Friends of the Homeless In The News

Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, calling it “a generational responsibility” to help the nation’s veterans, presided on Tuesday at a ceremony to pave the way for a $12 million housing project in Agawam for once homeless veterans.
 

The numbers of homeless people in Western Massachusetts has increased this summer.

Homeless shelters are seeing more people than ever before.

The Friends of the Homeless Shelter on Worthington Street in Springfield provided beds for 150 people on one recent night. Generally they see numbers like that in the wintertime.

The plight of the homeless may be more dramatic in winter, but even in summer, there’s evidence that the homeless population is growing.

At the Friends of the Homeless emergency shelter on Worthington Street, executive director William J. Miller said he was surprised to see that for several days in late July and early August, his agency’s numbers were as high as they had been on some days in January.

 It's a nasty problem homeless shelters across the country have to deal with, and Springfield is no exception.
 

A top state official took a daylong tour of Springfield on Thursday, praising several development projects and announcing state funding and collaborations aimed at promoting economic development, jobs, education and services for the homeless.
 

Homeless advocates and Western Massachusetts legislators, including Candaras, are lobbying to change the state’s funding formula for shelters, saying the current system has severely underfunded Springfield and this region for years.
 

American International College senior talks about her experience working with Friends of the Homeless winter overflow shelter.

HOLYOKE, MA (WAMC) - Officials working on an initiative to end homelessness in Western Massachusetts declared Monday that...qoute..incredible progress .... had been made in the past nine months, despite the recession and national housing crisis.

With the winter’s bone-chilling cold, some of the homeless are not only looking for shelter at night but also warm places during the daylight hours. And, some spots are getting plenty of foot traffic

Other shelters in the state get as much as seventy dollars. "We were looking to the Governor to increase our funding and not have it be level funded. Springfield is under funded compared to the rest of the state," said Miller.

Springfield bucked a national trend with relatively modest increases in suburban poverty compared with increasing poverty in the city itself, a study by The Brookings Institution revealed.
 

It was Christmas Eve, 1992.

I brought my 9-year-old daughter to work with me at a homeless shelter. I was not happy about working that night. It was snowing. People were lining up out front, waiting to come in for dinner. I needed to prepare for 100 or more needing shelter and was working in the back. I did not notice what my daughter was doing. She had gone to the main entry, near the dining room, and seeing men and women standing in line waiting to come in, snow piling up on their shoulders as they stood, she did what we should always do; she opened the door to bring people in out of the cold.
 

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Spending a night outdoors in bitter cold temperatures could literally kill you.

The Executive Director of the 'Friends of the Homeless' told 22News between the tough economy, and the freezing cold weather, the Worthington Street Shelter took in165 people on Monday night and had about 100 people take refuge inside on Tuesday afternoon.
 

SPRINGFIELD - In these times of economic uncertainty it is important that each donation made to a charitable agency be one that will be put to the best use possible, which has prompted one organization to establish giving guidelines.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - The Worthington Street homeless shelter in Springfield has a record number of people just ahead of the Christmas holiday.

22News spoke with Bill Miller, the Director of the Friends of the Homeless, about how the shelters are dealing with all these people in need.

SPRINGFIELD - More than 100 people gathered Wednesday night at Old First Church to give thanks on Thanksgiving Eve for freedom of speech and religion.

Kathy Tobin, director of development for the Friends of the Homeless and former anchorwoman for abc40, gave the keynote address on "Remembering Our Homeless Friends."

 SPRINGFIELD - The historic Old First Church, which closed nearly two years ago and was purchased by the city, has left nearly $1.7 million in assets for community causes including $592,690 for future maintenance needs of the Court Square building.

The congregation has also set aside funds with the Community Foundation of $254,010 each for the Greater Springfield Senior Services Inc. and the Friends of the Homeless Inc.
 

Boston plans to eliminate nearly 20 percent of the beds at the city’s largest homeless shelter, the first time it has made such cuts. Cape Cod’s largest shelter expects to end its day program...

A large crowd of city and state officials, community leaders and social service providers gathered in Springfield Massachusetts Friday to celebrate the construction of a new resource center for the homeless.