Tag: Homelessness
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Book Review: Homeless: A Day In The Life
“Someone who’s warm can’t understand someone who’s cold.”——Alexander Solzhenitsyn. This book really brought back the old times of my being homeless. The one very big difference is that this man, who calls himself ‘our friend’ throughout the book, is not an addict. This story is totally engrossing, as he travels through a northwestern city and…
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Sick and Tired of Bullies? Me too.
I’ve always hated bullies. There’s something about them that triggers rage inside of me. I’ve encountered them all my life in a variety of places: school, work, even in activism. My stepfather was a bully. He abused my mother for years, even after their divorce, until her best friend and I put an end to…
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The Forgotten Crisis: Nobody Thinks It Could Happen to Them
Sometimes when I talk to groups about homelessness, unless they’re activists, I get a blank stare, like I’m talking to a bunch of empty chairs or an empty room. I get it: homelessness isn’t sexy or trendy like climate change, gun control, LGBTQ rights, or even animal rights for that matter. Those are all important…
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Treat Homelessness Like the Health Issue It Is
Last spring a group of students, led by their Professor Dr. Debra Harkins, came up with Bill H.3933, which is based on an idea out of Hawaii that says homelessness should be treated as a medical condition; this could allow doctors to write prescriptions for housing. I know, it sounds far fetched, but when you…
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Stuck in Section 8 Purgatory: Waitlist For Subsidized Housing Leaves Families In The Cold
When your application for state housing assistance is accepted, the wait list can stretch to up to seven years long. If you need Section 8 assistance for your young family, I hope you’re ready for a decade-plus wait. Hundreds of individual applications for housing can be filled out with nary a positive response. That is…
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Over one thousand volunteers show up for second annual Winter Walk for the homeless
The Second Annual Winter Walk began at nine in the morning in The Copley Square Plaza on Sunday, Feb. 11. Founded by Kayak co-founder and CEO of Lola Travel, Paul English. A total of $100,000 was raised last year at the very first Winter Walk, a two mile excursion that begins and ends in Copley.…
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Homeless for the Holidays
Outside London’s Piccadilly theatre where tickets cost up to 110 pounds and a banner advertising the musical “Annie” reads “It’s a hard knock life”, Bryan and Kevin sleep in small tents on the street. They are among almost 1,000 people who sleep rough in the British capital, according to official figures, while more than 4,000…
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Cold Weather, Colder Reality
Quincy COPE has been serving food and love at South Station for years with little or no complaints, that is until now. Apparently one of the Station’s security guards probably with nothing better to do approached Suzanne Featherstone (who is seen by many as the leader of the Quincy contingent) and the other volunteers and…
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Memories of Thanksgiving on the Street
I enjoyed this past Thanksgiving, probably more than I’ve enjoyed Thanksgiving in quite some time. I got to spend a nice, quiet holiday in my adopted hometown with friends. It was quiet, and I caught up on a lot of sleep and watched movies. I wish I could say that nothing bothered me at all,…