Category: Homelessness & Poverty
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Voices of Youth Count Strives to Represent and Account for the Young and Homeless
Throughout the course of this past summer, Chapin Hall and the University of Chicago have led an initiative to better understand homelessness in youth populations across the United States. The project, called Voices of Youth Count, utilizes 22 teams strategically based around the nation whose job is to observe hot spots of youth homelessness, analyzing…
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State Reduces Number of Homeless Families Sheltered in Motels, but Concerns Remain
The state’s emergency assistance program is celebrating a decrease in families housed in hotels and motels—a problematic practice that Gov. Charlie Baker has pledged to eradicate—but critics say that the shift has its own set of flaws. Massachusetts is a right-to-shelter state, meaning it provides shelter to families, including pregnant women who have no other…
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Baker-Polito Administration to Help With Funding to Affordable Housing Development
Gov. Charlie Baker announced a plan to create or preserve 1,420 rental units, including 1,334 affordable units, across 16 Massachusetts communities on August 15. The Department of Housing and Community Development awarded $31 million in state and federal low-income housing tax credits, which are expected to generate more than $218 million in equity, for the…
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Sept 1 Deadline For Motel Shelter Families Not a Hard Stop
The first day of school is a day of excitement and nerves for many children. Most children think about what they will wear, who they will walk to school with and which teachers they will have. The excitement of seeing their friends after the summer break combines with the nervousness of meeting new friends and catching up…
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More specific language could help social workers provide services to the homeless
Research conducted by Elizabeth Bowen hints that more specific naming conventions could help social workers and researchers alike provide aid to homeless individuals more accurately and efficiently. With a wide diversity of individuals living in Single Residency Occupancies (SROs) across the United States, service providers often have trouble offering proper aid. But by using more…
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Advocates rally to “take back Long Island” following news about b.good, tax money
The first big news item that inspired the rally was the revelation that fast food chain b.good will now manage a farm on the island that once benefited the homeless. The farm was originally part of the city-run Serving Ourselves job program for shelter and recovery clients. The farm also produced 50 percent of the…
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Can We Completely End Veteran Homelessness?
Veteran homelessness has been a consistent problem in the United States dating as far back as World War II. While 17 percent of our entire homeless population is made up of veterans, just 8 percent of Americans claim veteran status, according to Green Doors, a homelessness organization in Central Texas. Earlier this year it was…
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Landmark case to set precedent on Illinois’ Homeless Bill of Rights
A court case in Chicago will set a precedent on how effectively the state’s Homeless Bill of Rights Act will defend the rights of the homeless. Three years after Illinois’ Homeless Bill of Rights Act passed, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless took Chicago to court over allegations that city employees mistreated Robert Henderson. This…
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Thousands of Boston students face homelessness as school approaches
As Boston Public Schools (BPS) students gear up for the excitement and pressures of another school year, over seven percent of the district’s youths are facing the additional stresses of homelessness. The approximately 4,000 homeless students in the public school system represent almost one fifth of the state’s homeless students—a staggering figure that has climbed…
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HUD offers $2 million in grants to help students living in assisted living pay for college
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) made it a little easier for students living in low-income housing to attend college earlier this month. HUD announced in a press release on August 2 that it is making $2 million in grant funding available to these students through its Resident Opportunities and Self Sufficiency (ROSS)…