Category: Homelessness & Poverty
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The downfalls of buying a car when you are poor
Over the next few issues, we are going to look at several different issues regarding financial dilemmas that affect everyone on a daily basis. The first one we will look at is auto financing, and it’s a very difficult issue for many people. Most people put a small amount down. Some people pay nothing upfront…
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Spotlighting women’s stories of hope
On June 21, four women read stories they’d written about their lives to a crowd at the Writer’s Spotlight Reception at Rosie’s Place, a Roxbury-based nonprofit with a mission to provide women with shelter and opportunities. One woman, Francesca, spoke about rebuilding her life in America after having left her home country of Honduras. “My…
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Leadership Institute Helps Eight More Women Find Their Voice
This past Wednesday saw eight women enter the sunbathed Boston afternoon with liberating confidence after Rosie’s Place—a renowned sanctuary for the local female homeless population—deemed them graduates of the shelter’s Leadership Institute. The ceremony, which marked the end of the program’s summer session for this year, showcased what each woman had learned and how it…
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Massachusetts to address emergency assistance confusion, but not through budget
Photo: Emmanuel Huybrechts Massachusetts’s State Senate and House of Representatives toyed with introducing language that would clear up the eligibility requirements for the state’s emergency assistance program, but ultimately they did not include the clarification in their FY 2017 budget proposal. Massachusetts is the country’s only right-to-shelter state, meaning that through the Department of Housing…
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Solving Dilemmas: Mel King, legendary activist and politician, talks fair housing in Boston
Photo: Zengzheng Wang Mel King is one of the fiercest and certainly most experienced crusaders in the fight for affordable housing in Boston. Just three years ago, at the age of 85, he was arrested at an eviction protest. In addition to his decades-long career of activism, King boats stints as a state representative, an…
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Boston funeral home provides free burials for the homeless
For the last 25 years, 150 homeless people yearly received a free, dignified burial thanks to a Boston funeral home. The Robert J. Lawler & Crosby Funeral Home provides a no-cost funeral with pallbearers for homeless veterans and homeless adults in greater Boston each year. The Lawler Homeless Funeral Program was founded by Robert J.…
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How do families and individuals get rehoused after a fire?
Figuring out what to do after a fire has displaced you and your family from your home is a real issue that most people don’t care to think about until it happens. Those who are unable to re-enter their homes are immediately approached by members of the American Red Cross, which dealt with 5,053 cases…
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Lawyers Clearinghouse receives grant to expand pro-bono legal aid
Photo: Lawyers Clearinghouse Lawyers Clearinghouse, an organization that connects homeless individuals and nonprofits with pro bono legal services, received a $100,000 grant from the Cummings Foundation that will allow it to expand its services and staff. Lawyers Clearinghouse has a small staff—just four employees—but a wide reach. In the fiscal year 2014, the organization provided…
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HUD partners with Commonwealth agencies to end veteran homelessness
In a push to truly eliminate chronic veteran homelessness, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will provide a major funding boost to Massachusetts’ division of the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program. The HUD and VA announced the funding increase and partnership at the start of…
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Evicted: Matthew Desmond’s bestseller chronicles extreme poverty and the struggle to find and keep stable housing
Photo: Michael Kienitz The government has been telling people that the economy has been making a steady but slow recovery from the Great Recession nine years ago. During most months over the past few years, the unemployment rate has suggested a rosy picture of job growth. GDP has slowly improved. The housing market has heated…