Shelter Skelter
Councilor Quinton Y. Zondervan points out that an end to the pandemic could come with a surge in homelessness, as the eviction moratorium expires. âThereâs going to be a wave of evictions, of people who couldnât afford to pay their rent. Itâs a horrible disaster waiting to happen,â he says. â[It will] disproportionately impact Black and Brown community members . We canât go back to normal,â he adds. âWe have to [do] better, because normal was unjust.â
The day before a Cambridge City Council meeting in February, John Chute was preparing his notes.
Chute, who is now 40 years old, has lived in Cambridge his whole life. Until June 2020, he was unhoused for about seven years. As he prepared his notes for the meeting, he thought of the many people he knew who didnât have a warm place to stay in the harrowing week ahead. Temperatures had dipped in the single digits days prior, as the Boston area experienced its col