Dear Governor Baker,

We write today to thank you for your leadership and clarity in this crisis, and to request that you take another crucial step.

As you are of course aware, in the city of Boston and across Massachusetts there are many for whom the stay-at-home advisory is meaningless, because they have no home. We might even say it is worse than meaningless, because what it actually means for them - homeless men, women and children -  is a drastic lack of services and support, a decrease in general safety and therefore a heightened risk of exposure to the COVID-19 virus.

At the community meetings we host as part of our MANNA ministry to the unhoused, we are seeing something new: a quiet despair, and a sense of having been utterly abandoned. Mayor Walsh is opening up some shelter space, but the need is outrunning the spaces being offered. Already the ratio of positive results to tests administered in the homeless population far exceeds the usual models.

In other cities in the US, and in other countries, mayors and governors have been working with local hotels and motels to provide safe temporary accommodation for those who would otherwise be on the street, or in shelters where social distancing is impossible. Just in our neighborhood of downtown Boston there are hundreds of hotel rooms, currently unoccupied, which could represent hundreds of lives saved if they are given over to sheltering our unhoused neighbors.

We believe that Massachusetts should be in the vanguard of this initiative. By closing the gap between available space and those who desperately need it, our city and our state can once again lead by example. We respectfully urge you to take the necessary action.

Sincerely,

The Rev. Jennifer McCracken
Head Pastor to the MANNA Community
Cathedral Church of St. Paul
Boston, MA

ADDENDUM: Excerpts from "Letters to the Governor during the COVID-19 Crisis"
by members of the Black Seed Writers Group and MANNA Community
A ministry of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston for people experiencing homelessness

"The walls are closing in, even though I don't have any walls around me. That's the emotional impression I get as a homeless man during this crisis in Boston."

"Almost every public building and public bathroom has been shut down, as have most private businesses. Simply finding a bathroom or place to relieve myself is a great challenge."

"Many homeless shelters have either cut back services or are entirely closed. Will walking the street soon become my only option?"

"This is a bad time to live in a shelter or to be homeless....For me, it's like being marooned on an island with man-eating tigers."

"It feels like we don't really matter."

"We are real people...I wasn't always homeless...don't let me die out here, Mr. Governor."