Rupal Ramesh Shah People experiencing homelessness often have difficulty accessing basic medical services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed several guidelines to ensure the unhoused are prioritized during vaccine implementation. One of them is to work with Continuum of Care Programs, which promote community-wide efforts to end homelessness and address…
Poetry By Carolyn Gregory
ARM IN ARM (for Oscar Wilde) Oscar, I would have lovedto have a date with youon Valentine’s Day.We would have walkedarm in arm in Dublin,dressed like dandies. Your wit would have floored meas you picked on the cell phone junkiesand girls in stilettos.You might have pointed out a boyor two with promise. You talked about…
Spare Change News
On Thanksgiving 2021, dozens of people gathered near the intersection of Baoston’s “Mass and Cass” in the area often referred to as “Methadone Mile.” They carried with them 230 bags packed with socks, gloves, and other supplies to be distributed to the area’s unhoused people — on the street, local shelters, and the New England…
“They Were Locked In, We Were Locked Out”: A Story of Lockdown and Homelessness in Harvard Square
It was 22 March 2020. There were about 12 of us living in the shelter. Saturday morning was our last day there. We had no place to go. It would be my first day outside with nothing open, no restrooms, no place to sit and have a hot cup of tea, it really was hard…
With Spare Change News closed, a local fund awards one SCN vendor-writer a way to pay rent
Governor Baker’s March 23 emergency order for all non-essential businesses to close impacted Spare Change News and its vendors like myself significantly. Spare Change News closed its doors for 11 weeks and reopened Friday, June 12. Over the past three months, I sold older back issues to the public in my Coolidge Corner, Brookline spot.…
The history of homelessness in the US rears its head in the face of COVID-19
Many will not remember this, but before the early 1980s, there weren’t millions of homeless people in the United States. Far too many lived in poverty, but people were not forced to live in the streets. The advent of contemporary homelessness is well documented. It was created by a federal government response to what was,…
Addressing Poverty Through Policy Reform
Statewide Poverty Action Network (Poverty Action) understands that the root causes of issues such as homelessness are policies that only benefit a small and elite group of people that have put them in place. According to Adriana Lasso-Harrier, the communications manager of the organization, the goal of Poverty Action is to make policy changes that…
Progressives in Congress try to protect homeless, prevent more homelessness
Editor’s Note: For the first time in its nearly 30 year history, Spare Change News if off the streets. While we want our vendors to earn a living, we don’t want them to risk their health to do so. In an effort to provide them with some kind of income while the pandemic rages, we’ve…
Homeless in a pandemic: How do you distance yourself when there’s no place to go?
Jerry (foreground) came to Boston from Puerto Rico six years ago because there is more help to be had in Boston, although “not so much,” he admits. Photo By Luis Edgardo Cotto. One of the populations most vulnerable to the coronavirus is that of the homeless living in Boston, a city with over 2,000 cases…
Former hospital building reopens as homeless shelter sees first case of COVID-19
Pine Street Inn, New England’s largest homeless shelter, has reported its first case of coronavirus among its guests. The person who contracted COVID-19, the illness caused by coronavirus, stayed at a number Boston-area shelters, including Pine Street Inn, according to a statement issued by the shelter on March 26. The individual who tested positive is…