Boston Homeless Census
On December 15th, a few members from our SmallCanBeBig.org team joined 350 other volunteers to participate in the Mayor’s Annual Homeless Census. The experience brought to life the growing concern with the number of families affected by the poor economy, shortage of affordable housing and unexpected tradegies.
According to the Census, homeless families rose 22% in a year. Perhaps even more troubling, the number of homeless children jumped 24% in 2008, from 1,850 to 2,288. “We have made some progress, but more needs to be done,” Mayor Menino said in a statement, adding, “this census reflects the growing challenge that low-income families, especially young mothers, are facing during tough economic times.”
Our hope is that with SmallCanBeBig.org we can help prevent families from becoming homeless in the first place.
Press Release
In December we also issued a press release with a communications package sent out by Donna Haig Friedman, Director of the Center for Social Policy at UMass Boston. We look forward to partnering with the Center to create awareness for the growing need for new and innovative approaches to homeless prevetion and stabilization.
