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Owner Closing Manchester Day Care After Nearly 20 Years, Citing Nearby Homeless Encampment
The owner of a day care center in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, plans to close her business in June. Kristine Larocque, owner of Kindertree Learning Center, has worked in the location for nearly 20 years, but with a homeless encampment growing across the street, she said she felt it was no longer safe. Larocque told NBC10 Boston that homelessness around…
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Boston Housing Advocates Pleased With Biden's Federal Plan to Reduce Homelessness
The White House aims to reduce homelessness 25-percent by the year 2025. The Federal Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness was released Monday, with three solution pillars—housing and supports, homelessness response, and prevention. The wide-sweeping plan was released along with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) which found 582,462 people were…
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Burlington's Shelter Pods for Homeless Delayed Until January
The opening of 30 shelter pods for homeless residents in Vermont’s largest city has been pushed back to January. The shelter pod community in Burlington was expected to open in late November, but an official told the City Council on Monday that the schedule has been delayed. The last five shelters are expected to arrive over the next five weeks…
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Empty Dorms at Salem State to Be Used for Temporary Housing
Vacant dorms at Salem State University’s South Campus will be used to house dozens of homeless families and migrants who recently arrived in Massachusetts. The school closed the Bates Complex earlier this year as part of its long-term plans to sell South Campus and concentrate programming in the campus core. A university spokesperson said the Bates Complex was primarily...
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Wu Appeals For Outside Help At Mass. And Cass
About half of the people camped in a stretch of Boston known as “Mass. and Cass” most recently resided in another city or town, underlining the regional nature of the addiction and homelessness crises straining the area, Mayor Michelle Wu said Monday. While her administration continues to grapple with how to manage encampments in the area of Massachusetts Avenue and…
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Talking Mass. and Cass, Wu Shares Difficulties, Is Shouted Down by Protesters
At a news conference Thursday morning to provide an update on the situation at the city’s troubled Mass. and Cass encampment, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu cut her public remarks short as several protesters drowned her out after several minutes. She spoke about 11:30 a.m. at Roxbury’s Clifford Park, which neighbors have unofficially closed after multiple requests for the city...
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Homelessness Surging in Many US Cities Amid End of Pandemic Relief Measures
Some of the biggest increases are in West Coast cities such as Sacramento and Portland, Oregon. Numbers are also up about 30% in South Dakota and Prince George’s County, Maryland, and 15% in Asheville, North Carolina.
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Culinary Program Helps Students At-Risk of Homelessness in Vermont
A Vermont job training program is helping students at risk of homelessness with some skills in the kitchen.
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Framingham City Council Bans Aggressive Panhandling, Sets $50 Fine
City councilors in Framingham, Massachusetts, have voted to ban aggressive solicitation after an apparent increase in panhandling on busy streets. “The idea behind the ordinance is to convince people it’s really not the best way to help people who are in real need, and there’s some question as to whether some of these people are even in real need,”...
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Dorchester Hotel Eyed as Supportive Housing for the Formerly Unhoused
A hotel in Dorchester could soon be converted into a housing complex for people who have experienced chronic homelessness. Pine Street Inn and The Community Builders are exploring the opportunity to buy the Comfort Inn Boston into more than 100 units of permanent supportive housing. “It is really hard to find affordable housing for anybody frankly, but for people who…
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Making Room for Pets in Homeless Shelters
Traditional homeless shelters have usually been off-limits to pets. Here is how one interim housing site is helping keep owners and pets together and a look at how the state of California is trying to tackle homelessness by helping pets get off the street too.
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Migrants Being Sent to NYC From Texas — to the Wrong Places, With No Help, Sources Say
Migrants are being sent from Texas to NYC with paperwork theoretically directing them to shelters – but in many cases the addresses are wrong and aren’t shelters at all, but offices or non-family facilities.
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Lawrence Asks for Help Amid Influx of Unhoused People
The city of Lawrence, Massachusetts, has been dealing with the persistent problem of garbage-strewn encampments of unhoused people, and officials say it’s getting worse. Displaced from other cities in Massachusetts, more people without homes are coming to the city of Lawrence in search of encampments, which form under bridges, and local authorities are now asking for help at the...
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Vt. College Student Donates 1/3 of Pay to Help Neighbors: ‘It Just Feels Really Good'
A college student in Vermont is putting an uncommon twist on a fairly common summer job: painting houses. Zach Dunn, a rising senior at the University of Vermont, is actually giving away a big part of his paycheck. “I think it’s just a more fulfilling way of running business,” Dunn said Wednesday while working at a job site in...
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Student's New Painting Business Supports Homelessness Fight
A Vermont college student is putting an uncommon twist on a common summer job: painting houses.
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Boston Nonprofit Aims to Fight Homelessness in LGBTQ+ Young People
A Boston nonprofit is working to break the cycle of homelessness among LBGTQ youth who escape unsafe environments and find they have nowhere to go. According to the team at Breaktime, its transitional employment program has had great success by training participants in job skills, placing them at work and following up with support. “I faced so much abuse...
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Boston Rolls Out Plan to Address Mass. and Cass, Homelessness and Drug Crises
Months after clearing the homeless encampment in known as Mass. and Cass, Boston city leaders on Tuesday outlined the next steps for addressing the homelessness and substance abuse crises that helped create the settlement. Mayor Michelle Wu detailed an 11-point plan to improve public safety, health and cleanliness in the area around Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, as well…
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America's Senior Homeless Population is Growing as More Retire on Streets
“We’re seeing a huge boom in senior homelessness,” said Kendra Hendry, a caseworker at Arizona’s largest shelter, where older people make up about 30% of those staying there
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Cold for a Cause: ‘Chilly Dippers' Support Vermont Homelessness Nonprofit
A Vermont nonprofit’s work to provide a pathway to brighter futures for young people experiencing homelessness is once again getting a boost from a group that regularly turns heads on the shores of Lake Champlain. The Red Hot Chilly Dippers are among the many community members and businesses raising money and attention for Spectrum Youth & Family Services, which helps...
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Prosecutors: Suspect Played Music After Shooting Homeless Man in DC
Prosecutors say a man suspected of shooting five homeless people in Washington and New York City and killing two of them appeared to hold up a phone and play music after he shot one of the victims.