On a very snowy Sunday morning, a crew from the Longwood Campus enthusiastically showed up for the 2025 Winter Walk to end homelessness. Despite a winter storm delaying the event by a couple hours, the team banded together to join 3,000 others in a 2-mile walk around Boston Common.

Photo caption: Pictured is the Harvard Longwood Team (from left to right) Bill Mills, Vicente Sanabria, Michelle Keenan, Robin Kane, Melissa Lavinson, Erin Farren, Dan Palazuelos, Grace Lee, Sema Aygar, and Satoshi Koiso. The team exceeded their fundraising goal.

The ninth annual Winter Walk, which took place on February 9, is organized by the non-profit organization Winter Walk to  raise awareness and support the work of the committed non-profit organizations working with community members who are experiencing homelessness. Leading the team was Michelle Keenan, Director of Community Engagement and Education at DICP. She has helped coordinate a Harvard Longwood team (made of members from HMS, HSDM, and HSPH) for the Winter Walk for the past two years.

Homelessness is an issue that directly impacts the Longwood community as it affects the mental and physical health of patients and compromises their access to care. Housing insecurity has become a public health crisis, particularly in Massachusetts, where there was a 53% increase in the homeless population in 2024 from the prior year. The state has seen one of the most dramatic increases in homelessness nationwide. Three-quarters of those experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts were families with children. If you would be interested in joining this and similar community efforts in the future, please contact Michelle at michelle_keenan@hms.harvard.edu.