The homeless population of Massachusetts has increased by 14 percent in the last year, according to a recent report from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. According to the report, there are 20,068 homeless persons in the Commonwealth this year, up from 17,565 in 2017. This was the highest increase in the country…
Man indicted for deadly beating of homeless man
A Suffolk County Grand Jury has indicted 30-year-old Clifton Moore with first-degree murder in the Sept. 6 beating death of Joshua Rivera, 54, who was sleeping in a Charleston playground. According to a press release by the Suffolk County District Attorney, Moore is already locked up in Middlesex County on an unrelated assault charge. Suffolk…
Boston Has One of Nation’s Highest Homeless Rates
New research shows that while homelessness in the United States may be down overall, it’s still rising in the most expensive rental markets. And Boston has one of the highest homeless rates. Christopher Glynn, assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire, is one of the lead authors of the national Zillow-sponsored study. The researchers…
Police Surveillance Put Under Civilian Oversight in Cambridge
The Cambridge City Council passed the Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) ordinance Monday, Dec. 10, making Cambridge the first city in the Boston area to implement civilian oversight over the use of police surveillance technologies. The new law says that no city department can fund, use, acquire, or use any surveillance technologies without first…
Should the Boston School Committee be elected?
The night of Dec. 11 was cold and biting, but didn’t keep Boston’s residents from making their way to City Hall to attend a nearly three hour hearing, where people spoke of accountability, racial and class discrimination, and freedom when debating the governance structure of the Boston School Committee. Two panels spoke in stark opposition…
Climate activists and congress members push for a Green New Deal
Sunrise Movement held a protest on Capitol Hill. Photo: Ken Schles. “We’re gonna fix our climate, we’re gonna clean our air, and we’re gonna put people to work,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said to a crowd of protesters in front of the John F. Kennedy School of Government on Wednesday, December 5. She was joined by incoming…
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…
Mass. Leads Country in Fentanyl Overdose Deaths
Massachusetts reached an all-time high in fentanyl overdose deaths this year, according to new data from the state Department of Public Health. Nearly 90 percent of opioid overdoses in the second quarter involved the synthetic opioid fentanyl. What’s more, a report from The Pew Charitable Trusts maintains that Massachusetts had a higher opioid death rate…
U.S. Senators and Reps blast Columbia Gas execs at public hearing in Lawrence
Left to right: Representative-elect Lori Trahan, Rep. Nikki Tsongas, Sen. Maggie Hassan, Sen. Ed Markey, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Rep. Seth Moulton. Photos by author. At a public hearing on Monday morning, U.S. Senators and Representatives from Massachusetts and New Hampshire tore into the executives from the gas company responsible for the fires and explosions…