Poverty and Homelessness in Boston, MA

For the City presentation, my group was assigned to the city Boston. I focused on the Affordable Housing aspect of the Homelessness issues that are present in Boston, which is what I will discuss during the presentation. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the information I found in regards to this topic. Boston's Mayor, Thomas M. Menino, and his administration has focused on housing as a top priority since January 1999. The mission of the Department of Neighborhood Development (DND)is to make Boston the most livable city in the nation by working with communities to build strong neighborhoods through the strategic investment of public resources. DND uses these resources to support a homeless housing strategy that starts with homelessness prevention, continues to emergency shelter, then transitional housing and ends with permanent and supportive housing.

Boston has many programs aimed to help the homeless. Some important ones include, but are not limited to: 1) “Homeless Set-Aside”- in which part of the housing in Boston is set aside for the homeless. 2) “Housing Development for the Homeless”- with this, DND creates or rehabs entire buildings for the homeless. 3) “Leading the Way III”- which makes providing for the homeless an integral part of the city’s housing strategy. “Leading the Way” and “Leading the Way II” has led to the “Leading the Way III” campaign which is still in the works today. - All three of the “Leading the Way” campaigns were/are the most important forces which helped prevent and decrease homelessness in the city. During my presentation, I will give a more in-depth explanation as to how the three "Leading the Way" campaigns have been and still are successful in an attempt to end homelessness in Boston.