Donate towards our 2023 Annual Appeal
We need your help in order to continue making meaningful change!
We need your help in order to continue making meaningful change!
Dear supporter and friend of Family Promise North Shore Boston ~
The time has come again for us to make a plea for your year-end donations. Every year I hope to fill this letter with stories of success and triumph, but every year the situation seems only to get worse. Massachusetts is facing an acute family homelessness crisis, a situation that has left our staff feeling defeated and angry. While everyone knows about the soaring housing costs that affect us all, many don't realize the dire lack of shelter options for families in need. I want to take this opportunity to explain the impact of the state's recent decision to "cap shelter beds at 7500 households.
Massachusetts is the sole state in the nation with a "right to shelter" mandate, a law put into effect 40 years ago to guarantee shelter access for every family in need. Over these last four decades, the overwhelming demand for shelter only continued to increase beyond the state’s capacity, leading it to contract more nonprofits and hotels to take in families. However, the conditions of these hotels deteriorated quickly and over the years were shut down by a number of administrations. Now, due to the increasing need, hotels are once again being used across the state to shelter a significant percentage of the 7500 families. For context, over the last few years, the nightly average for families in MA state shelter was between 2500 and 3500 families.
What's less known is the persistent problem of families being denied shelter in our "right to shelter" state–even when the cap did not exist. Over 75% of families seeking shelter in any given month are not given shelter. Upon being turned away, they receive a very short list of "alternative" options, with Family Promise North Shore Boston prominently featured on this list. As a privately funded nonprofit, we've become a beacon of hope for families ineligible for state shelter. For the last 2 years in particular, we have worked with many families who have been forced to sleep in their cars or outside with their young children. However, the shelter bed cap means that the number of families who find themselves with nowhere to go will likely double, triple, or quadruple. During one week in the summer, Family Promise served three different families who were Beverly residents and sleeping in their cars–and this is only one of the cities in our service area!
We're a small organization with only four dedicated staff members–it is your support that allows us to keep serving families in need. With 50 active cases on any given day and a growing waitlist, we anticipate assisting over 300 households this year.
For 10 impressive years, Family Promise has been the community's creative response to an ongoing crisis. Thanks to your donations, we have been able to fill this ever-growing gap. We know it can be tiring to support a seemingly never-ending cause, but we hope you'll continue to be the reason we can exist and serve more families. Family Promise’s value in this community is immeasurable, and we hope you'll help us support families until no parent has to worry about where their child will sleep at night.
With gratitude,
Rachel Hand
Executive Director
Family Promise North Shore Boston
Please mail checks to: Family Promise North Shore Boston, 35 Conant Street, Beverly, MA 01915