Program areas at MHSA
Emergency Shelter and transitional programs - during fiscal year 2021 , the program provided, in partnership with community-based service organizations and landlords, 211 Shelter and transitional Housing beds each night. The programs provide clients with safe living accommodations, meals, transportation, case management, income-related referrals and public benefits access, referral services, Housing search and other services focused primarily on helping individuals to access permanent Housing. The program has some components that focus on specific subpopulations of homeless individuals, such as veterans, chronically homeless adults, women and individuals with varying degrees of disabilities. The program includes a state-historic Shelter contract, a safe haven grant that serves veterans and a grant from the attorney general's office used for the social determinant health program.
Rapid rehousing & prevention - mhsa assisted 204 households during fiscal year 2021 in gaining permanent Housing through rapid rehousing programs, which allows individuals and families to access start up, moving, utilities and short to medium-term shallow rent subsidy funds when entering into Housing. The organization has developed best practices from the implementation of these programs to be used on continued rapid rehousing initiatives moving forward. Mhsa also prevented 680 households from becoming homeless through the allocation of prevention funds to them. The program includes the emergency solutions grant, and rapid transition for homeless individuals, and rapid rehousing for families.
Permanent Housing and related services - fiscal year 2021, the program helped fund, in partnership with community-based service organizations and landlords, 1,621 units of permanent supportive Housing for formerly homeless individuals across the state. These services are delivered in every region of the state and are the programmatic basis for the organization's cost-benefit analysis and increasingly recognized outcome-focused data studies. The program includes home & healthy for good state, home & healthy for good boston, journey to success, post detox/pre-recovery, home front, north star Housing, rapid transition for homeless individuals, and permanent Housing & stabilization.
Advocacy, planning and technical assistance - provides a forum in the commonwealth of Massachusetts for the planning and coordination of policy, community and stakeholder education and communication of issues, and the piloting and implementation of Housing and services for homeless individuals. Programs and advocacy are designed to end the commonwealth's reliance on emergency services for homeless individuals. The organization conducts site visits and program reviews to share best practices, provide technical assistance, and strive to create a network of resources and collaborative service providers. The organization conducts advocacy and planning to ensure that the state reduces its reliance on emergency services and focuses its efforts on permanent Housing as a solution to homelessness.