Tag: Homelessness
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LAST WORD: Beatrice Bell
It’s the morning of Good Friday at Spare Change News, and Beatrice Bell, one of the newspaper’s longest-serving reporters, is telling me an amazing story. At the age of seven, after a terrible asthma attack, she found herself having one of those life-changing experiences that are called, in the literature, “near-death.” For three days, which…
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Ten Questions with Boston's New Mayor
BOSTON, Mass.—On January 6, Martin J. “Marty” Walsh was sworn in as the 54th mayor of Boston after serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives since 2007. SPARE CHANGE NEWS was able to catch up with Walsh before his inauguration for a quick phone conversation about homelessness, housing and gun violence in the city. …
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Editorial: Encouragement in the fight against homelessness
Credit is due to the Patrick administration for its efforts to reduce the Bay State’s homeless population. A new emphasis on housing as the first response to homelessness promises to be more humane — and cost-effective — than our traditional reliance on shelters and motels to get people off the streets. The policy shift took…
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Homeless Again, Part 3
James Shearer Spare Change News I’d forgotten how cruel and unfeeling life on the streets can sometimes be. In the years when I was on street, I would sometimes see myself as a hero. The good guy. The knight in shinning armor. Sometimes it played out well, but more often than not everything blew up…
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Mass. Wants New Emphasis on Housing over Shelters
By Tom Benner First in a three-part series on the Patrick administration’s five-year plan to eliminate homelessness by 2013 Part One: The shift from shelters to housing Part Two: What the advocates and experts say Part Three: What policymakers say and next steps Housing First is a revolutionary concept in the fight against homelessness. Instead…
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Hip-Hop and Homelessness
Spare Change News Exclusive: An Interview With KRS-One By Nakia Hill As the “Teacha” of hip hop, KRS-One, the artist, prepares to travel to New England for his teach hip hop tour, Kris Parker, the person, reminisces about the irony within the connection of homelessness and hip-hop and how he once lived on the streets…