"We don't need coins. We need change."

Home Sweet Street

In New York City amid failed promises to reduce, and even eliminate it, homelessness has reached unprecedented peaks.

Why Are People Homeless?

When I was younger, I didn't understand how one could become homeless. As a child who hadn't been exposed to homelessness, it seemed like if you could get a job, you would be able to get a house or an apartment or atleast some form of housing. Now I realize it takes a lot more to become financially stable enough to have a form of housing. For people with financial problems, drug problems, addictions, without an adequate form of education or with mental illnesses, it's very difficult to find and keep a permanent form of housing.

The History of the Pine Street Inn

Every night in Boston, over 7,000 people are without adequate housing. Men, women, and children, in all seasons, are forced to live on the streets. Annually, the Pine Street Inn provides roughly 10,000 homeless people with services and tries to help them get back on their feet. The Inn opened in 1969 and since then has expanded exponentially.
What started as a place of refuge for roughly 200 men suffering from alcoholism is now a place that provides for almost 1,300 people a day, with 550 units of permanent housing and a wide range of programs and services, like housing, outreach, and shelter.

The Beginning

 During my junior year of high school I was introduced to the Pine Street Inn, a homeless shelter in Boston. That morning, working on the women's side of the Inn, I began to realize how big of an issue homelessness is in Boston. In my home town there are no homeless people so my first morning at the Pine Street Inn, I was forced to realize that many people in the Boston area are without homes, without money, without anyone to take them in. Old women, women in wheelchairs, and young pregnant women all came through the line, some talkative, some shy, some upset, and many smiling.
I was pulled in by the Inn, the homeless, something so unfamiliar to me as a junior in high school. Now, as one of the two leaders for the Pine Street Inn group at my school, I love it just as much as I did that first time. The mornings spent at the Inn hold a special place in my heart. Homelessness is an issue many people are not exposed to, and many do not understand how evident it is in cities all over the world.