Eight homeless families will be forced to relocate Oct. 31 with the shutting of two shelters in Cambridge, partially the result of being excluded from a state contract after funding cuts.
The emergency shelters – which can hold up to 14 families – have been at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in The Port neighborhood for more than 40 years in partnership with the Hildebrand Family Self-Help Center, which grew out of a ministry at St. Paul AME and is based in Central Square. They got funding through contracts with the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities.
“It has been fulfilling to see something that started off as a response to a need really bloom into an organization that has served so many families in their time of crisis,” said St. Paul AME pastor Ellis Washington, who also works as clerk on the Hildebrand board of directors. “It certainly is painful to think about these properties no longer being operated as shelters.”…