From its founding in 1899, the Boston Rescue Mission (BRM) has fed the hungry and housed the homeless. In 1993, the Rev. John Samaan succeeded Harold Milner as the Mission’s new director. Throughout the 1990s, the Mission expanded its work by offering daily meals, longer-term transitional shelter programs for women and men, and job training skills. In 1995, the city of Boston asked the Mission to participate in a pilot program to accommodate growing population of people in shelter during the winter months. That same year, the Boston Rescue Mission joined the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance (MHSA) to more formally advocate for the policies and public funding needed to assist people who are homeless to stabilize their lives.
In the 2000s, the BRM added international work to its portfolio by organizing trips to Haiti, India, and Kenya to serve people who are desperately poor, homeless, sick, hungry, and victims of natural disasters. The service work puts our staff and volunteers in challenging situations that force them to re-examine previously held beliefs, build confidence in their abilities, and equip them to better serve those in who need help here at home.
Today, the BRM provides emergency overnight shelter with hot meals, toiletries, and bathroom and shower facilities to those in need in the Greater Boston area. They also provide residential recovery programs for women and men transitioning from homelessness to independent living; for adult men who have been sober for at least 30 days; and veterans who have been continuously homeless for more than a year. They are honored to be a source of inspiration and hope throughout the city to women and men in need.