http://warmupboston.org/, https://ko-fi.com/warmupboston

Warm Up Boston, Boston, MA (2026)

03/27/2025

As the City and State continue to crack down on encampments and congregate drug use, we affirm that community is the strongest form of protection for the oppressed. When people come together, they can meet one another’s needs. On encampment distros, we see this when someone with a tent provides shelter for someone without. On mobile distros, we see this when someone takes naloxone from us to keep a community member alive. People who use drugs respond to one another’s overdoses faster and more often than trained emergency responders do.

Community is consistent and intentional. We show up for the people we serve on distros every week without fail and provide the supplies they expect, and we are present and supportive when people want to have conversations with us. Community is compassionate and generous. Among our members, we share resources and skills, train one another, and support one another. Community is collaborative and intersectional. We collaborate with other groups organizing for people without stable, permanent housing and people who use drugs in so-called Boston.

Community is active. Community is resistance.

03/11/2025

On Wednesday February 26th, Mayor Wu in conjunction with BPD and the Coordinated Response Team (functionally an extension of BPD) announced a new plan to criminalize public consumption of stigmatized substances. Under the new plan, anyone caught using criminalized substances in groups of two or more will be approached by the police and CRT and given the option of forced treatment or a citation. Furthermore, Recovery Services will no longer be allowed to hand out harm reduction supplies on the street.

This hastily rolled out new policy will NOT work to change people’s relationships with substances or get them connected with the services. Like the rest of the War on Drugs it will have deadly consequences.

Mayor Wu is caving to pressure from business owners and trying to win re-election on a stack of bodies. The city of Boston has blood on its hands.

Swipe to the end or click on the Linktree in our bio for a sample email and call script you can use to contact Mayor Wu and tell her you do not approve of this new plan. ‼️Stay tuned for more information and actions you can take in the next few weeks.‼️

02/27/2025

This week at the encampment we handed out chili with cornbread, tents, blankets, socks, and more. On our mobile route, we gave out sandwiches, toiletries, gloves, hats, socks, hot drinks, and more. On both distros, we always hand out harm reduction supplies.

While the city of Boston continues the racist War on Drugs, we say f**k that and remember the Black Panther’s stance that “Drug users are our people.” Many of the community members we serve are people who use drugs. Many of us are people who use drugs. People who use drugs are worthy of compassion, acceptance, and grace, not forced treatment and jail cells.

Drug use does not define a person’s humanity. Drug use does not define if a person is deserving of food, shelter, and community. Drug use does not define if a person is deserving of bodily autonomy.

Every. Single. Person. Deserves. These. Things.

Each individual is the expert in what they need to do to survive, and for many, drug use is a survival strategy. True harm reduction means saying “You are the boss of you. What do you think should happen next for you?” Policing and forced treatment does the opposite of this.

We don’t have all the answers, and we certainly don’t have the ability to truly give people everything they need. People who use drugs will always be our people, and as long as Warm Up exists, we will be in the streets, building community and connection and handing out safer use supplies.

02/21/2025

We look forward to welcoming you to our first mass meeting tomorrow! Please find additional information about activities and policies in the slides above, and message us with any questions. Dress warm, and come ready to make progress toward a future without homelessness.

02/18/2025

While we prepare for our mass meeting and increase our time spent organizing, our twice-weekly distributions do not waver, even in freezing rain. We bring hot meals, water, harm reduction, wound care, snacks, and survival supplies to the encampment every week. And every weekend, we hand out sandwiches, snacks, water, harm reduction, hot hands, and warming items on five routes downtown. People expect us, and we deliver.

But it’s not easy to do all this work. Our capacity is limited. It’s emotional and vicariously traumatic to witness the state’s oppression of the unhoused, and burnout can take hold quietly. We will not allow our distribution work to slow down, and we are committed to advancing the inevitable end to encampment sweeps, but we need help to do this.

Typically, we ask people who are interested in volunteering to DM us to join. We always love new faces! However, we also need existing volunteers to step up as their ability allows, and to take breaks when rest is needed so this work is sustainable. We need our comrades in other organizations and other movements to keep fighting. We need you to talk to your friends and neighbors about the fight against homelessness. It is only if we work together, across all these fronts, that we can win.

02/13/2025

This past Tuesday morning, allegedly on orders from the Governor’s office, state police, DCR, and Cambridge PD swept Goose Park and the side of Soldier’s Field Road. Residents were told on Monday morning they had 5 minutes to move their belongings or they would be arrested for trespassing. After inducing panic, they were then told this was a miscommunication and that there would be a sweep beginning the next morning at 8am. Whether intentional miscommunication or pure incompetence, the psychological impact of these sweeps and the lack of notice DCR has decided to use cannot be overstated.

A few of our members were able to be on scene for sweep support which included helping residents move their items, bringing coffee and donuts, and keeping watch of the state agents. The police handed out resource pamphlets to residents with bulldozers, dump trucks, and a clean up crew behind them. They continuously and derisively asked why residents didn’t simply want to put their belongings into storage and go to a shelter.

Let us be clear: there are NO pamphlets or resources that can end the harm that sweeps cause. Offering these resources during and after a sweep is like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound.

Maura Healey’s office continues to reduce funding for essential services that keep people from becoming unhoused, like funds for the emergency assistance family shelters, RAFT (Rental Assistance for Families in Transition), operating subsidies for public housing authorities, the HomeBASE program, and homeless individual shelters. All the while, they have the funds to pay for bulldozers, dump trucks, state police details, and dumpsters to evict people living in tents who are simply trying to survive.

Liberal capitalists like Maura Healey will not save us. They will spend just enough money to pretend they are aiding us while simultaneously working to uphold the systems that oppress the working class, keep people poor, and ensure that homelessness is never ended.

