The corner of Massachusetts Avenue and JFK Street is a popular spot for toiletries from CVS, matchas from Blank Street, and trips into Boston via the Red Line. However, it’s also a place for around twenty unhoused individuals to rest or to ask passersby for spare change. While most students and Cambridge residents ignore them, this week, the Harvard Independent spoke to a few individuals in Harvard Square to hear their stories and bring nuance to our understanding of the homeless.
Antonio, an elderly amputee, sits outside of CVS or the Smith Campus Center on most days. He came from Cape Verde, an island country off of West Africa, ten years ago. Though a passerby may assume he has no housing, Antonio currently rents an apartment in Jamaica Plain, an hour-long train ride from Cambridge.
“I used to work. I used to work a mechanic job, and I used to deliver, drive,” Antonio explained. Ever since he needed his legs amputated due to diabetes about a year ago, Antonio has struggled financially.
Outside of the Coop sit Dylan and Ziggy. “We’re not homeless, but more or less travelers,” Ziggy remarked. Ziggy is awaiting his court hearing for distribution charges, and Dylan is trying to save enough money to repair his guitar and go to Salem. “I just came from California,” Dylan added. “We just met.”
At the moment, the two of them sleep on the streets or in abandoned buildings. “There’s squats everywhere. They’re all over—like storefronts anywhere that say ‘for lease.’ They can’t really complain about you being there,” Ziggy said. In the last year since the police cracked down on the Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard encampment, people experiencing homelessness have spread out across Boston and past its city limits, never staying in one spot for fear of police violence or arrest.
“You got to worry about cops for sure,” Dylan said. Ziggy agreed, introducing me to his dog, Deity, who he said had been his protector and motivation for getting up every morning. “I’ve been stopped by the cops before—they’ve made me lie down on top of him,” Ziggy said. Dylan followed up with, “They’ll shoot a dog, yeah. They’re a little trigger-happy.”
Financial Stability and Family
In August 2024, Boston Indicators released a report on homelessness in the Greater Boston area. Their findings showed that residential overcrowding in Boston has increased 50% since 2006, accompanying rising rental and home value rates over the past few years. This housing shortage, compounded by the high cost of living in Boston, has left many families without a stable housing situation. Homelessness rose by 27% between 2022 and 2023 alone.
Antonio sells editions from Spare Change Newspapers, a biweekly newspaper published through the work of the Homeless Empowerment Project in Cambridge, to make money. “I sell my papers every day when I go [to Harvard Square],” Antonio said, “They sell me a newspaper for 50 cents, I sell them for two dollars.” Spare Change Newspapers publishes local news and serves as a financial opportunity for unhoused individuals to earn profits while learning about pertinent resources through their “Helping Hands” and “Situations Wanted” sections.
Antonio has a daughter who lives in Boston. “She went to UMass, she made me very proud. Now she’s married, she’s got her husband, and she’s got two daughters raised. She supports me with food money; I don’t ask her for too much. She’s got a house to pay [for].” He displayed a picture of his two granddaughters on his phone, a look of pride on his face as he described his daughter’s success.
Ziggy’s main goal at the moment is to pay for his court fees while he’s mandated to be in the area. “I’m currently kidnapped by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until November 19, but after that, I’m headed off to the red rocks of California or Colorado,” Ziggy said, “I have family in Allston and Boston, which helps, but I do siding and framing. I do carpentry work here and there, but that’s just for now.”
“Boston’s pretty tough to make money in,” Dylan said when asked about sources of income to compensate for the rising cost of living. “I have barely ever spent time in Boston. I travel the whole country. I play guitar for tips.”
Relationship with Social Services
The Independent’s interviewees had conflicting views about shelters and social services available to the public. Health services were a major draw for each of the three. Antonio recounted his positive experience with social workers in the South End: “They give me medication, they check my foot, they check my blood pressure, they check my sugar, they check everything. They help me with everything.”
Ziggy was assigned a caseworker to help him access similar healthcare services until his court appointment in November. “I had my wisdom teeth come in, and they lined me up for appointments at Tufts Medical Center. There are eye appointments, too, that I’m able to go to,” Ziggy said. “I was able to apply for housing too, my wisdom teeth got extracted—I have two more up top for next week.”
Dylan, however, had a different view on social services. According to Dylan, the label “homeless” is applied to a diverse group of people, with unhoused individuals falling on a spectrum of self-sufficiency and stability. He expressed frustration with shelters and the support system, saying, “I don’t mess with them,” Dylan explained. “I walk into some shelter and we’re standing in line with a bunch of drug addicts—like the kind of people who really did fall on hard times and are just extremely misfortunate to have actual mental illness.”
Dylan recalled thinking, “What am I doing here? I can be resourceful. I can travel. I know how to get around. I like to leave the services for the people who really need it.”
Dylan was also skeptical about the benefits that outreach could provide. “If I were to get help from a shelter or a business, it would leave behind a homeless paper trail. It can mess with your traveling,” Dylan said. Both Dylan and Ziggy concurred on this point, with Ziggy adding, “You can get stuck in a loop, and the help is not really much help anyways.”
Homeless Outreach at Harvard
In Cambridge, public outreach for the unhoused is manifold in social services offered, some right outside of Harvard Yard. A critical demographic facing homelessness is youth around or under the age of 18, whom Boston Indicators reported accounting for a third of Greater Boston’s unhoused population. The Independent spoke with Necati Ünsal ’26, the administrative director of Y2Y Harvard Square, a student-staffed program that serves this vulnerable population.
“We are the nation’s first student-led shelter for youth homeless. Our overnight shelter serves up to 27 young adults each night—there are 22 long-term beds that guests can lottery for, and that bed lasts for 30 days. There are also five emergency beds.”
Ünsal described Y2Y’s role in both helping guests reach financial stability and in working with local services to provide better care. “We have case management services that will connect guests with resources regarding employment, getting an ID, applying for other things, generally finding ways to support them outside of our shelter services or working in tandem to transition them out of the shelters.”
While Y2Y has a strong network with PBHA and other Y2Y locations, Ünsal hopes to expand Y2Y’s reach to work with public services this year.
“Ongoing goals for this year are building relationships with Cambridge Police Department, Cambridge Fire Department, and the new Continuum of Care team,” Ünsal said. “We can provide coordinated incident response [and] are on the same page when stuff happens in an effort to not only make sure [a response] happens efficiently, but also to ensure the safety of guests and shelter staff.” Continuum of Care is a group of local nonprofits and individuals that coordinate housing and outreach programs for people experiencing housing insecurity.
Y2Y was founded by a former staff member of Harvard Square Homeless Shelter (HSHS), a homeless shelter similar to Y2Y but directed at the general adult population, that provides “guests with resources and services that will help them successfully transition into housing,” as their website states. HSHS is open from November to April, and their services range from daily meals and case management to street outreach and collaboration with local services.
Antonio, Ziggy, and Dylan seemed interested in these services, but it was unclear if they would actually seek them out here in Cambridge. “I know there’s a Continuum of Care,” Ziggy said, “I want to see if there’s some basic services here, like showers, day-to-day stuff.”
The experiences shared by Antonio, Ziggy, and Dylan highlight the diverse range of circumstances and challenges facing unhoused in Boston. Social services and homeless outreach continue, nevertheless, to expand their efforts and help our local community. Students who are interested in volunteering for homeless outreach can contact Y2Y at volunteer@y2y.harvard.square.org or HSHS at hshs.volunteer@gmail.com.
Caroline Stohrer ’28 (carolinestohrer@college.harvard.edu) is committed to learning more about public policy regarding homeless outreach and the housing crisis.