New research from the Boston Indicators, released this week, confirms what we have known for a long time: Boston’s homeless population is too high. It’s unfortunate that in a city that ranks among the best in so many categories, Boston has one of the highest homeless rates in the country. That’s one category we definitely don’t want to be at the top in.
At Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath), we experience this crisis firsthand every day as one of Massachusetts’ largest and most trusted providers of shelter, particularly for women and children. For two centuries, innovation and evolution to meet the needs of women and families has been central to our work. This goes back to our founding in 1824, when we provided shelter for “unwed mothers” who needed a safe and supportive place to give birth.
Over the years, our predecessor organizations – the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union and Crittenton, Inc. – have continued to drive transformative change for women and families, whether through supporting women entrepreneurs, providing reproductive health care, or establishing one of the first free school lunch programs.
Earlier this summer, we celebrated our rich history at our 200th Anniversary Gala by recognizing trailblazing women in our community, including Boston entrepreneur and philanthropist Shellee Mendes.
Shellee grew up in housing projects in Roslindale and Dorchester. In her early 20s, despite working full-time in the financial district, she and her two young children became homeless due to a rent increase. Her family found support in a Quincy homeless shelter while she paid for cosmetology school and freelanced in hair salons.
After years of struggle, she opened the award-winning Salon Monét, the only African-American-owned business on Boston’s famous Newbury Street. Earlier this year, the salon was named one of the 15 “best shops” on Newbury Street in a Boston.com poll.
Now, Shellee is giving back to help the growing number of women and children in need in today’s housing crisis by designating EMPath as the beneficiary of her 2024 White Party fundraiser. Her generosity to EMPath will have a far-reaching impact on so many mothers working to achieve their biggest dreams.
Shellee’s journey is just one example of the resilience of so many women who, with the right support, have made inspiring progress toward their goals. At EMPath, we strongly believe in the power of mentorship to move families forward. As part of our multi-faceted approach to fighting poverty, in our groundbreaking coaching approach, all families in our direct service programs, including those in shelters, are assigned an EMPath mentor as they work toward goals in all areas of their lives.
We all need a mentor in life: to strategize for our big goals, overcome obstacles, and pave a path forward. Mentors have been critical at every stage of my life – as a teen mother, as Boston City Council President, as Mayor of Boston, and now as President and CEO of EMPath. As Shellee herself said when she accepted the EMPower Award at our gala, “With the right support, anyone can overcome adversity and succeed.”
Time and time again, our program participants reach new heights—securing stable housing, increasing income, earning degrees, saving money, improving their credit scores, and reducing debt. But we know that long-term change for families, including those experiencing homelessness, is not possible without fundamental changes to our systems.
The latest proposals from our local lawmakers to limit shelter stays to nine months, and even five days in some shelters, miss the mark. We cannot put a Band-Aid on this crisis. To make meaningful change, we need not only more investment in housing assistance for families, but we must also address our affordable housing crisis.
When you invest in women, you help families and communities. It is perhaps a happy coincidence that a week after this celebratory fundraiser for a women-founded organization dedicated to helping women and families climb the economic ladder, history will be made when the first black female presidential candidate in America takes the podium at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It will be a moment we will not forget.
Kim Janey is President and CEO of Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath) and former Mayor of Boston. www.empathways.org
To attend Shellee Mendes’ White Party on August 11th to benefit EMPath, visit: https://empathways.org/shellee-mendes-white-party. Janey will co-host the event with Rhondella Richardson, Emmy award-winning journalist at WCVB-TV Channel 5. Hundreds of attendees, dressed in white, will come together to toast Mendes and EMPath and raise money for the women and children supported by this historic and significant organization.
