My advocacy project

For my Woman to Woman advocacy project, I wrote the following letter:

Honorable Robert A. DeLeo
State House, Room 356
Boston, MA 02133

Dear Speaker DeLeo:

My name is Dina Giangrande and I am a single mother with a five year old. Last year I spent the whole year in a homeless shelter with my child. Things got really difficult for my daughter and I in shelter and I ended up leaving to move in with my daughters grandmother which I feel I am still homeless living under someone else’s roof. Because I left shelter I am no longer eligible for housing as a priority which doesn’t seem to make sense when I am still homeless with my child. I think this is a very unfair system. I need to be recognized and considered that I am a homeless person with a child and be able to still qualify as a priority for housing. I would like you to work on changing the system so that people who are homeless but not in shelter still qualify for priority status for housing. I really need this matter to be taken into consideration.

I have joined school and am trying to better my life as well as to better my financial situation to be able to afford my own apartment but there is a long challenging way to that road. It is unfair to my family and other families in a similar situation. My family was trying to provide a more stable option until I obtained permanent housing. But affordable housing in Massachusetts is hard to come by and wait lists are long.

The regulations are a disincentive for families to provide help and assistance. Thank you for your attention on this matter.