The Community Housing Program is a permanent, subsidized housing program for homeless families in which one or both parents are in early recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. The program offers stable, sober, and safe housing in a community setting with support services for substance abuse recovery and mental health. The support services include weekly groups, case management, counseling, and connection to community resources.
All families (and a very limited number of single people) in the program reside in individual apartments, clustered together within a neighborhood, an apartment complex, or a single building. The clustered program design is innovative because the program is not one of “congregate living”, a traditional model for supportive housing, but rather separate apartments. This unique model gives families privacy and independence while still providing the security and community support of peers/neighbors in recovery along with daily or weekly contact by program staff.
A collaboration of state and federal agencies, the program is federally funded by HUD for the housing subsidies and by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for the services. The program, a HUD Shelter + Care program, is managed through a steering committee made up of stakeholders from various state agencies with an interest in the program.
The program offers 71 units of subsidized housing total in six different locations in Central and Western Massachusetts. Two and three bedroom units are available, along with a small number of one bedroom apartments. A centralized waiting list for Community Housing is maintained by the Statewide Community Housing Access Coordinator at IHR. The Access Coordinator also provides technical assistance for all parties working with the program and does outreach for the program as well.
An important step on the continuum of care, Community Housing fills a key void statewide by providing affordable housing opportunities for people in recovery, many of whom are just completing treatment programs and reunifying with children. The scarcity of housing available to very poor, homeless families in Massachusetts is staggering. Since 1995, Community Housing has been responding to this most basic human need.
For more information, call Molly Froelich, Statewide Access Coordinator for Community Housing at (617) 661-3991 x114.