Thank you to Callie Crossley of WGBH News for putting a human face on homelessness and highlighting the importance of Medicaid in “Medicaid Work Requirements Perpetuate A ‘Vicious Cycle’ Of Poverty.” Read the article.
There is a “fourth way” emerging for housing organizations serving homeless and low-income people to sustain their buildings and organization beyond charitable giving, grants, and government funding we all struggle for. New breakthroughs in energy efficiency and production, coupled with one of the nation’s best solar and efficiency state programs, allow agencies who are paying attention…
Last month’s Spare Change News article about MHSA’s triage and assessment tool is featured in the latest National Alliance to End Homelessness Alliance Online News. The article is available under the News Round-Up, which highlights recent media articles about “how housing can reduce health care costs, improve outcomes, and better serve patients.”
MHSA President & Executive Director Joe Finn reflects on the Walsh administration’s progress toward ending homelessness in the City of Boston in a letter to the editor in The Boston Globe. Read “Boston is moving closer to ending homelessness.”
Today’s blog post features “TAKING THE HOMELESS CENSUS,” a poem by Alexis Ivy Grandberg, Street Outreach Advocate at CASPAR. TAKING THE HOMELESS CENSUS The corner of the laundromat is occupied by the ex-con with an exhausting past. He uses missing socks as mittens, trades socks for cigarettes. Homeless: sitting-on-a-milk-crate homeless, facial-hair-unkempt homeless, publically-collecting-cans homeless, boozing-at-the-duck-pond homeless, asking-for-the-time…
Pictured below: Joe Timilty listens patiently to Joe Finn. It was 2003. I had just assumed the leadership of the Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance (MHSA), an advocacy organization and funder of homeless programs. I was only on the job for two weeks when I received an eviction notice from a large non-profit housing provider, from whom we…
Social Innovations Journal (SIJ) chronicles social innovations and enterprises addressing the nation’s most challenging issues surrounding social policy, leadership, human capital, and systems. In its inaugural Boston Edition, SIJ has published an article that provides an evaluation of the Commonwealth’s and MHSA’s first homeless social innovation Pay for Success (PFS) initiative. Co-authored by Singumbe Muyeba, PhD, Joe Finn and Tom Brigham of MHSA,…
Even when the dark comes crashing throughWhen you need a friend to carry youAnd when you’re broken on the groundYou will be found… This past summer I saw Dear Evan Hansen, a beautiful, tragic, yet ultimately redemptive musical about the ripple effects of a young man's death. The show's music is gorgeous, particularly a…
The Boston Globe has published “Securing an ID should not pose yet another barrier,” a letter by Joe Finn, MHSA President & Executive Director, on barriers faced by those unable to obtain IDs. It is important that all of us, regardless of financial circumstances, have the ability to access housing, services, and the public spaces where…
Today, Spare Change News has published “Triage Tool Uses Health Care Info to House Homeless With Better Support Systems,” an article by Kiera Murray that highlights how MHSA is targeting and housing chronically homeless individuals who are high utilizers of emergency services. “[MHSA’s] triage and assessment tool is essential to provide an objective ranking to…