Despite Effective Short-Term Measures, Long-Term Homelessness Persists in Massachusetts

Joe Finn was beating a very different drum in November and December of 2020. At the time, the executive director of the Mass Housing and Shelter Alliance (MHSA) feared that Massachusetts would be short a few hundred beds this winter, causing many shelters to be in the difficult position of turning people away as the New England winter wore on.

“If you had been talking to me back in October, you would have been getting a much different song,” Finn said in mid-January.

Finn gave me the relative good news that, through hard advocacy work by anti-homelessness organizations, shelters are not turning people away this winter—even with the COVID pandemic raging, and with strict social distancing guidelines in place. Still, Finn cautioned, we are one bad storm away from a reality where that is not the case.

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed,” he said. “One bad stint of bad weather and we don’t know what might happen.”

Read more: https://digboston.com/shelter-shock/