Ending Homelessness for Good.
SPH students and staff prepare meals and serve the homeless men and women at the Pine Street Inn in May 2017.
New students gather food and supplies for homeless individuals during a volunteer session at the Salvation Army as part of SPH's 2018 Fall Orientation activities.
Santa hugs a young resident during the Barkley Holiday Party in December 2018. The Activist Lab and Students of Color for Public Health hold the annual fundraiser and party to support residents at the Ruth Lillian Barkley Housing Development, a public housing complex near campus.
Wendy Heiger-Bernays, clinical professor of environmental health, spots a transport vehicle she helped secure for three people to get to a shelter during the annual Boston Homeless Census in January 2019. More than 300 volunteers took part in the census, canvassing the city. Photo by Jake Belcher.
Dean Sandro Galea presents the school's Beyond Health Award to Jim O'Connell, president and founding physician of Boston Health Care for the Homeless, during SPH's For the Future of Public Health Gala in November 2018. Photo by Christopher Huang.
Homelessness is "an ethical human health issue" says Hilary Godwin, dean and professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at UW's School of Public Health. Godwin visited SPH in January 2018 to speak at a Public Health Forum.
As the CEO of YWCA Kalamazoo in Michigan, alum Grace Lubwama (SPH'99) says she "brings a public health lens" to everything that she does. The organization provides shelter to women and children who are victims of domestic violence.
Each summer, members of the SPH community volunteer with the Activist Lab's Water Squad to distribute bottles of water to people on Albany Street.
Homelessness remains a critical public health problem, and one that is inextricably linked to poverty, unemployment, and lack of equitable access to health care and affordable housing in the United States. Although overall homelessness has decreased more than 10 percent in the last decade, the number of people living on the street increased in 2019 by 2.7 percent, according to recent federal estimates. In Massachusetts, the homeless population rose by 14 percent from 2017 to 2018—to more than 20,000 people—including 6,000 people living in unsheltered conditions on any given night in Boston. The consequences of homelessness are visible in the School of Public Health’s neighborhood.
On Wednesday, January 29, SPH will host the Signature Program From Theory to Practice: What It Takes to Permanently Exit an Individual from Homelessness featuring Anahaita Kotval, CEO of Lifting Up Westchester. The nonprofit organization in Westchester County, N.Y. serves homeless individuals and low-income residents with emergency food, shelter, and educational and employment opportunities. Kotval will address the key challenges of serving homeless populations and examine fresh public health approaches to end homelessness once and for all.
Later that evening, members of the SPH community and other volunteers will participate in Boston’s annual Homeless Census.
The slideshow above is a look back at some of the hands-on work that SPH students, faculty, staff, and alums have contributed to support this vulnerable population.