[Original post from 10/29/2024 on our Instagram account. State, police, and DCR threats to the existence of this encampment have not stopped and so it remains relevant.]

In response to police action and a 48 hour notice to vacate placed on the encampment we support, Warm Up Boston took to a rotary along Memorial Drive to show the people of Cambridge and Boston that this brutality must come to an end and real solutions to homelessness must be pursued. We held a banner stating "CRIMINALIZATION DOES NOT END HOMELESSNESS. HOUSING AND RESOURCES ENDS HOMELESSNESS." We will not sit back and watch our neighbors be dehumanized and displaced.

We know this leads to more death and they know this leads to more death. This violence is the dark underbelly of the political establishment they shroud in the language of public health and safety, pointing to non profits they choose to underfund. Their programs and services are not enough and they know this. A world in which homelessness doesn't exist is one that gives power to the working class and takes money and power away from the landlords, capitalists, and their pet politicians. As long as anyone continues to lose housing, everyone's housing remains insecure.

We are committed to ending homelessness in Boston and everywhere. And you can help us by joining today. If becoming a member isn't within reach for you, getting educated on housing and pushing back on anti-homeless sentiment where you live and work goes a long way.

Caring about housing and homelessness isn't about being a good person or feeling bad for someone. It's about standing up for what's right and realizing that capitalism is inseparable from the incarceration, dehumanization, and killing of our community members. We want all members of our community to be treated like human beings, an end to the violence, and basic survival needs to be met in our society for everyone.

#WarmUpBoston #SolidarityNotCharity #FeedThePeople #MutualAid #MutualAidIsPolitical

Homelessness is a punishment for being poor. No matter your life decisions, health emergencies, or criminal record, being housed should never be put into question. Our homes are what allow all other aspects of life. Housing is the most basic human need beyond air, water, and food. And yet, this economy has never dared to guarantee housing, food, and clean air and water to all who reside under it. We in Warm Up Boston view this as a serious and violent misarrangement of priorities. “Violent” is not an exaggeration when poverty of both the housed and the unhoused leads to an astonishing rate of early deaths.

We choose to act where we have power. In providing food and water to an encampment and to folks in downtown Boston, we are able to provide basic needs for survival. Both of our distributions were successful this week, thanks to the dedicated work of volunteers both on the ground and behind the scenes.

While this work demands a lot from us every week, we find the strength to carry on in the dream of ending this needless suffering. By turning to one another to carry out necessary tasks when we tire, we preserve our energy and capacity to continue. We are even more relieved when more and more of our neighbors step in to do this work with us.

Lastly, we want to thank the rad community groups @skatehags and @bostonmidweekskate for their donation drives that will keep our homeless neighbors warmer this winter. We thank @BostonAnarchistBookfair for having us and its attendees for bringing canned goods and $1000 in donations! Those funds covered the purchase of 3800 hand warmers. We also thank @bloww_boston for helping us raise another $1000 by hosting us at their most recent show; those funds covered the purchase of 600 hats and 750 pairs of gloves! We have more chances to donate coming up – tomorrow at @night_cap_cafe and Friday at @absolutedisruption organizers will be collecting canned goods!

#WarmUpBoston #ServeThePeople #MutualAid #SolidarityNotCharity

This week has been long and difficult, but Warm Up Boston continued our twice weekly distributions. Last Thursday, we delivered a hot meal of meatballs and potatoes, a case of water, snacks, warming supplies, and safer injection/smoking supplies to every resident of the encampment we support. As it gets colder and the state is still in a drought, staying warm comes with heightened risks, so we supplied everyone with fire extinguishers and CO monitors. Last Sunday, we handed out over 100 sandwiches and bottles of water downtown, as well as snacks, safer injection/smoking supplies, and hot beverages. Our baseline is providing this weekly care to our communities, at the same day and time each week, so folks can rely on our support.

Our members were disappointed at the results of last week's election, but we have been operating for four years under a Democratic president in a state with a Democratic (or RINO) governor and a city with a Democratic mayor. We see the impact of federal, state, and municipal policy – such as Healey’s gutting of shelter and public benefits programs, and Wu’s tent ban – on unhoused people and people who use drugs each and every day. For so long as we exist in a capitalist system, marginalized groups will be disenfranchised, and no elected representative can or will end poverty or homelessness. Voting alone will never end homelessness.

We will continue to advocate for policy change and for our electeds to represent all of their constituents – housed and unhoused alike – while simultaneously working to end the destructiveness of capitalism. We call for universal housing, free healthcare, a reversal of tent bans, an end to all encampment sweeps, and enfranchisement for anyone convicted of a felony or without a permanent address or suitable ID.

We are comforted by the number of community members who have reached out to us in the last week and find solace in the fact that, no matter who is in government, we continue to build solidarity among people ostracized by those in power. We continue our weekly distributions, we continue organizing, and we continue advocating for our unhoused neighbors. If you, too, would like to get involved, whether through our fight or in another cause, reach out, and we will connect you.

#WarmUpBoston #MutualAid #SolidarityNotCharity

We all know that homelessness itself is criminalized, especially following the passage of Boston's tent ban ordinance last fall and the Supreme Court's ruling in Grants Pass V. Johnson earlier this summer. Warm Up's Legal Working Group is trying to chip away at the effects of this. Read on for more about our Court Support Program, an update on our Bail Fund, and how YOU can get involved!

#boston #warmupboston #solidaritynotcharity #bailreform #bailfund #decriminalizepoverty #decriminalizehomelessness #housingfirst #housingcrisis #grantspass #housingjustice #housingnothandcuffs #legalaid

[Original post from 10/10] [All tagged accounts on Instagram] Last weekend on our mobile route we gave out sandwiches, waters, snacks, toiletries, harm reduction supplies, and tons of socks courtesy of @ffcof2020 and @redsgoodvibes. Since it’s getting chilly, our hot drink carafes also made their return, and folks were thrilled to get coffee, tea, and hot chocolate!

At the encampment we gave out a hot meal of chicken and veggie teriyaki with rice, tarps, tents, snacks, canned goods, water, trash bags, clothing, and harm reduction supplies.

We also had a great time hanging out with folks from @smokeworksharmreduction last weekend. Some of our members packaged ~7000 bubble pipes and 500 safer injection kits! Stay tuned for future collaborations and volunteer days.

Fun fact: Warm Up is overseen by a league of feline harm reductionists. Thanks to their devoted efforts, every distro we give out narcan, bubble pipes, straight pipes, chore, and injection kits. Injection kits include needles, tourniquets, alcohol wipes, cookers, cottons, sterile waters, and sometimes bleach. The Warm Up kitties are determined to give people access to new drug use supplies to reduce risk of injury, infection, and infectious diseases. While they lack the opposable thumbs needed to administer Narcan, they’re determined to ensure we always distro so folks can reverse overdoses.

To learn more about harm reduction, check out the great work of folks like @harmreductionboston, @smokeworksharmreduction, @harmreductioncoalition, @materialaidandadvocacyprogram, @pro_lapsed_catholic
@nextdistro

#WarmUpBoston #ServeThePeople #MutualAid #HarmReduction

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