Tom Benner Spare Change News Maxine Brandeis came to Harvard Square for the same reason Willie Sutton robbed banks — because that’s where the money is. “The police are more tolerant of panhandling here than in other places we’ve been,” said Brandeis, 21, who is spending a few weeks in the Square with her 25-year-old…
We Are All In The Dumps: Remembering Maurice Sendak’s Fiction on Homelessness
Noelle Swan Spare Change News Maurice Sendak was being driven through Los Angeles in the early 1990s. It was the kind of journey into darkness found in his children’s books, only more real and scarier. The nation was struggling to emerge from the recession that had followed a worldwide stock market crash in 1987. Big banks reported…
Keeping House: Local Organizations Collaborate to Help Boston Residents Stay in Their Home Post-Foreclosure
Noelle Swan Spare Change News When Jeril Richardson checked out of the hospital after he was hit by a car in 2009, he returned home to find that his landlord had not been keeping up with mortgage payments and the bank was foreclosing on his Hyde Park home. Canvassers knocking on his door told him…
PATRICK ADMIN OPPOSED TO SENATE AMENDMENT CHANGING SHELTER ELIGIBILITY
From State House News Service: With the Senate ready to begin debate on its fiscal 2013 budget Wednesday and a majority of senators apparently backing an amendment to eliminate tighter restrictions on shelter eligibility for homeless families, Undersecretary for Housing and Community Development Aaron Gornstein said the Patrick administration is urging the Senate to reject…
MAJORITY SUPPORT SEEN FOR SENATE HOMELESS SHELTER AMENDMENT
From State House News Service: A Senate budget amendment that eliminates tighter restrictions on shelter eligibility for homeless families has attracted majority support in that branch a day prior to budget debate, with 22 senators signing on in support. The Senate budget, released from the Ways and Means Committee last week, restricts to four “narrow”…
MassHousing Awards $350,000 for affordable sober housing
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE BOSTON – May 21, 2012 – MassHousing has awarded $350,000 in financing to help create 47 new units of affordable sober housing in Boston, Chelmsford, Somerville and Westford. The MassHousing grants will come from the Center for Community Recovery Innovations, Inc. (CCRI), a nonprofit subsidiary corporation of MassHousing that creates and…
Editorial: A Fight Over Scarce Resources
The Patrick administration and homeless advocates are at odds for the second consecutive year over how scarce funds for homeless programs will be spent in the next state budget. The administration wants to limit the amount of money it spends on homeless shelters and motels, and move the savings into permanent housing and the support…
A Team of Socially Conscious Techies Spends a Weekend Building Websites for Non-Profits (Including Us)
Trisha Craig Spare Change News Thanks to a crack team of socially conscious computer programmers and web designers, Spare Change News has a new website that was unveiled this week. SCN was one of 31 non-profits to benefit from 2012 New England GiveCamp, a weekend-long extravaganza of coding that allows organizations in need of new…
Welcome to our new website!
Thank you for visiting the brand new Spare Change News website. Please watch this space for news and developments about Spare Change News and our parent organization, the Homeless Empowerment Project. We encourage communication with our readers. Please let us know what you think of our new website, your thoughts about our news coverage, or…
Boston Bounty Bucks Gives SNAP Discount At Farmers Markets
Robert Sondak Spare Change News Beginning in May, which is the start of the farmers market season, the Boston Bounty Bucks program will mark its fourth birthday. So far, 20 Boston-area farmers markets will participate in this double value food program, which allows households with food stamps (SNAP) to make food purchases at any of…