Patrick Administration Announces New Funding To Create Over 235 Units Of Supportive Housing - December 22, 2014

New Supportive Housing Units Bring Total Number Over 3,000, Tripling Governor Patrick’s Initial 1,000-Unit Goal

BOSTON– Friday, December 19, 2014 –Department of Housing and Community Development Undersecretary Aaron Gornstein today announced more than $15 million in funding to create over 235 new units of supportive housing for veterans, homeless and very low income households across the Commonwealth. With these new units, the Patrick Administration has funded a total of 3,065 supportive housing units, tripling the amount of Governor Deval Patrick’s goal a year early.

“Governor Patrick has made permanent supportive housing a high priority because it is a key part of the solution to reducing homelessness over the long-term.  By providing a range of support services--which may include workforce development, education, child care, or mental health services-- our local non-profit partners can help to ensure a successful and sustainable tenancy.”

In December 2012, Governor Patrick announced a goal of creating 1,000 new units of supportive housing across the Commonwealth by December 2015. To reach this goal, 18 state agencies signed a memorandum of understanding partnering to improve existing processes, make recommendations for new, collaborative efforts and develop a long-range action plan to meet the need for supportive housing among the Commonwealth’s residents. The creation of the Commonwealth’s Interagency Supportive Housing Steering Committee and Working Group, co-chaired by the Secretaries of Housing and Economic Development and Health and Human Services, has played a critical role in helping Massachusetts reach this goal, and recently released a report celebrating this achievement.

Supportive housing helps individuals and families that are homeless or facing homelessness, institutionalized or at-risk of institutionalization, people with disabilities and the elderly. Additionally, the agencies continue to assess the extent of public cost-savings generated as a result of providing permanent supportive housing and will recommend strategic reinvestments.

In addition to a providing housing for families, supportive housing, which is operated in conjunction with a network of non-profit agencies across the Commonwealth, can include services such as childcare, access to job training, mental-health care and other opportunities that give participants a hand up towards stability and success.

Alongside these new supportive housing units, the Patrick Administration also awarded 149 project-based vouchers from the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP). The vouchers are available to owners of existing, affordable rental properties, who provide services or partner with an agency that has experience with successfully stabilizing homeless or very low-income households.

The MRVP vouchers allow homeless families to move into existing housing developments with long-term affordability restrictions. The non-profit agencies that own the properties provide participating families with comprehensive supportive service programs to help ensure that they do not fall back into the cycle of homelessness and emergency shelter, while helping them move toward stability and self-sufficiency. Funds for supportive services in the amount of $2,500 per unit will be used to provide a wide array of services, including job search and training, financial literacy and planning, self-sufficiency training and coaching, counseling, parenting, early education and childcare, mental health and addiction treatment, adult education, and GED and skills training.

“The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has recognized the importance of creating quality supportive housing for communities in need and has been pro-active in creating an active pipeline for these projects,” said Roger Herzog, executive director of the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC). “The awards that have been granted today will make sure that both much-needed housing and services are available to homeless families and individuals, persons with disabilities, veterans, seniors, and youth, among others.”

Earlier this month, Governor Patrick announced the launch of a Massachusetts Pay for Success (PFS) initiative that will leverage philanthropic and private capital investments to reduce chronic individual homelessness, creating a new model of sustainable state support for chronically homeless individuals. The initiative will provide 500 units of stable supportive housing for up to 800 chronically homeless individuals over 6 years, improving the well-being of individuals while saving taxpayer dollars by reducing the utilization of costly emergency resources like shelter and Medicaid payments.

In addition, DHCD has been committed to providing supportive housing for the Commonwealth’s veterans. The Department has awarded funds to produce 370 new units of affordable housing for low income veterans since the release 2013, exceeding the Patrick Administration’s three-year goal of 250 units.

The Patrick Administration continues to focus its efforts and resources on homelessness prevention and permanent housing to reduce the number of families living in hotels and at the same time to maintain one of the strongest safety nets in the country.

Click here to read the full press release, including the project announcements.