Fight against homelessness gets boost

LYNN – Two local organizations are among 200 across the state splitting $13 million in donated money to help feed, house and provide heat and health care to homeless or almost-homeless Massachusetts residents, the organization MassNeeds announced Monday.The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless and Lynn Community Health Center are two Lynn organizations receiving money along with the Anthony Petruccelli Charitable Foundation in Lynnfield.Mass Needs announced that 51 organizations raised $13 million to help groups like Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless providing health, housing and heating assistance.Center Director Lori Abrams Berry did not initially know on Monday how much money the center, located on Union Street, will receive from MassNeeds, but Berry said the coalition banded together with the center and two other organizations in September to provide local homeless individuals with health care.She said the four organizations, including My Brother’s Table and the Lynn Health Care Task Force, are trying to make sure homeless individuals receive preventative health care – shots, infection treatment, dental care and examinations – even as local housing organizations work to find them housing.”We want to make it easier for people to get care quickly,” Berry said.With help from Partners HealthCare/North Shore Medical Center, the four groups hired a nurse and a health worker. She said the groups joined forces with Partners following several meetings to discuss circumstances leading homeless individuals to seek emergency medical care.Homelessness and health care are closely connected needs, according to a MassNeeds press release.”Every winter we see more and more patients with preventable medical conditions as a result of inadequate food, heat and housing,” state Mark Marino, who works for Health Leads, a not-for-profit health care organization.MassNeeds, in its release, stated that reductions in federal housing and heating assistance programs forces people to stretch a dollar between food and heating costs as well as rent and medical bills.Berry said the health center and the coalition operate an information booth or kiosk in the center at 269 Union St., where people facing difficulties meeting essential needs can get help.”We’re trying to help do anything we can to keep people from becoming homeless in the first place,” she said.