Household Goods, Inc., a nonprofit organization located in Acton, MA, provides a full range of donated furniture and household items, free of charge, to help people in need make a home. Each year, hundreds of volunteers commit over 30,000 hours of their time, working with over 300 social service agencies to help 2,500 families throughout eastern…
MHSA member agency Center for Social Innovation (C4) will host “A Conversation About Racism and Homelessness” on Thursday, April 14 from 7:00–8:30 PM at The Museum of African American History in Boston, MA. A panel discussion will feature Monica Bharel, MD, MPH, Massachusetts Department of Public Health Commissioner; Jeff Olivet, C4 CEO; and Marc Dones, C4…
MHSA is excited to announce that we will begin another round of our Advocacy in Action Leadership Development Program (LDP) on March 7. This eight-week course is designed for young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 who have experienced homelessness. The goal of the LDP is for participants to develop their leadership and advocacy…
As we begin the new year, we are excited to launch our new blog series: Medical Research on Health and Housing. This series will analyze and summarize current medical literature exploring the multiple links between health and housing. For our first post, Andy Hyatt and Andrew Olsen, medical students at Boston University School of Medicine, have worked with…
On Thursday, October 15, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., MHSA member agency Justice Resource Institute (JRI) will host an open house to display its Boston-based human services programs to individuals and families seeking assistance, as well as to potential community partners. Join Ed Powell, JRI’s Vice President for Community Engagement, along with Suffolk County Sheriff Steven W.…
For this week’s blog post, Faces of Homelessness Speakers’ Bureau Coordinator Alex Loughran Lamothe interviews Manny, a graduate of MHSA’s Leadership Development Program. Manny is a poet. He stores some of his work in a school composition notebook, but he also makes use of a small black cell phone. When inspiration strikes, he taps the lines and stanzas…
On August 20, 2015, The Boston Globe published “Boston finding homes for veterans: Aims to shelter all by end of year.” In the article, Alexandra Koktsidis describes the Boston Homes for the Brave initiative, which is focused on ending homelessness among veterans in Boston: In the year since Boston launched an aggressive effort to end homelessness among…
In this week’s guest post, Sam Greenberg and Sarah Rosenkrantz reflect on the experiences that led them to launch Y2Y Harvard Square, a student-run overnight shelter for young adults experiencing homelessness. Sam and Sarah are recent graduates of Harvard College, where they were student leaders at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, a program of the Phillips…
We are excited to introduce MHSA’s new Veteran In-Reach Peer Specialist, Edwin (Eddie) Meléndez. Eddie focuses on engaging homeless veterans within community-based organizations. He links veterans to appropriate housing and services, and he assists them in securing federal, state and municipal benefits. Eddie draws on years of experience in the nonprofit sector, where he worked…
On May 6, 2015, The Washington Post published an article by Terrence McCoy highlighting the work of Sam Tsemberis, founder and CEO of Pathways to Housing. The article describes the Housing First approach to addressing chronic homelessness: Homeless services once worked like a reward system. Kick an addiction, get a home. Take some medication, get…