Individuals, Vets, Families: 'Nobody Should Be Homeless'

Stay-at-home orders early in the COVID-19 pandemic prompted people to reflect deeply on that loaded word—“home.”

Thoughts soon turned to the unhoused—neighbors living in tents in parks, sleeping on sidewalks and in overcrowded shelters. Communities were made aware of just how dire the housing crisis is.

“You start thinking about your own health and safety, and your home, and how precious these are during a pandemic,” says Patrick Ronan, director of community relations at Father Bill’s & MainSpring (FBMS), a non-profit in southern Massachusetts that provides services to prevent and end homelessness.

“Space became a matter of life or death,” he adds.

FBMS has provided emergency shelter to thousands of people every year for nearly 40 years. Its services connect guests with community programs, employment services and permanent supportive housing.

Ronan recognized a distinct shift in how people viewed homelessness during the pandemic. “As a community, we started to think that we can do better than this,” he explains. “How humane is it to have 100 people sleeping in a single room under one roof? This isn’t good public health policy, to have this many people this close to each other.”

Organizations like FBMS needed extra financial support during the pandemic, as their responsibilities expanded to include keeping guests and staff safe.

In late 2021, Enbridge provided FBMS with a $30,000 Fueling Futures grant to cover the costs of COVID supplies and personal protective equipment, and allow the organization to continue to provide shelter and programs during the public health crisis.

“This very generous donation is allowing us to provide critical life-saving services in the most challenging time we’ve ever faced in our mission,” Ronan says.

Significantly, the non-profit broke ground on its innovative Yawkey Housing Resource Center in Quincy, MA, last year.

“We’ve been in our current building since 1988, and it doesn’t have the space or capacity to address the challenges our guests are dealing with,” Ronan explains. “We’ll be replacing that building with the Yawkey Housing Resource Center, which has two buildings—one is a 24/7 day center with emergency shelter space and homelessness prevention services, and the second is a building with 30 apartments for formerly homeless individuals.”

FBMS’ goal is to reduce the overall reliance on overall shelter, helping individuals more quickly and efficiently access permanent housing and achieve self-sufficiency.

Though the impacts of the pandemic and economic and housing crises are still revealing themselves, FBMS has a way forward.

Says Ronan: “Our housing resource center model will transform how we approach homelessness.”