Why the Winter Walk Matters to Hearth

For nearly 35 years, Hearth has stood on a simple belief: every older adult deserves a safe, stable, and welcoming place to call home. Yet today, older adults remain one of the fastest-growing groups experiencing homelessness, both in Massachusetts and across the country. Many have worked their entire lives. Many have no family to rely on. And far too many are one medical emergency, rent increase, or loss of income away from losing housing altogether.

This is why the Winter Walk matters deeply to us.

Each February 8th on Boston Common, communities across Greater Boston come together for a powerful experience: walking through the cold, side by side, to acknowledge the realities of homelessness and to support the organizations working every day to end it. It’s a moment to step into the shoes of our most vulnerable neighbors, including the elders we serve, and to remember that homelessness is not inevitable. It is solvable with commitment, compassion, and collective action.

For Hearth, the Winter Walk is more than an event. It is an opportunity to elevate the voices of older adults who are too often invisible in the broader conversation about homelessness. When people think about homelessness, older adults are rarely the first group that comes to mind. Yet they are disproportionately impacted, often facing significant health challenges, fixed incomes, mobility limitations, and isolation that make it nearly impossible to regain stability without support.

Your participation in the Winter Walk helps ensure that our residents, and the thousands of older adults at risk of homelessness, are seen, heard, and supported.

This year, Team Hearth will be walking to shine a light on older adult homelessness and to raise critical funds that keep our housing, supportive services, and outreach programs running. We hope you’ll join us; whether by walking with the Hearth team, supporting a walker, or sharing this mission with your community.

As we begin a new year, we are deeply grateful for your partnership. The work ahead is significant, but together, we can ensure that older adults have the chance to age with dignity, safety, and connection.

Join us at the Winter Walk. Walk with us. Walk for our residents. Walk for the belief that every older adult deserves a home.