Part of our mission at Jessie’s House is to advocate for homeless families and to keep this ever-growing social woe in the public eye. We encourage you to contact your government representatives to ask them to support legislation that will help our state and national governments do a better job in meeting the needs of homeless families and solving the crisis in affordable housing for low income families.

From time to time, we will post information here about state and federal proposals that need the support of everyone who cares about the plight of homeless families. We also encourage you to visit the advocacy organizations on our Links page to learn more about public policy initiatives regarding homelessness and affordable housing.

NEW! REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMISSION RELATIVE TO ENDING HOMELESSNESS IN THE COMMONWEALTH
"SECTION 1.  There shall be a special commission for the purpose of devising a statewide strategy to end homelessness in the commonwealth.  "
Read More Here

HOUSING REMAINS "OUT OF REACH"
The National Low Income Housing Coalition has just released the latest version of Out of Reach, an annual report on housing affordability for low-income people across the nation. The sobering document once again places Massachusetts among the top three most expensive states in the country for renters. To read this important report, visit: http://www.nlihc.org/oor/oor2006

NEW REPORT DOCUMENTS CORRELATION BETWEEN HISTORIC CUTS TO FEDERAL HOUSING PROGRAMS AND CONTEMPORARY MASS HOMELESSNESS
"Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures," documents the correlation between these trends and the emergence of a new and massive episode of homelessness in the 1980s which continues today. It particularly focuses on radical cuts to programs administered by the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), which administers funds for rural affordable housing. Available at http://wraphome.org/wh_press_kit/Without_Housing_20061114.pdf (PDF 2.9MB), the report also demonstrates why federal responses to this nationwide crisis have consistently failed.