Boston receives $26.3 million HUD grant for homelessness

Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced today that the City of Boston has received more than $26.3 million in federal funding in support of Boston's homelessness programs. Boston was awarded the funding as the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the results of its annual McKinney Homeless Continuum of Care funding competition, which awarded $2 billion in grants nationally.

"Having weathered record-breaking cold weather these past few weeks, we are reminded just how critical these funds are to our work on the issue of homelessness," said Mayor Walsh. "We have made significant progress in so many areas, but our work is not done. These funds from HUD are critical to continuing this work, and I want to thank HUD and the entire Massachusetts delegation for their continued support on this issue."

"This funding is critical to local Massachusetts programs that are on the front lines of helping those who might otherwise be living on our streets," said David Tille, HUD New England Regional Administrator. "Investments in these programs that find a stable home for our homeless neighbors not only saves money but quite literally saves lives."

The HUD funding will be applied to programs that support Boston's Way Home, the City's plan to end chronic and veteran homelessness. Through the efforts of Boston's Way Home, Boston has ended chronic veteran homelessness, and has housed nearly 1,300 formerly homeless people.

The programs funded cover a range of services and supports, including housing search, the creation of housing for chronically homeless people, rapid re-housing funds, and stabilization services to allow newly housed chronically homeless individuals to receive the supports they need to succeed.  

During Mayor Walsh's inauguration earlier this month, he announced the launch of Boston's Way Home Fund, which has a goal of raising over $10 million over the course of four years to create 200 new units of supportive, sustainable, long-term housing for chronically homeless men and women.

The Continuum of Care is a federal program designed to end homelessness by supporting community-wide systems of care, providing funding not only to state and local partners, but also to nonprofit providers who are part of the Continuum. This approach creates a more strategic use of resources, while improving coordination and integration between programs. It has also been found to improve data collection and performance measurement; and has the benefit of allowing communities to tailor programs to the particular resources, organizations, and challenges of that community.

The application for the 2017 Continuum of Care competition was submitted by the Supportive Housing Division of the City of Boston's Department of Neighborhood Development, in partnership with all of the organizations that make up Boston's Continuum of Care. The application consisted of hundreds of data points and narratives about Boston's system and programs, along with 41 individual project applications to support thousands of the most vulnerable Bostonians on a path to permanent, sustainable supportive housing. In 2016, Boston was awarded over $24 million in HUD grants, and in 2015 Boston was awarded over $23 million in funding.

Organizations funded include Bay Cove, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Casa Myrna, FamilyAid, Heading Home, HomeStart, Kit Clark Senior Services, Project Home, Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, Metro Housing Boston, New England Center and Home for Veterans, Pine Street Inn, St. Francis House, and Victory Programs.

For more information on Boston's plan to end homelessness in Boston, please visit here.