This week we brought a hot meal of chicken, peas, and pasta, canned goods, snacks, water, clothing, blankets, and harm reduction supplies to the encampment. On our mobile distro we brought sandwiches, snacks, wound care kits, waters, socks, toiletries, hot drinks, and harm reduction supplies to folks around downtown, the Common, South Station, and Back Bay.

We build trust with community members we serve by consistently showing up week after week with the same supplies. It is essential to our work that encampment residents know exactly where their dinner will be coming that night and that they’ll each get a case of water every week. We hear frequently from folks on mobile routes that they were waiting for us to come by because they knew we’d be coming by with new needles and sandwiches.

It is always a gift to be trusted by another person, and we do not take it lightly. We’re only able to consistently show up each week because of our incredible volunteers and donors. We are endlessly grateful for our volunteers who spend their free time making sandwiches and meals, tabling at events, and of course, doing distros.

#WarmUpBoston #ServeThePeople #EncampmentSupport #MutualAid

We are constantly reminded in this work of the monopoly the state has on power and protection of property. While one arm of the state prosecutes people living in deep poverty for shoplifting from multi-billion dollar corporations to survive, another arm of the state comes in with bulldozers to destroy people’s homes and belongings. Capitalists will claim that only they respect people’s right to personal property. What this really means is that the state protects the property of places like Walmart ($648 BILLION in revenue for 2024), while destroying the property of people who cannot afford to live inside.
While our goal is eventual destruction of this unjust system, in the meantime we’re left to provide where the state has failed. If you’re able to chip in to purchase new tents (~$60 for a used tent, ~$250 for a new one) for residents after this latest sweep, please use the link in our bio.

#WarmUpBoston #EncampmentSupport #MutualAid #SweepsAreViolence #FuckTheTentBan #SolidarityNotCharity

It’s about that time of year where we unofficially become Cool Down Boston! Fighting the heat is extra hard for folks who live outside like our neighbors at the encampment. Lack of access to things like drinking water, air conditioning, and refrigerators adds extra challenges to basic survival needs like nutrition, hydration, and staying cool enough. Additionally, sweeps generally increase in the summer leading to belongings getting confiscated or damaged and making it harder to meet basic needs.

During the summer, we add ice to our usual distro goods and try our best to give extra water. We’ve also increased the number of meals and other supplies in recent weeks to try to meet increased needs. Unfortunately, this is all somewhat limited by a general drop in donations, both monetarily and in supplies provided by other community groups.

This morning we responded to a sweep that residents were told would be tomorrow, and we are in the process of trying to replace things like tents, tarps, and bedding. Stay tuned for a more detailed update.

If you’d like to help your unhoused neighbors beat the heat during this upcoming heat wave and the next, please use the link in our bio to become a regular donor!

#SweepsAreViolence #EncampmentSupport #MutualAidBoston #WarmUpBoston #FuckTheTentBan

Our comrades returned to the encampment this week to drop off essential supplies for survival. This included a chili, cases of water, along with other requested items.

Our solidarity with the homeless begins on the most human level, to make sure everyone has the means to survive before anything else. It has become immensely normalized for us to simply look the other way. This is in fact, not normal. This is drilled into us from a young age that some people in this world just can't support themselves. They leave out the landlords, bosses, and cops who push us out onto the street. And they sanctify the rampant neglect of our politicians to do anything substantial about it.

Our solidarity with the homeless begins on this human level, but it is driven home when we see that we ourselves are only a few paychecks away from being in their position. A great many homeless people will tell you how easy it is for one thing to happen after another and you find yourself without housing and without help.

We are blessed to have that capacity to help these folks out in which ever ways they want our help. Not only does their day become easier, but we also get to act on that more natural response we all have to make sure we all have the means to survive before anything else

#WarmUpBoston #EncampmentSupport #MutualAid #FuckTheTentBan #HousingNotHandcuffs

Our comrades returned to supply the encampment this week with soup, snacks, cases of water, harm reduction supplies, clothing, and items essential for day to day living.

The residents have recovered somewhat but not completely from their forced removal last week. The stress, the tension, the exhaustion persists; everything is made harder when you have to start all over again and again. This is how the state responds to homelessness. Half hearted and half assed services or harassment under threat of handcuffs.

While we gather our forces to fight for housing for all, we will continue to support our neighbors directly. We are currently accepting donations for the following items!

