Students in Service and Leadership at Harvard

From 1983 to Today

The Harvard Square Homeless Shelter (HSHS) is a program offered by the Philips Brooks House Association (PBHA). PBHA is nonprofit public service organization dedicated to meeting the needs of the Cambridge and Greater Boston communities through student service and advocacy. For over a century, PBHA has pursued this mission and has grown to include more than 80 student-run programs that address issues such as education, elderly services, gender, health, prison education, special needs, and more.

Under this umbrella organization, HSHS was introduced in 1983 as the first shelter in Harvard Square to confront issues of homelessness. Much like PBHA, HSHS has a rich history and has pioneered student efforts to be active agents of change in the community. When it first opened its doors thirty-five years ago, HSHS was the first student-run shelter in the United States and remained the only student-run homeless shelter in the country for nearly the next thirty years. Inspired by the model employed by HSHS, a professor at Villanova University established the first student-run shelter in Philadelphia in 2012. A few years later, the first student-run youth shelter in the country was opened: Y2Y Harvard Square. Founded by two former HSHS directors, this shelter serves with an immense passion for youth experiencing homelessness in the Boston area. Therefore, over the past three decades, HSHS has had a remarkable impact not only through the direct service and resources that the shelter offers, but also through its model of student leadership. The impact and precedent set by HSHS thus extends far beyond Cambridge, Massachusetts.  
 

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