Category: Homelessness & Poverty
-
Solving for Space and Time: Ending homelessness by fixing the DTA and MBTA
Photo: Shinya Suzuki What does improving the food system and reducing vehicle traffic and air pollution (especially in urban areas) have to do with ending homelessness worldwide? Everything. Well then, how can Massachusetts lead the rest of the world in doing this? Massachusetts could first humanize the management system used by the Department of Transitional…
-
HUD supports housing services for HIV/AIDS community
The Justice Resource Institute received $1.4 million in funding to support tenant-based rental assistance and other supportive services for the HIV/AIDS community in Plymouth, Bristol and Northern Essex counties earlier this month, HUD said in a press release. HUD awarded $24 million in grants nationwide to help more that 1,200 low-income persons living with HIV/AIDS…
-
John Lozier Retirement
In 1950, The National Health Care for the Homeless Council was formed with the mission to eliminate homelessness in the United States. After 27 years as the founding executive director of the council, John Lozier will retire on December 31, 2016. “Over the last three decades, we have built a strong organization that is well-integrated…
-
Homeless Emergency in Santa Rosa: California town amps up efforts to combat homelessness
A town in California is taking a huge step in combating homelessness, while also trying to give the issue statewide recognition. The Santa Rosa City Council moved to declare a local state of emergency after a homeless man, 32 year old Cirak Tesfazgi, was stabbed to death in a doorway where he often slept. Homelessness…
-
Court Case Result Counters Trend on Criminalization of Homelessness
As this past June came to a close, so too did a crucial case which affirmed to the state of Massachusetts that homelessness would not not be considered a crime within its borders. Commonwealth v. Magadini–which was taken on by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts–was a saga beginning in early 2014, when complications…
-
Shower to the People puts hygiene on wheels
“We make kitchens mobile—why can’t we make showers mobile?” Jake Austin, founder and program director of Shower to the People, has always been involved in volunteering. He follows in the footsteps of his parents, who’ve run a soup kitchen for almost 20 years. Austin had the idea for Shower to the People, an organization that…
-
Brockton Tent City Cleared Due to Public Safety Concerns
Mayor Bill Carpenter of Brockton received a call late at night on June 17 from the city’s fire chief. First responders had just extinguished a fire in the tent-filled homeless encampment not far from downtown. Fires in Tent City have become frequent in recent months, but this blaze was adjacent to about 20 tanks of…
-
Boston City Councilor Looks to Help Homeless Families out of the Shadows
We are in the midst of the lazy, hazy days of summer. But when the days start getting shorter, the nights cooler and Labor Day draws near, our thoughts turn to the annual back-to-school traditions. Even as adults, September evokes memories of the excitement and perhaps, the anxiety, of a new year, new friends and new…
-
Fire Leaves Family Homeless
Single mother and laundromat worker Marilyn Dalson wakes up every morning and sees the home she used to live in. Dalson lost her apartment unit in a fire weeks ago and has been staying with her neighbor across the street ever since. To make matters worse, her son Ryan Hinds, a recent graduate of McKinley…
-
Homeless teen graduates in two years, heads to college
While most teens are spending their summers pursuing a driver’s license, hitting the beach and preparing for another year of high school, one Washington, D.C. native is headed down a different road — the one toward college. Destyni Tyree, 16, graduated high school in just two years, was class president, successfully lobbied for the school’s…