• T-shirts
• Shorts
• Light pants
• New/unopened underwear
• New/unused socks

To support our work, please consider a small monthly donation to one of the platforms found in the link in our bio. To take part in the fight for housing first and for all, feel free to DM us here!

#WarmUpBoston #EncampmentSupport #MutualAid #FuckTheTentBan #HousingNotHandcuffs

Our comrades this week returned to the encampment to distribute necessary supplies for survival. This included a hot meal, 7 cases of water, snacks, fruit, croissants, as well as requested items such as clothing, cleaning supplies, and harm reduction supplies.

We do this work not as an act of charity, but as an act of solidarity with our neighbors that our healthcare system and housing market fails. The cities, state, non-profits, and other agencies all agree on a housing first model. Yet they actively under fund and under serve as they over promise. They consistently side with the landlords, insurance companies, land owners, and bosses when they allow thousands to suffer a daily crisis. Through this work we aim to create an alliance between housed and unhoused folks to build a strong community ready to fight for the basic protections we owe to each other on a human level. That's why we say strong communities begin with warm meals!

Thank you to all our online donors, you are driving this organization to accompmish so much! We have multiple ways for you to donate in our bio in our linktree. We also thank all of our comrades on the ground, we need both to make this happen. If you are looking to take part in distributions and gain experience organizing, please dm us on here and we'll get you started! #WarmUpBoston #ServeThePeople #SurvivalProgram #EncampmentSupport #SolidarityNotCharity #MutualAid

Yesterday, we distributed warm meals, blankets, waters, harm reduction, snacks, and more to our community members who have repeatedly had their homes destroyed by DCR and BPD acting on the tent ban.

As a Warm Up harm reduction coordinator explained at Northeastern today, the violence students have faced recently is the daily reality of unhoused folks. We commend everyone standing with Palestine and urge you all to continue showing the same solidarity with unhoused community members.

The tent ban is designed to enact violence on those the establishment wishes to keep silent and invisible. Mayor Wu’s tent ban must go!

#DecriminalizeSurvival #MaterialAid #FreePalestine #SolidarityNotCharity #WeKeepUsSafe #ACAB #EncampmentSupport

This past Sunday we conducted our weekly mobile distro. Despite the busy streets and crowds of green hindering our ability to get to some of the places we typically serve, we still found folks in the hiding places they told us about. We are thankful that the community trusts us with their hideaways; we can do our job better that way.

Since this distro happened on a day when many people were celebrating their Irish heritage, we wanted to highlight the struggles the Irish people went through and explain how the famine and mass displacement suffered by the people of Ireland, and the famine and mass displacement currently happening in Gaza are connected. They are connected because of a root cause: colonialism.

British colonialists and landlords in 19th century Ireland displayed genocidal intent as they exported millions of pounds of food to other countries while the Irish people were starving to death, and landlords destroyed their properties and evicted tenants just to get out of paying “famine relief” taxes. The genocidal intent of the IOF has never been more clearly articulated than today, in bombing and starving millions of Palestinians; but the roots of this famine and displacement go much deeper, starting with stripping the native populations of their food sovereignty through settler colonialism.

Our struggles here with food insecurity might not be at the same proportion as the examples above, but they too are connected. When food and housing are not viewed as necessary to life, but rather a means to produce profit for the ruling class, the system by design creates great inequality and suffering. The ruling class and the billionaires who control them have all the money and the power to end war, to end genocide, to end famine, to end homelessness, but they don’t. They will always prioritize profits over people. From Boston to Ireland to Palestine, the struggles of the oppressed are one struggle. #WarmUpBoston #ServeThePeople #SurvivalProgram #MutualAid #HarmReduction #MobileOutreach #EncampmentSupport #StPatricksDay #StPatricksDayBoston #Ireland #Palestine

Earlier this week, a few Warm Up organizers met with some senior-year high school students of New Mission High who were awesome enough to spend their lunch break with us. We taught them about mutual aid, why it’s necessary, who and what influenced us to do this work, and how our work differs from state programs or church organizations. We were thrilled to answer their thought-provoking questions and were exceptionally thrilled about their desire to help participate in our cause. We look forward to seeing what these students come up with and working together with them in the coming weeks.
#WarmUpBoston #ServeThePeople #SurvivalProgram #MutualAid #HarmReduction #MobileOutreach #EncampmentSupport #WUBIsForTheChildren