Brian Coleman’s new book is a ‘love letter’ to the city’s past
Brian Coleman Rat Sign. Photo by Margot Edwards It may be tough to believe for those who weren’t there, but the Celtics weren’t the only thing happenin’ in the city of Boston throughout the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s – and local historian Brian Coleman is here to remind us of that. Coming in the form…
Buy Me Boston: Brian Coleman’s new book is a ‘love letter’ to the city’s past
Brian Coleman Rat Sign. Photo by Margot Edwards It may be tough to believe for those who weren’t there, but the Celtics weren’t the only thing happenin’ in the city of Boston throughout the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s – and local historian Brian Coleman is here to remind us of that. Coming in the form…
Bill Murray chats about his late-career dive into music
Bill Murray and Jan Vogler Bill Murray is on the road. Calling from Charlotte, North Carolina, where it’s well after midnight, he and classical cellist Jan Vogler are winding down after a performance on their unusual tour, which sees the famously quirky movie star singing – yes, singing – and reciting literature with a chamber…
‘Friends’ Star Inspired to Action by Friend’s Homelessness
David Schwimmer, former star of “Friends,” turned his artistic talent to telling stories that highlight the struggle of homeless people after discovering that his friend had been living on Skid Row, hiding his homelessness even from those who knew him best. Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons “I had a friend who was homeless for two…
She’s the Boss: Alyssa Milano Talks #Metoo, Acting, and Mental Health
Photo – Wiki Media Commons Alyssa Milano used her celebrity for good when a Tweet she sent last October helped bring attention to Tarana Burke’s #MeToo campaign, transforming it into a global social media movement. She was also a vocal opponent to the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. But the actor has been…
Columns
As MBTA fares increase, so do state house salaries
As news broke this week about the MBTA proposing another fare hike, I found myself thinking about the salary increase over at the State House. Yes, folks, in a move that has went largely ignored by local media and a few others, the State Legislators have once again voted to give themselves pay raises. Gov.…
Bizarre Boston: Raising Hell at Harvard
When I think about college students raising hell, I picture kegs of beer, red plastic Solo cups and loud music. Oh, and maybe a beer funnel or two. In my mind, the phrase “raising hell” is just a metaphor for having a wild time. However, maybe it’s not always just a metaphor. For some Harvard…
Letter From Utuado, Puerto Rico
You once said “My reward for this life will be a thousand pounds of dirt shoveled in my face.” You were wrong. You are seven pounds of ashes in a box; a Puerto Rican flag wrapped around you next to a red brick from the house in Utuado where you were born, all crammed…
LAST WORD: Christina Sukghian Houle
About a month ago, an artist called Christina Sukhgian Houle dropped into the Spare Change News’ headquarters to meet with some of the vendors. Christina has joined forces with the newspaper’s co-founder, James Shearer, with the goal of making a documentary on homelessness in the Boston area. Christina is a relatively recent transplant to Greater…
As MBTA fares increase, so do state house salaries
As news broke this week about the MBTA proposing another fare hike, I found myself thinking about the salary increase over at the State House. Yes, folks, in a move that has went largely ignored by local media and a few others, the State Legislators have once again voted to give themselves pay raises. Gov.…
Vendor Fred Boykin: Life in Dorchester, life with cancer
This is for all the victims of the world, all the people like me: we were not born with cancer, but it still chose us. You can be young or old, it still picks you. I had lung cancer at first, at the end of 2015. The hospital, Boston Medical Center, wanted to take a…
The Avoidable Crisis
Stanley Forman: 40 Years After the Soiling of Old Glory
The photo was chilling. Before a crowd of onlookers, a white man appears to be attempting to stab a black man with the tip of a flagpole. “It really showed racism,” said photographer Stanley Forman 40 years after he took the Pulitzer Prize-winning snapshot of an anti-busing protest that had turned violent. “It was whites…