Homelessness and Housing

Homelessness and Housing

Posted on June 6, 2011 at 4:44pm

Last week, a colleague and I met with the manager of the Home Suites Inn on Totten Pond Road. The state of Massachusetts contracts with hotels to house families when shelter space is not available.

Right here in Waltham, 85 families are housed at the Home Suites.  The average stay is about 3 months, but some have been there for over a year waiting to be connected to permanent housing.  Last Christmas, my parish, along with others in Waltham, collected presents for the kids staying in the hotel. At that time, there were 56. Now, there are 117.  The problem is only getting worse.

Homelessness comes up in the news every once in a while, but most often, it’s an issue we don’t think about. In the wake of the sudden tornado in Western Massachusetts last week, though, we’re reminded that losing a home is something that can happen to anyone.  Homelessness doesn’t just impact individuals—in Massachusetts, 52 percent of the homeless population are parents and children. From 2008 to 2009, there was a 37 percent increase in families needing shelter over the existing shelter system.

The good news is that policy makers are figuring out what works.

Are you ready for this?   The solution to homelessness seems to be … homes!  As Massachusetts State Representative Byron Rushing quoted his mother at a talk he gave last year (see my post on that at my blog,), his family was poor growing up because they lacked money. The reason the homeless are homeless is that they lack permanent homes. It’s just that simple.

A new movement called “Housing First” is discovering that it’s not just better for the individuals and families who are homeless, but also more cost effective, to first provide a home and then figure out how to empower people for financial and social independence.

Especially in times of tight budgets (on the state and local levels), there is a lot that we can do, politically as well as materially.  Next week, several local organizations including the Waltham Ministerial Association, which I co-chair, will be hosting a forum on what congregations and communities can do about homelessness. The event, Ending Homelessness Through Housing First: What Congregations and Communities Can Do is a community forum, open to all. It will take place at First Presbyterian Church, 34 Alder Street, Waltham on Thursday, June 16 from 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

On the other side of the issue, one very simple thing we can offer homeless people is companionship. When you see someone who is asking for money, say hello: you don’t have to have an hour-long conversation; a simple greeting will do. Give, if you want to, or don’t. When you read about homelessness in the news, cultivate compassion for those who are affected.  Pray, if you’re a religious person.  Each one of us can only start where we are—and with ourselves.

More information on the forum and the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance.