News
Martha’s Vineyard was portrayed as rich, white and elite, but there’s another side to the island
9/24/2022
Many of the 20,000 year-round residents struggle to make ends meet, housing is desperately scarce and increasingly unaffordable, and the…
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2022/07/28/giving-back-harbor-homes-art-show
Giving Back at Harbor Homes Art Show
7/28/2022
Harbor Homes hosts its annual Give Me Shelter Art Show next Tuesday and Wednesday at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury.
The fundraiser features more than two dozen local artists who have donated a percentage of sales of their work to help the homeless advocacy organization.
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2022/07/28/giving-back-harbor-homes-art-show
Harbor Homes Gets Federal Boost for Homelessness Prevention
3/25/2022
Harbor Homes of Martha’s Vineyard has just chopped a big chunk off its $750,000 mortgage on its home for women in Oak Bluffs.
Friday afternoon, state representative Dylan Fernandes presented the homelessness prevention nonprofit with a $300,000 check, funded by a federal grant from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2022/03/25/harbor-homes-gets-federal-boost-homelessness-prevention
Children Numbered Among Homeless Islanders
3/14/2022
At least two children and more than 40 adults were found to be homeless on the Island — more than twice as many people as in 2019 — by Harbor Homes of Martha’s Vineyard last month.
Cottagers Join Harbor Homes in Homelessness Cause
2/14/2022
Island women escaping homelessness have a powerful new ally in the Cottagers, Inc. Nearly 100 members strong, the all-female philanthropic group based in Oak Bluffs is teaming up with the nonprofit Harbor Homes, Inc. to provide needed furnishings and program support for the recently-opened women’s house on New York avenue.
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2022/02/14/cottagers-join-harbor-homes-homelessness-cause
Valentine’s at West Tisbury School benefit Harbor Homes
2/1/2022
The West Tisbury School student council is selling candy grams with proceeds benefiting Harbor Homes. For $3 each, you can purchase a bag of sweets for your student Valentine (your student) while helping the community. Sign ups are now through Feb. 8, and then the treats will be delivered to classrooms on Valentine’s Day, Monday, Feb. 14.
https://www.mvtimes.com/2022/02/01/valentines-west-tisbury-school-benefit-harbor-homes/
Overnight Winter Shelters Get Okay to Move to MVCS Building
1/12/22
The Vineyard’s winter homeless shelter is moving to the first floor of the former early childhood building at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services in Oak Bluffs, following a unanimous vote by the regional high school committee Monday night.
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2022/01/12/overnight-winter-shelters-get-okay-move-mvcs-building
In Continuing Appreciation of Karen Tewhey
11/8/2021
The Board of Directors of Harbor Homes MV, along with the effort’s many friends and supporters, would like to take this moment to share our deepest appreciation, gratitude and outright praise for the spectacular achievements of Karen Tewhey. Karen is set to begin a transition from Executive Director to a part-time position assisting a new Executive Director on programs development and fundraising.
This transition comes after 6 extraordinary years of deeply dedicated vision and effort co-imagining an entire multi-service organization into being, placing our Island neighbors facing homelessness and having very little, into a position of permanence at the heart of our island community.
Under Karen’s intelligent and heartfelt leadership, many new and old community relationships have been forged into committed partnerships among dedicated housing and community advocates across the Island’s six towns and all the way to our state capitol. In her new position, Karen will guide and support the prospective new Executive Director currently being sought.
As all of us involved in the Harbor Homes effort move into the future together, we do so, knowing that partnerships such as this offer a continuing opportunity to create meaningful collaborations that go beyond programs and buildings. This shared human infrastructure can further inform the lives of all involved with the basic decency, loving acceptance and care that each of us deserves.
Our deepest thanks to Karen and all of the supporters of Harbor Homes MV.
Give Me Shelter Art Benefit Gives Island Homeless a Safe Harbor
8/5/2021
The Harbor Homes of Martha’s Vineyard art sale benefit at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury began at 2 p.m. on Tuesday. As soon as the doors opened the art began to sell.
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2021/08/05/give-me-shelter-art-benefit-gives-island-homeless-roof
Donations to Harbor Homes Make a Difference
7/28/2021
A week after purchasing a house on New York Ave. in Oak Bluffs — their second — Harbor Homes received a total amount of $75,000 from the United Methodist Society of Martha’s Vineyard.
https://www.mvtimes.com/2021/07/28/donations-harbor-homes-make-difference/
Former Racquet Club to House Women at Risk of Homelessness
4/19/2021
Following on its June 2020 establishment of a group home in Vineyard Haven for formerly homeless men, Harbor Homes of Martha’s Vineyard is preparing to launch a similar property for women in Oak Bluffs.
Harbor Homes Winter Shelter Opens
11/20/2020
The Harbor Homes winter shelter at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown opened its doors for the first time Sunday night and two guests enjoyed a hot meal while escaping from the cold.
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2020/11/30/harbor-homes-homeless-shelter-opens-old-whaling-church
As Seasons Shift, Island Donors Step Up for Homeless Population
10/8/2020
Harbor Homes of Martha’s Vineyard has received grants totaling $100,000 to help house the Island’s critically homeless population this winter and plan for the future — the latest donations in a rapidly growing philanthropic effort to address homelessness on the Island.
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2020/10/08/seasons-shift-island-donors-step-homeless-population
Karen Tewey, director of Harbor Homes.
Jeanna Shepard
Hospital Pledges $150,000 to Aid Shelter for the Homeless
10/1/2020
Dukes County will act as a fiscal agent for the grant, according to the press release. Staff from Harbor Homes of Martha’s Vineyard will manage the operation with the support of House of Grace coordinators who have prior experience in running a night shelter. Both the night shelters and warming centers will be staffed by a pool of trained individuals, potentially supplemented by trained volunteers, the release states.
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2020/10/01/hospital-will-donate-150000-homeless-shelter-effort
Speaking to the Gazette by phone, Ms. Tewhey, who now runs Harbor Homes of Martha’s Vineyard, said it seems very unlikely that the shelter will be able to reopen this season.
Island Homeless Face Prospect of No Shelters This Winter
9/24/2020
Harbor Homes Celebrates House Opening
8/31/2020
On August 31, 2020 Harbor Homes of Martha’s Vineyard dedicated its newly opened, six-bedroom home on Tashmoo avenue in Vineyard Haven. The moment was shared live via Zoom to various constituencies and benefactors who made the moment possible.
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2020/08/31/harbor-homes-celebrates-house-opening
Harbor Homes Dedication Ceremony, August 31, 2020
Homeless Advocacy Group Buys Property in Vineyard Haven
2/27/2020
An innovative approach to the problem of homelessness on Martha’s Vineyard moved a step closer to reality Wednesday with the purchase of a six-bedroom home in Vineyard Haven to serve as housing for Islanders who are considered too poor to qualify for affordable housing.
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2020/02/27/homesless-advocacy-group-buys-property-vineyard-haven
The Vineyard’s once informal homelessness advocacy network made strides this week to establish new funding streams and greater permanence, with Harbor Homes making an offer on a house for low-income congregate living space, and the Island receiving a $200,000 state earmark for homelessness prevention.
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2019/11/14/funding-aims-help-homelessness-problem-marthas-vineyard
New Funding for Homelessness Problem
11/14/2019
I met last week with Father Chip Seadale from St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and with Karen Tewhey, Associate Commissioner for Homeless Prevention for Dukes County, and we talked about homelessness on Martha’s Vineyard. I know that doesn’t sound possible even as I type it — homeless people living on Martha’s Vineyard, the same place a former president may be buying property. Poverty is everywhere though, and even a beautiful Island with multimillion-dollar homes can’t escape it.
Have faith: Harbor Homes MV
8/28/2019
Island housing crisis impacts children
7/1/2019
A recent homelessness survey at the Oak Bluffs School has given a voice to often overlooked victims of the Island’s housing crisis — children.
https://www.mvtimes.com/2019/07/01/island-housing-crisis-impacting-children/
Houses of Grace Shelter
1/9/2019
Grace under pressure: Volunteers for the overnight shelters, Houses of Grace, are getting ready for winter.
2018 Fundraiser
10/28/2018
The first fundraiser for Harbor Homes of Martha's Vineyard, a permanent supportive congregate housing program, was held on October 28, 2018. The bowling lanes were full and the silent auction was a huge success. The fundraiser brought in approximately $10,000 for the new nonprofit that will help house the homeless on the Island.
Volunteer Homeless Advocates are Winter’s First Responders. This winter’s biting cold has been sharpest for the Vineyard’s homeless population. Until Jan. 1, when the volunteer-powered Houses of Grace shelter system reopened for its third season, some Islanders spent their nights outside in frigid temperatures that by late December had dipped to the single digits.