Plan to Require Housing May Clear First Hurdle

Harvard students and tutors this week joined members of Boston-area homeless organization in a last-minute push to gain petition support for a proposed right-to-housing amendment to the state constitution.

If passed, the amendment would guarantee every citizen's right to "habitable and affordable non-transient housing." A total of 61,000 signatures need to be presented to the Massachusetts State Legislature by tomorrow to start the legal process leading to a change in the constitution.

About 40,000 signatures had been collected as of yesterday by the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless at its Boston headquarters, said petition coordinator Susan Marsh.

"We could have 50,000 or 10,000 [more signatures] out there" at other signature collection areas, she said. "We're very optimistic."

"I think [homelessness] is a critical issue in Massachusetts right now and one that deserves support," said Cathy Mainzer, executive director of the Coalition. "I think that housing and food are a right and need to be considered a right rather than a charity or a privilege," she said.

The Coalition, one of several groups directing the petition drive, recently enlisted the aid of several Harvard affiliates in an attempt to garner support from the Harvard community.

Clark M. Pratt '87, supervisor of the University Lutheran Homeless Shelter, and Dan P. Buchanan '89 took to the streets of the Square early last week and gained a total of 80 signatures, four from Harvard undergraduates. Meanwhile, Cindy Hyatt, a resident tutor in Adams House, gathered 17 student signatures in the house's dining hall.

Their efforts were reinforced this weekend by members of the Harvard-Radcliffe Democratic Club, whose recently formed committee for the homeless combed the Square for more signatures.

Committee co-coordinator Betty C. Ludaici '90 estimated that the amendment proposal drive, the committee's first endeavor, resulted in 150 signatures.

"Shelters are stopgap measures," said Democratic Club President Jeffrey S. Behrens '89. "They solve the problem of freezing to death, but they don't get homeless people back into society."

The committee is now at the researching stage of its activities, Behrens said. In the future, he said, they are planning to work to funnel people into shelters, to try to gain food and money for the shelters and to become involved with other legislative aspects of the problem.