Letter from the Director: Regarding the Mass. & Cass. Cleanup
Encampments are a moving target, and the women inside them are extraordinarily vulnerable. This is how we can help them.
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For the past seven years, tent encampments have been at the center of the dialogue surrounding Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard. Often missing from the overall discourse has been the role tents play in obscuring the lives and unique voices of homeless women.
Yesterday, the tents at Mass. and Cass. were cleared out, but the reality is that unsheltered women continue to be scattered throughout the city.
Due to fear and trauma, they hide from street outreach caregivers and avoid the annual homeless count. Curfews, exposure to COVID, and the prohibition of needles and safe injection sites often prevent these women from going to overnight shelters.
In tents, women are often victims of both human trafficking and abusive relationships. Homeless women have a higher suicide risk, worse physical health, and a lower quality of life than men in a comparable situation.
Additionally, street homelessness is often tied to substance use and mental health disorders. Women, who are most likely to become homeless due to domestic violence, are also more likely to experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and extreme depressive symptoms.
Women’s Lunch Place has been collaborating with leaders from human services organizations to transform our current system and create solutions that can be put in place quickly to protect women.
Women-specific environments will continue to be critical. Daytime safe havens offer needed protection, as well as opportunities to access healthy nutrition, feminine hygiene, dignity-centered care such as showers and laundry, recovery services, healthcare, and critical advocacy management that focuses on each woman’s individualized path toward stability and health. The end goal––and a core human right––is safe, permanent housing for every woman.
The election of Mayor Michelle Wu underscores a broader theme in our city. After 200 years, a woman is the voice of Boston, and Mayor Wu’s “Citywide Plan to Address Homelessness, Substance Use, and Mental Health” pays heed to many of the challenges and limitations of our current system. The public health response to Mass. and Cass. exemplifies this.
However, it will not be one voice that resolves this humanitarian crisis, and that burden should not be placed on our new Mayor and her staff. If we are to succeed, it will be through a chorus of voices, and those hidden behind tents or in doorways, alleys, and underpasses cannot go unheard.
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Jennifer Hanlon Wigon is the Executive Director of Women’s Lunch Place, a shelter and advocacy center serving women experiencing hunger, homelessness, and poverty in Greater Boston.