WHO WE ARE
Our Roots
We founded Just Streets to bring justice to our communities. Across the United States, civil and criminal law converge to criminalize poverty. The current system affords police the legal ability to harass our most vulnerable, and the discretion to do so with a racial bent. We believe the Greater Boston Area is a microcosm of these bad laws. Just Streets was formed to fight these laws, and exists at the intersection of policy and protest.
WHAT WE DO
Bringing Change
We know that to meet the issues on our streets, we need to come down to ground level; and that means a focus on current policies. We want to work at the local and the state level to affect change, challenging the outdated and often cruel laws on the books in Massachusetts. It is through laws, statutes, and ordinances that we will fight for justice.
At Just Streets, we are dedicated to finding and solving the root causes of homelessness and housing insecurity. While individual items and policies offer a much needed bandaid, we need to look for big ideas and long term solutions to nip this issue in the bud. Poverty would not be there to be criminalized if we invested more in supporting our community rather than punishing it. This issue lies at the intersection of economic and criminal justice, public health and safety, and racial justice.
“[W]hat we are seeing in this country amounts to nothing less than the criminalization of poverty.”