Category: Homelessness & Poverty
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Voices From Rosie’s Place: Live Your Dreams, Not Your Circumstances
Spare Change News is proud to present the next installment of “In Their Own Words,” which highlights the work of writers who meet at Rosie’s Place. In late 2014, Rosie’s Place, a community center for Boston’s poor and homeless women, started a memoir workshop. The intention was to have the guests, as they call the…
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Furnishing a House into a Home
On Saturday, Oct. 28, the nonprofit Furnishing Hope of Massachusetts cut the ribbon for its new location in Harvard Square, a bigger office than its previous location. Executive Director Suzy Palitz’s goal is to help families furnish their new house into a home. So in 2013 she started the nonprofit in Cambridge. Today Furnishing Hope…
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Boston Clergy Reignite MLK’s Poor People’s Campaign
As Americans all over the country eagerly await a real change, an enthusiastic crowd of people was heard chanting “No more! Poverty has to go!” outside Trinity Church on Thursday. The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, who is popularly known for his effective Moral Mondays movement, and the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, have picked…
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Huge Mobile Home Park Co-op Deal Puts Residents in Charge
In a deal that is the largest of its kind, a group of 700 Halifax residents this week bought the mobile home park where they live for $27 million—and they’ll turn it into a co-op run by a nine person board. The deal at Halifax Estates was facilitated by specialists at the Cooperative Development Institute…
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Boston Public Library to offer homeless outreach program
A Pine Street Inn employee has been asked to take the lead on helping the homeless crowd that congregates in and around libraries across the city and has begun his role at the public library’s main branch in Copley. Bunch will help homeless patrons with any issues they may have, while others hired by the…
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Extreme Weather Exacerbates Homelessness in Australia and New Zealand
The images of Hurricane Harvey in Texas have shown how extreme weather can rob people of their homes. But what about those who have no home to begin with, or whose living situation is already precarious? Almost one-third of people who have been homeless have suffered extra trauma because of extreme weather, according to our…
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Evacuated Homeless Campers Return to Houston Overpass After Hurricane Harvey
Residents living in the homeless encampment under Houston’s 59 overpass got some good news recently when they received a temporary restraining order preventing the city from enforcing its anti-camping ban. The reprieve did not last long. Within 48 hours, the residents were forced to leave anyway, as Hurricane Harvey slammed into the region. The hurricane…
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Sufi Service Committee celebrates clothes and food drive
The Sufi Service Committee held their biggest event of the year on Friday, September 22, the annual Clothes and Food Drive. The celebration included featured speakers like Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons and Executive Director of Somerville Homeless Coalition Mark Alston-Follansbee. Many other representatives from local organizations were also in attendance. Mo Nooraee lives by two…
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On Homelessness and Humanity
A couple of weeks ago, the executive director of the Homeless Empowerment Project, which publishes Spare Change News, read my column, “Homeless People Don’t Matter,” and it stayed with her for some time. “How did we get here?” she posted regarding the story, which was about the lenient sentencing of a security guard who assaulted…
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Boston seeks consultant in push to end youth homelessness
Mayor Walsh attends the opening of a new transitional shelter run by Bridge Over Troubled Water, an organization that helps homeless youth. On Tuesday, Oct. 10, the City of Boston announced it is searching for a consultant to assist its efforts to end youth homelessness. The new consultant will be responsible for gathering data, assessing…