The Faces of Homelessness We Do Not See
When most people hear the word homelessness, they picture someone sleeping on a sidewalk or beneath a bridge.
In Berkshire County, homelessness often looks very different.
It may be the family living in a motel while searching desperately for an apartment they can afford. It may be a grandmother sharing a small apartment with her daughter and grandchildren because there is nowhere else for them to go. It may be a parent sleeping on a friend's couch while trying to shield children from the uncertainty surrounding where they will live next month.
Many people experiencing homelessness in rural communities are hidden in plain sight.
That reality is becoming increasingly important to understand as housing costs continue to rise across Berkshire County. Affordable housing remains in critically short supply, while rents and housing costs continue climbing faster than many household incomes. Across Massachusetts, homelessness has risen significantly in recent years, reflecting a growing crisis driven largely by the widening gap between wages and the true cost of housing.
Here in the Berkshires, those challenges are intensified by the rural nature of our communities. Berkshire County spans nearly 950 square miles, yet transportation options remain limited for many residents. Families may find affordable housing far from employment, childcare, healthcare, or schools. For households already struggling financially, even the cost of commuting can become overwhelming.
Many of the county's homes are older and increasingly expensive to maintain and heat. Seniors living on fixed incomes and working families already burdened by rising utility costs often find themselves one unexpected expense away from instability.
The challenge extends far beyond those living in shelters.
Children may be staying temporarily with relatives or friends while parents search for stable housing. Families may be crowded into apartments never designed for multiple generations. Others quietly live on the edge of eviction, hoping one illness, car repair, or missed paycheck does not push them into crisis.
Behind every housing statistic is a person trying to preserve something most of us take for granted: the security of knowing where we will sleep tonight.
What makes homelessness especially painful is the emotional toll it places on families. Parents often carry enormous guilt and fear while trying to protect children from uncertainty they barely understand themselves. Children sense stress more than adults sometimes realize. They hear whispered conversations about rent, notice the tension surrounding bills, and worry about leaving schools, friends, and familiar surroundings behind.
For seniors, housing insecurity can feel equally frightening. Many older adults who worked their entire lives now find themselves struggling to remain safely housed as rents, food, medication, and heating costs continue to rise. The fear of losing one's home later in life can be deeply isolating.
Local organizations, volunteers, faith communities, and neighbors continue working together every day to help families remain housed and connected to support. At Berkshire Community Action Council, we see both the hardship families carry and the compassion that continues to exist throughout this community.
Home is more than four walls and a roof. It is the place where children fall asleep feeling safe and where families gather around kitchen tables at the end of long days. It is where holiday traditions are carried forward, where seniors hold onto memories built over decades, and where people find comfort during life's most difficult moments. When housing becomes unstable, people lose far more than shelter. They lose routine, security, privacy, dignity, and the sense of peace that comes from simply knowing they belong somewhere. No child should fall asleep worried about where they will live next month, and no senior should spend later years fearing the loss of the place they call home.
In a community as compassionate as ours, we cannot allow homelessness to become just another statistic or invisible struggle. Behind every family searching for stability is a very human need to feel safe, valued, and at home. That is something none of us should ever stop seeing.
Deborah Leonczyk is executive director Berkshire Community Action Council.
Tags: BCAC, homeless,
