Last week I went to a Boston City Council meeting where Annissa Essaibi-George presented a resolution to double-down on the council’s efforts to address hunger and homelessness. It’s a nice gesture, and I believe the councilor’s heart is in the right place. Some may see it, though, as a photo-op. Others may be even more…
Most Mass. communities fall short of state affordable housing goal
The Comprehensive Permit Act, usually called 40B, set a goal for Massachusetts towns and cities nearly five decades ago: develop at least 10 percent of local housing to be affordable in the long term for low or middle income residents. As of a late 2017 Department of Housing and Community Development report, just 67 of…
Ending Youth Homelessness: An Interview With the Associate Director of the Massachusetts Homeless Coalition
Kelly Turley (second from right), Associate Director of the Massachusetts Homeless Coalition, talks to Spare Change News about the challenge of ending youth homelessness in the Commonwealth. On any given night in Massachusetts, hundreds of unaccompanied young adults and youth are homeless for a variety of reasons. According to the 2017 Massachusetts Youth Count conducted by…
Mental Health is Not Just ‘A White Person Thing’
Dior Vargas is a Latina feminist mental health activist whose work has appeared in publications such as Forbes, Newsweek and The Guardian, and whose many awards include her being named the White House Champion of Change for Disability Advocacy Across Generations. But in 2014, before any of this, she was searching for a way to…
Moving Forward Without Forgetting Those We’ve Lost
Hello dear friends, supporters, and advocates of the Homeless Empowerment Project! My name is Mimi Bouchouar, and it is with great pleasure and joy that I introduce myself to you as the new Executive Director of the Homeless Empowerment Project, publisher of Spare Change News. I am ecstatic and grateful to be a part of…
Boston law firm sues gas company over death of Lawrence resident
On October 25, a Boston law firm announced their plan to sue Columbia Gas for the death of a teenger during the fires and explosions that rocked the Merrimack Valley in September. The Sheff Law firm will represent the estate of Leonel Rondon, an 18-year-old Lawrence high schooler who was crushed by debris when visiting…
Fenway area fires displace 100 residents
On Oct. 27 at 3:15 p.m., a seven-alarm fire broke out at a five-story apartment building on 104 and 108 Hemenway Street due to an electrical issue. The fire displaced up to 100 residents, many of whom were Northeastern University and Berklee College of Music students. The day the fire , an estimated 10 residents…
Stagnant Wages and Rising Rents Squeeze the Middle Class Out of Boston
Boston, and Massachusetts overall, have been outpacing the country on low unemployment numbers and providing housing for the poor, but a new report suggests that this growth is largely limited to the wealthy, and that upward mobility is on the decline. A new poverty report from the Boston Foundation’s research center titled “Boston’s Booming…But for…
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…
Different perspectives: “Repicturing Homeless” photo project shows homeless people in a new light
Karl Heinz on the streets. Photos by Frank Schemmann, Getty/Havas Clothes make the man, and the vendors over at fiftyfifty, a fellow street paper, had the chance to experience this principle first-hand as the subjects of an unusual photo shoot. Advertising agency Havas collaborated with the world’s leading photo agency Getty Images to create a completely…