PPUF provides emergency assistance to a growing number of individuals and families in need of food, housing, and health care, who have fallen between the cracks, or have short term, or crisis related needs. We try to meet some of the most urgent needs, such as providing food vouchers to families and the elderly, providing housing or utility assistance to families and individuals in need, or providing clothing for homeless people starting new jobs. We fall woefully short of the needs of the community, but we continue to do the little we can with the limited resources we have.

PPUF provides direct financial support to several small grassroots member organizations in the Boston metropolitan area. Each organization is dedicated to serving the needs of a specific and underserved population. By supporting these groups, PPUF touches the lives of thousands of people who live in unstable and unsafe conditions, below the poverty line and outside the mainstream of society.  For more information and a listing of these organizations, please see the Partners page.

PPUF staff research, write, speak, publish, and advocate for a better informed and more compassionate public regarding the causes and consequences of poverty and homelessness. PPUF regularly publishes Urban Meditations, a compendium of insightful and thought-provoking articles, mediations, and essays concerning human rights, human services, and the impact of political and governmental policies. PPUF's semi-annual newsletter includes commentary, letters, and updates on socially relevant human services issues, including reports on the PPUF member organizations and their activities. We hope the research, analysis, and advocacy work we do help all of us to envision and create a future free of needless human suffering. For more information of our newsletter and publications, please see the News page.

Past Project: The Ethical Policy Project was an outgrowth of the Ethical Policy Institute (EPI), a group begun by Kip Tiernan and Fran Froehlich in 1988 when they were Fellows at the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College. The EPI was a consortium of multi-discipline advocates, academics, and practitioners bound together by a common thread – a commitment to eliminating the public policies that impose injustices on impoverished citizens.  Please note that PPUF’s archives are available for viewing by the public at Radcliffe College at the Schlesinger Library HERE.