Author: Tom Benner
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Nick Flynn: From Boston’s Pine Street Inn to Hollywood
Nick Flynn grew up on Boston’s South Shore and spent six years working at the Pine Street Inn, Boston’s largest homeless shelter. Raised by his mother, Jody, who committed suicide when he was 22, Flynn hadn’t seen or spoken to his father in 18 years, until Jonathan Flynn called Nick out of the blue and…
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Another battle expected on funding for homeless programs
Tom Benner Spare Change News WELLESLEY — The Patrick administration is trying for a second year in a row to move money currently used to put up the homeless in shelters and motels into permanent housing solutions. But another battle is expected at the State House as advocates differ over the most controversial aspect of…
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INSP offers alternative to ‘Homeless Hotspots’
STREET NEWS SERVICE March 13, 2012 Whilst technology specialists, brand experts and journalists debate the controversial ‘Homeless Hotspots’ initiative of a global ad agency, the International Network of Street Papers’ latest digital project proves that the street paper model is very much alive. Whilst technology specialists, brand experts and journalists debate the controversial ‘Homeless Hotspots’…
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COALITION: MASS. HOMELESSNESS RATES AT “ALL-TIME HIGH”
By State House News Service Homelessness is a growing problem in Massachusetts that affects thousands of families, children, teenagers, single people and the elderly and will require millions of dollars more in state funds to alleviate, advocates from the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless told lawmakers this week at the State House. The group came…
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Cut!
Massachusetts is preparing another grim budget for the next fiscal year that is expected to include modest “revenue enhancers” — that is, tax and/or fee hikes on the general public — and yet another round of cuts to social services. Given those two eventualities, the state’s dubious film tax credit program belongs on top of…
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Meet the New Year, Same as the Old Year?
Tom Benner Spare Change News The year 2011 marked a new turn in the fight against homelessness in Massachusetts. HomeBASE, a new state initiative designed to steer homeless families from shelters and motels into homes of their own, went into effect on Aug. 1. The promising program sought to move the homeless into permanent housing,…
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Learning from the Sixties: A Talk with John Maher
A new book, Learning From The Sixties: Memoir Of An Organizer, is intended to pass on the lessons learned along the way by anti-Vietnam War activist and political organizer John Maher, a longtime Cambridge resident, to a new generation. In the book, Maher describes his journey from student activist, a leader of the New Left,…
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SOMEONE'S GOTTA LOSE: Does the Mass. Lottery Target Poor People?
Tom Benner Spare Change News A public interest group believes state lotteries use marketing strategies to target low-income communities, where residents tend to spend a larger percentage of their incomes on lottery tickets than do the wealthier segments of society. But a public records request for the Massachusetts Lottery’s internal advertising documents so far has…
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SCN Interview with Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser
Edward Glaeser, an economics professor at Harvard University, recently sat down with Spare Change News editor Tom Benner to discuss his myth-shattering book about cities, “Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier.” SCN: Your book makes the case that cities make up America’s economic heartland, and…