Program Updates – Summer 2020
Over the past four months, FamilyAid Boston has shared a great deal about its COVID-19 humanitarian relief efforts, telling you about critical distributions of food and essential supplies to 1,600 children and their parents in dire need. In the midst of this emergency work and while our staff has been working remotely, we also have been moving forward on some new projects we’re excited to finally share.
Back in January, we told you about our new early intervention homelessness prevention program in partnership with Boston Public Schools. This program has exploded with a major new component that allows FamilyAid to help hundreds of more families stabilize their housing. In response to the COVID-19 economic crisis, the City of Boston provided 500 housing subsidy vouchers and contracted with FamilyAid Boston to help place families that are teetering on the edge of homelessness into affordable housing units. These vouchers came at a critical time, as more of Boston’s families began to feel the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and a potential eviction crisis.
When schools closed in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 80 families enrolled in the program. By April, a little over a month into the pandemic, that number jumped to 297 families – a 271% increase. By May, the number swelled to 350 families, and by June, more than 450 families had been referred to the agency. This homelessness prevention program, in partnership with BPS, reaches families before they have been evicted, at a time when it is still possible to help them address the issues leading to homelessness. With guidance from FamilyAid social workers, and through the use of small emergency grants, families are able to stay in their homes and avoid the trauma of homelessness all together. In fact, 90% of the families that receive help through our homelessness prevention programs remain stably housed one year later.
This program model is so successful that it has been replicated with new agency partners. In June of this year, FamilyAid Boston launched an early intervention homelessness prevention program with a new major partner, Boston Children’s Hospital. This partnership is critical to addressing child and family homelessness in Boston as 65% of children admitted to the emergency room have a diagnosis of homelessness. For many families, an unforeseen medical crisis is the first step on the path towards homelessness. Now, through a grant from Mass Health and in partnership with Boston Children’s Hospital, FamilyAid Boston can provide children and their families who are struggling with the support service they need and ensure they stay in their homes.
The most striking and unexpected characteristic that all of the families enrolled in our new early intervention programs share is that almost none of them were connected to any social service programs prior to being referred to FamilyAid Boston. The majority of families referred to our programs have parents working full time, often at more than one job, and who are actively trying to create a safe and stable home for their children. When an unforeseen event happens like a car breaking down or missing work to care for a sick child, even the most diligent parents can suddenly find themselves falling behind on rent. FamilyAid Boston’s homelessness prevention programs are catching Boston’s most vulnerable children and families before they become homeless, when there is still a chance to turn the situation around.
In addition to these programmatic updates, FamilyAid Boston’s new early homelessness intervention program, in partnership with Boston Public Schools, is now the subject of a longitudinal study by the Boston College School of Social Work and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. The study is being funded by the prestigious William T. Grant Foundation in cooperation with the Spencer Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and it will examine the long-term housing stability of BPS families who receive prevention funds and support compared to the relative success of interventions at the time of eviction.
While the COVID -19 pandemic has worsened the crisis of housing instability for thousands of families in Boston, FamilyAid Boston’s innovative programs and expert, committed, and caring staff ensures that there is help and hope.
