According to the report, 60 percent of homeless people in the state are children; 7,800 of the 13,000 people currently on the streets in Massachusetts. Photo by pikespice – Wikipedia Commons Family homelessness has spiked in Massachusetts, according to a report released by The Boston Foundation on February 23. The report—which the foundation contributed data to…
Schools Programs Keep Hunger and Homelessness From Derailing Local Students
Bunker Hill Community College student Michael Curran knows what it’s like to be homeless and struggling in school. Curran, 28, of Medford, is among the many students who rely on the college’s Single Stop program for food and other resources to get by in life and in school. When asked how often he comes to…
OUT ON HER OWN: A Story of LGBTQ Youth Homelessness
Photo by Mike DeSocio. Author’s Note: The central character in this story, Liniște, asked that she be referred to by a pseudonym for safety reasons. I met Liniște in September and spent five months following her throughout various parts of her life, closely observing her experiences with homelessness and sexuality. This approach seemed most appropriate…
Harvard Law Students partner with Spare Change News
Harvard Law students Antoine Southern and Anne Rosenblum will be guiding Spare Change News vendors through the legal questions that come with being a small business owner. Courtesy photo We are third-year Harvard Law School students from the Transactional Law Clinics’ Community Enterprise Project, and we are partnering with Spare Change News to address some…
An Ohio volunteer’s perspective on Boston homelessness
Jimmy Longo and his fellow “Buck-I-Serve” volunteers. Photo courtesy of Jimmy Longo Growing up in Marion, Ohio—population 36,772—I never really saw homelessness in my 21 years of life. I never saw hordes of people without homes, without warm food or access to running water, without vital hygiene products— without hope. And then I visited Boston.…
Plan JP/Rox passes after tense meeting and two day sit-in
All photos: Alejandro Ramirez After a public meeting full of disruption from affordable housing advocates and a nearly 48 hour sit-in at the mayor’s waiting room, the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) passed the contested Plan JP/Rox development plan. Advocates, mostly from Jamaica Plain’s Keep It 100% for Egleston, packed the hearing on Thursday…
Activists Urge Lawmakers to Increase State Funding for Shelters and Programs
Joli Sparkman, owner of A Stitch in Time Textiles in Southbridge, shares her story of being homeless in Nurses Hall at the Statehouse. Photo: Jordan Frias. Homeless advocates appeared at the State House on Thursday, Feb. 16, to let local policymakers know that they need an increase in state funding for the services they’ve been…
Advocates stake out, sit in at City Hall over affordable housing
All photos: Alejandro Ramirez On Tuesday night, a group of housing advocates crowded Mayor Marty Walsh’s waiting room at Boston City Hall to negotiate higher rates of affordable housing at a new development the overlaps the Jamaica Plain and Roxbury neighborhoods. It ended with a handful of activists staging a sit-in after being told to…
Davis Square bar’s Mardi Gras concert will benefit local homeless coalition
Photo: Sweet Wednesday It will be a sweet Sunday when the band Sweet Wednesday takes the stage on Sunday, February 26 to perform in a Mardi Gras-style concert to benefit the Somerville Homeless Coalition at the Burren. Donations collected at the free event, which will take place from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., will go…
HUD 101: Housing Advocates Brace For Changes Under Trump Administration
On Feb. 7, 2017, a small group came together at the First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain to learn about the change in administration at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Hosted by City Mission, the panel included speakers the Rev. June Cooper, Eric Shupin, Lynda Watson, Michael Kane and Mehreen Butt.…