Boston Mayor Selects Company to Fight Homelessness

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh recently selected data analytics company Green River as the vendor to carry out his plan to end chronic homelessness in Boston by 2018 by using data analytics to connect resources with those in need.

Based in Cambridge and in Brattleboro, Vt., Green River uses software engineering for social justice, according to founder and CEO Michael Knapp.

“We’ve been doing programming with a social mission, working towards school improvement, environmental protection, and public health,” Knapp said. “This sounded like a perfect project for us.”

The mayor selected Green River from nine companies to build “a web-based application that will provide a unified site where housing providers can share available opportunities and will enable housing navigators to easily suggest and communicate those opportunities to homeless individuals,” according to a press release from the Mayor’s office.

Knapp said the company learned of the opportunity with only a week before the proposal deadline and “dropped everything” to work on their application.

“We felt that if we can contribute to addressing homelessness, there is nothing we’d rather do,” he said.

The digital effort is part of Walsh’s plan to reform Boston’s homelessness response system, in tandem with the City’s goal to end chronic homelessness by 2018. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines chronic homelessness as an “unaccompanied individual with a disabling condition” who has been homeless for a year or more, or has had at least four periods of homelessness in the past three years.

“Boston’s current response to homelessness is a collection of effective, yet fragmented, programs that offer a variety of services to individuals experiencing homelessness,” the plan said. “To make progress toward ending homelessness, we must shift from a group of independent programs to one single integrated system founded on Housing First principles.”

Boston has a low number of unsheltered homeless people compared to other cities of its size, according to a 2013 report by the City on homelessness. In 2012, a census of the homeless by the City counted 193 people living on the street and found that nearly 97 percent of Boston’s homeless have access to a shelter.

"Boston has a phenomenal network of providers, staffed by hardworking people who dedicate their lives to our city, and now we have the opportunity to build on their work to better serve Boston's homeless individuals," Walsh said in a press release.

The mayor’s plan calls for a system that will decrease the barriers to appropriate housing for the homeless. The new system will “match homeless individuals, based on their specific needs, to the right housing and service resources,” a process that will be aided by the data analysis work of Green River.

A trial version of Green River’s app is expected to launch in April.

—Staff Writer Kier W. Zimmerman can be reached at kier.zimmerman@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @kierjwz.