The City of Boston is hoping to convey that rebuilding a bridge to Long Island is the best option for accessing and reopening a recovery campus for addicts during a meeting on Tuesday, May 7, in Quincy. The public meeting, being held at the Kennedy Center facility for the Quincy Council on Aging at 7…
Boston sees continued success housing the homeless, but still more work to do
Mayor Marty Walsh at the 2014 opening of Southampton Street Shelter. Photo: Zengzheng Wang. On Thursday, Boston officials announced that their push to end chronic individual homelessness has resulted in housing 301 individuals since the start of 2016. This is in addition to the 846 veterans they have housed since 2015. The new numbers reflect…
City Offers Update on Homeless and Recovery Services
When Boston closed down the Long Island health campus in 2014, it lost over 400 shelter beds and over 200 recovery beds. Two years later, the city has restored over 600 beds, rivaling 2014’s numbers. The city revealed the numbers at a press roundtable in early October to highlight the early success of their Boston’s…
Two Years
By the time you read this, the second anniversary of the closing of Long Island Shelter will have come and gone without much fanfare. Yes, there was a rally by the Boston Homeless Solidarity Committee. A very well-done and well-attended one at that. We’ve even managed to arrange an upcoming meeting with the state’s secretary…
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…
A Tale of Two Bridges: Marty Walsh Sets Priorities with the FY2017 Boston City Budget
On Wednesday June 22, Spare Change News co-founder James Shearer and I participated in a meeting between Mayor Martin J. Walsh and the Boston Homeless Solidarity Committee. Our “ask” was unsuccessful, even as I appreciated Walsh’s gracious manner. I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Marty Walsh, who appeared to be carrying the weight of…
One Year Later: Rally remember the Long Island bridge closure
One year after the Long Island bridge’s sudden closure on October 8th 2014, the homeless, the recovering and their advocates spent a morning rallying to raise awareness and demand mores services from the city and the state. Long Island was home to the city’s largest shelter, detox center and a number of addiction recovery services.…
LONG ISLAND: Closure and fallout timeline
Oct. 8: Long Island bridge closes after a private inspection. The city deems the bridge unsafe in the wake of new state requirements. Programs on the island—both health care workers and their clients—are given three hours notice. Buses on their way to the island’s shelter are turned around, bringing shelter guests to a new location.…
ONE YEAR LATER: Boston Warm's successes, challenges, and future
Boston Warm was formed on November 20, 2014, a bit over a month after the Long Island bridge was closed. A group of interfaith leaders felt the city wasn’t handling the situation and decided to take action. Since then, the group has opened two warming centers, advocated for the reestablishment of treatment beds, produced a…
CRISIS MODE: Long Island refugees demand state intervention
Advocates marched and rallied on Thursday, April 23 to call for the state to replace the beds and programs that were lost after the city closed the Long Island shelter and detox unit last October. They say that the city has not done enough to help displaced homeless people and recovering addicts. “We’re here to…
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