Author: Abby DeRigo
-
Homelessness advocates gather at State House for Legislative Action Day
A woman identified only as Lynetta tells the assembled advocates and service providers about her experience with homelessness, after being evicted by an unscrupulous landlord. Photo by Alejandro Ramirez One day, Lynetta and her family were evicted from their home. She says her landlord retroactively increased her rent, which is illegal, and painted her as…
-
“I Will Roll My Sleeves Up”: Mayoral Hopeful and City Councilor Tito Jackson Talks Housing, General Electric and Working-Class Boston
Photo: Alejandro Ramirez When Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson announced he was running for mayor—the sole challenger facing incumbent Mayor Martin J. Walsh—he presented himself as a champion of Boston’s working class. A working class that’s being forced out of their homes and their city, he said, while companies like General Electric get $25 million…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Ego and the Enemy: A Q&A with M-Dot
Photo: Syben Vanoverberghe M-Dot doesn’t have time for arrogant, boastful rappers. The Revere native puts in too many hours on the stage, in the booth, and behind mixing boards to worry about someone else’s self-aggrandizing bars. He’d rather prove it with hard work. It’s not easy, though. As the title of his new album, “egO…
-
Point in time count 2017
At last year’s point in time count—the city’s annual homeless census where groups of volunteers physically count the homeless folks they see in the streets—Mayor Marty Walsh had recently announced the City of Boston functionally ended veteran homelessness. This year, to a crowd of 400 volunteers, he announced that two-and-a-half years of housing first initiatives…
-
Hundreds protest Trump advisors’ invitation to Harvard Kennedy School
On Wednesday night, hundreds of demonstrators rallied in front of the Harvard Kennedy School to protest the school’s decision to invite President-elect Donald Trump’s advisors to a local conference. A day before the rally, Stephen Bannon, Trump’s chief White House strategist and former chief executive of Breitbart News, canceled his appearance, which was scheduled for…
-
2016 Fall Appeal
Dear Friend of Spare Change News, For the past 24 years, Spare Change News has produced a twice-a-month social justice newspaper sold by vendors seeking to raise themselves out of poverty. Twice a month, Spare Change News vendors crowd into the basement of Old Cambridge Baptist Church and pick up copies of the latest edition.…
-
Q&A with Elizabeth Warren: the senator talks about the presidential race and Wells Fargo scandal
Senator Elizabeth Warren at the opening of Cambridge’s Y2Y youth shelter. Photo: Zengzheng Wang. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has been one of the most prominent critics of Wall Street and big banks since the 2008 recession began. Her tough interrogations of bankers and businessmen in the Senate Banking Committee launched many viral videos, the most…
-
City Offers Update on Homeless and Recovery Services
When Boston closed down the Long Island health campus in 2014, it lost over 400 shelter beds and over 200 recovery beds. Two years later, the city has restored over 600 beds, rivaling 2014’s numbers. The city revealed the numbers at a press roundtable in early October to highlight the early success of their Boston’s…