Author: Tom Benner
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An exclusive interview with Lt. Gov. Tim Murray on the state's new Housing First policy
Third in a three-part series. Lt. Gov. Tim Murray chairs Governor Deval Patrick’s Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness and once worked as a housing advocate at a non-profit agency in Framingham. Mr. Murray sat down with Spare Change News recently at his State House office to discuss HomeBase, the state’s new program that seeks…
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New Homeless Policy: Advocates Debate How Fast To Go
Tom Benner Spare Change News Under the state’s new Housing First initiative, called HomeBASE: • Families that face homelessness and are served with HomeBASE short-term rental assistance … will pay no more than 35% of their income toward rent and utilities when they are enrolled in the program. Families could also receive assistance of up…
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The Children of the Secret: Claire DeWitt And The City Of The Dead, by Sara Gran—A Book Review
Marc D. Goldfinger Spare Change News I first ran across Sara Gran’s writing in a book called Dope, which was her first. I loved it. Dope was totally authentic in the sense that Sara Gran really knew what she was talking about. She was definitely familiar with the underworld of the junkie. But the book…
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Poetry from Andrew Rosen
Currency Loneliness is our constant currency. No bills, no coins, it circulates with water underground, with wind through avenues. This is human strangeness. Beings coagulate while staying separate. Loneliness springs, withers, and springs against gruff brick, our separate enclosures with openings for the hard-to-forget sun and the more erratic moon, our guardian alone and shining.…