By Rector Phil LaBelle
... 

"I’m not sure if Tom is the first homeless person to worship at St. Mark’s, but I do know he’s the first who came and was given a microphone to tell his story. I know for certain he’s the first homeless person I’ve had over for a meal at my home even though the Bible is pretty clear I should be doing that regularly. Tom reminded us all that he’s just another human being on this journey of life needing companionship and conversation like any of us.

"I don’t know if I’ll ever see Tom again, or what he’ll be doing tonight when the temperature once again falls below zero. But I do know this: he reminded me of the power found in Joseph Burnett’s words. All of us are God’s children regardless of the ways we label people in our world. All are welcome into God’s loving embrace. And I know that on a snowy Sunday morning for a few hours a group of parishioners got to know an intriguing and caring man who just happened to no longer have a place to call home. He became Tom to us, a beloved child of God."

Read more at: RamblingPriest.com

Since the closure of Boston Harbor’s Long Island in October, there’s been much debate over how to care for the homeless people who resided there. But the island also hosted another 200 people in substance abuse recovery programs. In fact, Long Island housed about a third of the women’s recovery programs in Greater Boston. Now there’s a critical shortage of detox beds.

Jeannie and Rebecca are both 30 years old and could be any roommates trying to make lives in Boston.

They look happy, healthy, and stylish — an appearance that shows just how far they’ve come. The two are recovering from heroin addiction — a habit that Jeannie says almost killed her.

"I relapsed back in March of last year and I woke up with a breathing tube down my throat and lucky just to make it," she said.

Now, Jeannie and Rebecca consider themselves lucky to have ended up in jail instead of dead. While on probation, they were beginning to put their lives back together — living at the halfway house on Long Island.


Read more and watch the video at the WGBH website. 

By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist

Kathy and Bonnie aren’t surprised some people in Roxbury want them to stay as far away as possible.

“I can’t take it personal that they don’t want people like me walking around their neighborhoods,” Kathy said, sitting in a cozy, rose-walled living room at a transitional home on a recent morning. “There’s a stigma, that we’re dirty. I dealt with that stigma a long time.”

Read more at BostonGlobe.com

by David Abel

In the hours before dawn, when five layers of clothing, two blankets, and the crucifix around her neck no longer blunt the cold, Lisa Jenkins rises from the faux leather couch she has hidden in the woods and paces in the dark.

Sleeping alone outside stirs other concerns, aside from frostbite. She has set booby traps to protect against potential stalkers and feeds the possums, raccoons, and other wildlife to keep them friendly.

Read more at BostonGlobe.com

by David Abel, Globe Staff
Trailing the flashing lights of a police escort, the city bus completed its journey in front of a bleak building in the South End, where more officers and guards were waiting.

Out filed some of the 700 former residents of Long Island, where the city’s largest homeless shelter operated until earlier this month — before officials condemned the only bridge leading to the refuge on Boston Harbor.

Now, the city’s homeless pack into a former fitness center, while city officials hastily seek a more permanent solution to the loss of about one-third of the city’s available beds.

They live in cramped, disorienting conditions with fewer amenities and social services than they had on Long Island. Instead of beds, they sleep on pillowless cots, set inches apart in a windowless room. Bright lights stay on all night. There are long lines to use the two bathrooms. Fans swirl humid air.


Read more and watch the video at BostonGlobe.com