Charlestown Resident Walks To Help End Homelessness

CHARLESTOWN, MA — Charlestown’s Dr. Tracey Decert participated in the Winter Walk, raising awareness around homelessness and housing insecurity this past weekend.

The walk, which is presented in partnership with BMC HealthNet Plan and Boston Medical Center, where Decert works as a trauma surgeon, had 1,900 walkers and volunteers raise more than $475,000 to help end homelessness in Boston.

Each year for the past four years people take to the street at Copley Square Plaza and walk 2 miles around city streets during in February, generally the coldest month of the year.

"This is our chance to link arms with those who experience homelessness and to listen humbly to their stories," reads a description on the event's website. "It is our chance to show them that this city cares about their lives and to affirm our commitment to do all it takes to ease their struggles."

In January 2019 the annual Boston homeless census tallied 6,203 people in Boston, either alone or part of families as homeless.

For many people experiencing homelessness, it is a temporary crisis, usually lasting a few weeks. Most seek support from their personal support systems - friends and family - if they have them. But when those social supports fail or do not exist, people must turn to those public resources that are available in their community.

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development named Boston the city with the lowest percentage of unsheltered people living on the street of any city conducting a census. In 2018, fewer than 3 percent of Boston's homeless population was sleeping on the street. The annual homeless census is required by HUD as a key component of Boston's $26.3 million federal grant to support homelessness programs, according to the mayor's office. Early estimates indicated the January 2020 census numbers might be higher.

Since 2014 more than 2,000 people experiencing homelessness have found new homes, according to Mayor Marty Walsh's office.

"But there is still more to do," reads the city's annual homeless census website.

Resources: Resources Guide

More: Boston's Annual Homeless Census Held On Bitter Cold Night (2019)