BOSTON - 40,000 miles. 12 cities. Dozens of service providers with lived experience and policy makers. BEYOND THE BRIDGE is an ambitious documentary film about solutions to homelessness. Filmmakers, Don Sawyer and Tim Hashko set out to answer this question: How can this country solve homelessness in a comprehensive way?  

The answer? Working with deep coordination with a Housing First mindset. 

Roughly 200 people attended United Way of Massachusetts Bay’s free screening of the film at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA on December 11, 2024, hosted in partnership with the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance and A Bigger Vision Films.  The film was followed by a panel discussion with filmmakers Don Sawyer and Tim Hashko, and local advocates working on the frontlines of homelessness solutions. Lieutenant Governor, Kim Driscoll offered opening remarks.  

“I’m grateful that we can tell these stories and we can build the collective action and the will to end homelessness,” said Driscoll.  “There are lots of intractable problems in government that are hard to solve, this isn’t one of them. We need to build more housing, we need to build more supportive housing.” 

Thirty-seven hundred families experience homelessness on any given night in Massachusetts and just 47 affordable rental homes are available for every 100 low-income renters in Greater Boston. United Way of Massachusetts Bay estimates that the Commonwealth needs to provide at least 10,000 housing opportunities with supportive housing across the state by 2030 to further the goal of ending chronic and high-need homelessness. A Housing First approach is the way to achieving these goals.  

“Boston has all the pieces [to implement a Housing First Model] and just need to knit it all together,” said Sawyer ahead of the panel including Joyce Tavon, CEO of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, Senator Paul Feeney (D-Bristol and Norfolk), Christi Staples of United Way and Alan Mack of Boston’s Advisory Council on Ending Homelessness. Lynn Joliceur of WBUR served as moderator.  

“I’m hoping that this showing in Boston is just the beginning” said Tavon of MHSA.  

United Way is a proud leader of the Safe and Supportive housing Coalition, a statewide group of more than 80 partners working to advance the Supportive Housing needed to end chronic and high need homelessness in Massachusetts. 

"The evidence is clear: we have the tools needed to END chronic homelessness in Massachusetts,” says Senator Paul Feeney. “The success of Permanent ​Supportive Housing is proven and not surprising that by treating people with respect and compassion and providing then the support needed to break the cycle of homelessness, that we can actually see meaningful change in the number of chronically homeless individuals in Massachusetts.” 

The film screened in Boston just months after the Affordable Homes act was passed, authorizing $5.16 billion for housing over the next five years. Advocates who championed the bill’s passage, including United Way, say the funding will revolutionize the way resources are deployed to create the supportive housing opportunities necessary to address the complex needs of those experiencing homelessness. 

For more information on our work, check out our Safe and Supportive Housing Coalition here https://www.masupportivehousingcoalition.org/about