SPRINGFIELD Over 400 people walked on Sunday to end homelessness in western Massachusetts as part of the inaugural Winter Walk for Homelessness. The Winter Walk is a year-round organization that hosts an annual homelessness walk to raise awareness.
The âdirty secretâ of being a homeless child âIâm really proud of how far Iâve come . . . but Iâm always scared of losing it.â
Updated February 20, 2021, 3:00 a.m.
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Winter Walk participants last February. The fundraiser, which raises awareness about homelessness in Boston, went remote this year and also spawned a podcast.Winter Walk Boston/Chris M. Shane
Boston ranks third among American cities for its number of homeless families. Of them, 84 percent are single mothers with young children. Kelly, 34, spent her childhood in and out of homelessness and housing insecurity. âI was so ashamed,â she recalls. âHomelessness was like a dirty secret. My mom was like, you never, ever tell anyone any of this.â Kelly, who has asked that we use only her first name to protect her privacy, says she became adept at hiding her reality from those closest to her. âI used to get angry and think I canât believe my teac