Stopping sweeps is just the beginning.

Save the date for our first MASS MEETING on February 22nd from 4-6pm at the North American Indian Center of Boston.

02/08/2025

We called and you answered! Boston turned out on Wednesday morning to answer our call to stop the sweep of a local encampment. Despite the early start time, freezing conditions, and police opposition we drew a crowd that let the streets of Boston know we stand together against the criminalization of survival. We saw that the city will happily give thousands of dollars to line the pockets of the police despite claiming that there is no funding to support subsidized food or housing. We see through their lies and we say: we have had enough.

When a forced eviction can be a death sentence, we stand with our neighbors in solidarity. It is through our actions that we were able to successfully delay the sweep which greatly reduces the harm of an inherently harmful act.

We will continue to fight and to support each other. This was just the beginning. We are excited to see our community continue to not only advocate for, but to fight for our neighbors. Consider becoming part of our struggle. DM us or send an email to [email protected] and join Warm Up today!

12/03/2024

It’s Giving Tuesday! When you donate to Warm Up Boston, all of the funds go directly to material aid for the unhoused community.

Everything we provide is on our supply lists because of direct asks from community members. Some of our top budget items are toiletries like body wipes, mouthwash, and lotion, supplies for wound care kits, blankets, tarps, and tents.

If you’d like to directly purchase some of these items, use the link in our bio (linktr.ee/warmupboston) to check out our wishlist! If you want to be on the ground distributing material aid with us at our twice weekly distros, send us a DM! We are currently onboarding new volunteers to help us continue our services in the colder months.

11/27/2024

This week we brought a hot meal, canned goods, snacks, water, clothing, and harm reduction supplies to the encampment we support. On our mobile distro we handed out burritos, sandwiches, snacks, waters, socks, toiletries, hot drinks, and harm reduction supplies. Thanks to generous donations we were also able to give out blankets, sleeping bags, and wound care kits on each route.

With material aid, we meet people’s needs as they define them. We do not come into people’s lives giving them what we, as housed activists, think they need. Instead, we figure out what materials are most helpful through repeated and consistent engagement. All additions to distros, like wound care kits and toiletries, have come from the direct requests of the people we serve.

As you do your holiday shopping this weekend, consider leveraging those Black Friday deals to help us provide material resources to our unhoused neighbors. The wishlist linked in our bio includes much needed items like deodorants, lotion, hot hands, blankets, and supplies for wound care kits.

11/25/2024

[Original post from 10/29/2024 on our Instagram account. State, police, and DCR threats to the existence of this encampment have not stopped and so it remains relevant.]

In response to police action and a 48 hour notice to vacate placed on the encampment we support, Warm Up Boston took to a rotary along Memorial Drive to show the people of Cambridge and Boston that this brutality must come to an end and real solutions to homelessness must be pursued. We held a banner stating "CRIMINALIZATION DOES NOT END HOMELESSNESS. HOUSING AND RESOURCES ENDS HOMELESSNESS." We will not sit back and watch our neighbors be dehumanized and displaced.

We know this leads to more death and they know this leads to more death. This violence is the dark underbelly of the political establishment they shroud in the language of public health and safety, pointing to non profits they choose to underfund. Their programs and services are not enough and they know this. A world in which homelessness doesn't exist is one that gives power to the working class and takes money and power away from the landlords, capitalists, and their pet politicians. As long as anyone continues to lose housing, everyone's housing remains insecure.

We are committed to ending homelessness in Boston and everywhere. And you can help us by joining today. If becoming a member isn't within reach for you, getting educated on housing and pushing back on anti-homeless sentiment where you live and work goes a long way.

Caring about housing and homelessness isn't about being a good person or feeling bad for someone. It's about standing up for what's right and realizing that capitalism is inseparable from the incarceration, dehumanization, and killing of our community members. We want all members of our community to be treated like human beings, an end to the violence, and basic survival needs to be met in our society for everyone.

11/21/2024

Homelessness is a punishment for being poor. No matter your life decisions, health emergencies, or criminal record, being housed should never be put into question. Our homes are what allow all other aspects of life. Housing is the most basic human need beyond air, water, and food. And yet, this economy has never dared to guarantee housing, food, and clean air and water to all who reside under it. We in Warm Up Boston view this as a serious and violent misarrangement of priorities. “Violent” is not an exaggeration when poverty of both the housed and the unhoused leads to an astonishing rate of early deaths.

We choose to act where we have power. In providing food and water to an encampment and to folks in downtown Boston, we are able to provide basic needs for survival. Both of our distributions were successful this week, thanks to the dedicated work of volunteers both on the ground and behind the scenes.

While this work demands a lot from us every week, we find the strength to carry on in the dream of ending this needless suffering. By turning to one another to carry out necessary tasks when we tire, we preserve our energy and capacity to continue. We are even more relieved when more and more of our neighbors step in to do this work with us.

Lastly, we want to thank the rad community groups and for their donation drives that will keep our homeless neighbors warmer this winter. We thank Boston Anarchist Bookfair for having us and its attendees for bringing canned goods and $1000 in donations! Those funds covered the purchase of 3800 hand warmers. We also thank BLOWW for helping us raise another $1000 by hosting us at their most recent show; those funds covered the purchase of 600 hats and 750 pairs of gloves! We have more chances to donate coming up – tomorrow at and Friday at organizers will be collecting canned goods!

(all tagged accounts on Instagram!)

Warm Up Boston

03/27/2025

03/11/2025

02/27/2025

02/21/2025

02/18/2025

02/13/2025

02/08/2025

12/03/2024

11/27/2024

11/25/2024

11/21/2024

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