By: Joe DAmore – Nov. 2018 Recently news reports – and explosive social media message decried Mayor Daniel Rivera, apparent uniliteral decisions regarding the use of the Buckley Bus Station as a staging area for feeding homeless people. He ordered that homeless people vacate the station and that a humanitarian group no longer offer dinner […]
If there is one thing that Michael Gorman and his volunteers at TMF (The Movement Family) have proved over the last six months, it’s that helping the homeless and making people’s lives better only takes one thing: effort. For six months TMF offered food, clothing, detox services, transitional housing, and other counseling services to the […]
Despite Proof That Photos of Garbage and Needles Were Not from TMF, Rivera Doubles Down For the past 6 months a volunteer group of teens and young people from Lawrence called “The Movement Family” (TMF) have been serving a family style dinner to the homeless at the Buckley Garage on Common Street. The group, run by […]
By: Joe D’Amore – November, 2018 There are at least 350 trailers dotting the landscape of Campagnone green and the large parking lot at Pemberton Park along North Canal street in Lawrence. And the new owner of IndusPad, the former Polartec facility, has temporarily converted a portion of the facility into a congregant center offering […]
“Warren has ignored the poorest of the poor here at Daybreak” Last month we learned that United States Senator Elizabeth Warren – who is running for reelection – has never toured the Daybreak Homeless Shelter in Lawrence. She was elected in 2012 promising to care about the poor, but with Lawrence being one of […]
BOSTON – Today, the Massachusetts Senate passed S.2568, An Act to provide identification to homeless youth and families. Currently, a person who is looking to obtain a Massachusetts identification card must provide a proof of residence – a task that is unnecessarily burdensome for persons experiencing homelessness. This legislation creates exemptions in the process of obtaining […]
MAY, 2018 Driving through the City of Lawrence it’s almost impossible not to notice the homeless population, whether they are pan-handling on the corners of the busiest intersections, or hassling people for a cigarette or a dollar outside local establishments. Unfortunately, most people turn their heads and pretend not to see the human carnage […]
By: Peter Larocque – Feb.2018 God Bless you and Happy New Year! It is great to be back for an exciting 2018 writing about the Goodness of God! Just the other day after work I sat in my chair and began to click away with my TV remote. Then I came across the rebroadcast of […]
By: Joe D’Amore – Feb. 2018 Homeless population counts are now underway nationally and throughout the state sponsored by HUD and state agencies tasked with the annual census process. The goal is to identify not only numbers of homeless people but also concentrations of them so that resources and affordable housing efforts can be aligned […]
Last month, the state legislature approved giving Lawrence another $1.5M for … get this … improvements to the “rail trail”. For those who don’t know what the “rail trail” is, check this out. Your local and state officials have been spending millions of your tax dollars every year to create pretty walking areas along dead […]
By Tom Duggan – July 26, 2017 Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera’s new “Homeless Coordinator” Anil “Nilly” DaCosta has issued a new directive to manage the ongoing problem of dozens of homeless squatters living under the Casey Bridge. The encampment, known as “Tent City” has been a haven for drugs, prostitution, and other crimes in […]
By: Tom Duggan – 12-28-16 DONATE HERE Yashua Duerte and Carlos Ortiz were lingering at the Methuen police station for hours on Monday waiting to hear from the Red Cross, or the City of Methuen, or anyone else, as to whether or not their hotel stay at the Day’s Inn would be extended another 24 […]
By: Joe D’Amore – October, 2016 The city of Lawrence and several Cape Ann communities have an almost intractable homelessness problem not unlike other urban centers in the United States. The twin primary drivers are lack of affordable housing and an economy that does not produce sufficient jobs for people looking for them throughout the […]
With the Daybreak Homeless Shelter in Lawrence in desperate need of funding to care for the less fortunate, the new owner of Salvatore’s Restaurant, Mike Agricola, showed up last month with two of his staff, Eric Soucy and Joyce Philbrick, to lend a helping hand. “This is wonderful,” Carina Pappalardo, head of the Greater […]