Rick Hart: A personal decision >Published: 7/7/2021 4:30:14 PM
The many readers who recently expressed their annoyance at the presence of panhandlers and other street people downtown are little aware of how difficult life is for people who have no home, in Northampton, the commonwealth and beyond. The pandemic has been a time of isolation and loneliness for everyone, but imagine what it must be like to have no roof over your head.
Thanks to MANNA Community Kitchen, meals are available to all who are hungry. Ask any MANNA volunteer about the people they meet and they will fill your ears with the difficulties with which the homeless have to cope.
Published: 4/9/2021 2:56:31 PM
NORTHAMPTON Longtime downtown business owner Bill Muller thought he had a plan consolidate his Northampton businesses, Guild Art Supply and Pierce’s Frameshop, and his Easthampton printing business, Big Wheel Press, into one space in the old Serio’s Market storefront on State Street in Northampton.
The spot was ideal, complete with parking. “We were working on floor plans and everything,” he said. “Then COVID hit.”
Surrounded by so much economic uncertainty, Muller scrapped those plans entirely. Instead of staying in downtown Northampton, where he’s run Guild Art Supply for 37 years, he made the tough decision last year to move the store and framing shop to his press space in Easthampton.
A space to just ‘be’: Northampton seeks place to house ‘Community Resilience Hub’ for those in need
Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz is shown Monday at City Hall. STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING
Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz. Photographed on Monday, Dec. 21, 2020, at City Hall. STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING
Published: 12/22/2020 7:18:19 PM
NORTHAMPTON Several years after the Mayor’s Panhandling Work Group was formed, a key recommendation from its 248-page report is closer to becoming a reality.
One of the “top issues” that came out of the Panhandling Work Group, Mayor David Narkewicz said, “was this idea of a need for a place that people could go to get a variety of services and shelter and warmth and showers.
Sheltering in place: Amid COVID-19 and cold weather, homeless presence downtown swells
Andre Desjardines on the steps of Northampton’s City Hall, where he had been sleeping earlier this week. He moved recently because he was worried for his safety. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS
Nathaniel James, Andre Desjardines and Christina Marie Remmes by the empty storefront that used to house Faces earlier this week. Remmes had been sleeping and living on the steps of City Hall in Northampton but recently found temporary housing. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS
Andre Desjardines on the steps of Northampton’s City Hall, where he had been sleeping earlier this week. He moved recently because he was worried for his safety. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS