Author: Abby DeRigo
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Legislative Action Day 2016: Advocates demand better funding for low-income families and homelessness prevention programs
All Photos: Alena Kuzub Last Thursday morning, around 200 advocates, providers, and homeless people gathered at the State House’s Great Hall for the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless’ Legislative Action Day 2016. The six hour event consisted of three hours of testimonies, legislative remarks, advice for lobbying legislators, and a call to declare the homelessness…
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Boston shelters expand hours and outreach efforts for winter
Photo: Sushant Bhosale The city of Boston’s emergency shelters are preparing for winter with expanded hours, more overflow spaces and extended outreach efforts. Additionally, shelters will coordinate with private shelters and agencies like the police department and Boston Healthcare for the Homeless. The Boston Public Health Commission, which oversees the city’s homeless services, provided Spare…
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Health workers vaccinate hundreds after homeless man’s death
Three cases of a bacteria-caused illness among Boston’s homeless—including one that proved fatal—occurred in less than two months, prompting the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program to vaccinate 990 shelter clients and staff workers. The illness, meningococcemia, is not usually the cause of widespread outbreaks among homeless individuals, but health experts note that shelter conditions…
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Q&A with Michelle Wu
Photos: Alena Kuzub The waiting room outside the city council president’s office is full of visitors, staff and paperwork changing hands. Portraits line the walls, from paintings to black-and-white photos to more modern colorful pictures—the eyes of councilors past watching the goings-on in City Hall. It feels crowded, even claustrophobic, and Michelle Wu’s new office…
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A New Point in Time: A more positive narrative surrounds Walsh’s second homeless census as mayor
Last year, Marty Walsh’s first homeless census as the mayor came months after he closed Long Island, an incident that displaced hundreds of homeless folks and recovering addicts in Boston and led to tough criticism of how he handled the event. To recap, the main access route to the island, a rusty 64 year old…
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During federal deportation raids, Bostonians rally for immigrant rights
As the U.S. government conducted nationwide raids on undocumented immigrant families, Bostonians gathered at the State House steps on January 7 to show solidarity and denounce the country’s mass deportation efforts. The night also marked the Feast Day of the Epiphany, an important feast day in Latin American countries celebrating the arrival of the Three…
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Advocates Seek to Strengthen Long-ignored Aid Program
Photo: Emmanuel Huybrechts A new bill that would strengthen a program that provides aid to over 21,000 low-income elderly, children, and disabled citizens throughout the Commonwealth is awaiting a vote in the state house. House Bill 529 seeks to make adjustments to the Emergency Aid for the Elderly, Disabled and Children (EAEDC) program, a 27…
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125 Names: Homeless Memorial Day in Boston
All photos: Alena Kuzub A flute solos while a list of names is read from a podium, a candle lit for each one, covering the small altar of Church on the Hill in light. The same names can be found on the packaged blankets piled beneath the altar and lined up along the pews. Names…
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State Officials Take on Family Homelessness
With nearly 4,500 homeless families throughout the Commonwealth, officials are taking action to amend the system and help them find housing and shelter. At the moment, a bill is making its way through the State House that would ease access to emergency shelters and childcare vouchers. One of the biggest changes that the bill would…
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One Year Later: Rally remember the Long Island bridge closure
One year after the Long Island bridge’s sudden closure on October 8th 2014, the homeless, the recovering and their advocates spent a morning rallying to raise awareness and demand mores services from the city and the state. Long Island was home to the city’s largest shelter, detox center and a number of addiction recovery services.…