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…
Mobile outreach van, team serving the homeless suspended until further notice
The Action for Boston Community Development Mobile Homeless Outreach Team (MHOT), a program serving homeless people in Greater Boston’s Mystic Valley region , has temporarily suspended its services as the program looks for donations to keep the van running. Spare Change News highlighted the program in March when it lost funding from the federal government…
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…
After the smoke has cleared: Following a weekend of displacement, Merrimack Valley families still await gas, reimbursement and a return to normalcy
The line outside the Lawrence Senior Center was dozens of people deep the Saturday after a series of gas leaks and fires displaced thousands of families in the Merrimack Valley. Photo: Alejandro Ramirez. Intro: Thursday night evacuation Around three in the afternoon on Thursday, Sept. 13, a detective at Yahaira Ramos’s home in the southern…
Massachusetts Housing Program is Finalist for $100,000 Prize
The Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance’s “Pay for Success” program is one of the top 10 finalists for the $100,000 Drucker Prize award. The Drucker Institute recognizes non-profit organizations at a national level. Peter Drucker helped create philosophical and practical base for contemporary business and established the institute that has awarded the prize over the…