No Child Goes Homeless

STRATEGIES FOR

PROMOTING STABLE

HOUSING FOR CHILDREN

AND FAMILIES

Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative

NEED

High % of poverty in the neighborhood; population in the Dudley Neighborhood lives below the federal poverty limit of roughly $20,000 for a family of four (Census data)

High % who become homeless; 45.7% of Boston’s homeless families came from Dorchester and 13.9% came from Roxbury (2011 DHCD data)

The Rise of Family Homelessness in Boston

Family

Homelessness

has increased

dramatically

over the last

two years.

In August 2010, 720 families were residing in motels, hotels, or shelters in Boston.

In August 2011, there were 1743 families.

Now, in November 2011, there are

1272 families.

The recent slight decrease is due to the HomeBASE program, BUT the funding for that to continue has been cut.

Last Addresses of current shelter residents, by

Boston neighborhood

41%

last lived in

02124,

02121,

&

02119

(Dorchester

& Roxbury)

Last Addresses for current shelter residents

(2011)

Circle of Promise

Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative

Family Homelessness, Student Mobility, &

Student Performance

Family Homelessness has a dramatic effect upon student mobility, which in turn has a dramatic effect upon student school attendance and performance.

One of the undeniable causes of family homelessness is the inability of families to afford housing.

Therefore we can have an impact on student performance by tackling this issue.

More

Affordable

Housing

Decreased

Family

Homelessness

Decreased

Student

Mobility

Increased

School

Attendance

Increased

Academic

Performance

The No Child Goes Homeless initiative will create

a strong network of neighborhood partners,

institutions, schools, and city agencies to provide

crisis intervention, resources, and organizing

support to ensure that no child in target area goes

homeless.

No Child Goes Homeless

Elements of No Child Goes

Homeless Initiative: • Gather data and complete housing resource and needs assessment

for all families in the Dudley Village Campus

• Reduce level of evictions in Dudley neighborhood by scaling up

successful eviction prevention efforts

• Partner with Schools to make them active partners in foreclosure

and eviction prevention efforts

• Implement Anti-Foreclosure organizing and use of CLT to purchase

foreclosed properties

• Increase protection of current housing stock affordability and

advocate for new affordable housing.

Partnering with 4 schools on the Dudley Village

Campus:

• Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School

• Dearborn Middle School

• Burke High School

• Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School

School Partnerships

NEW PROGRAM TO ASSIST HOMELESS FAMILIES IN LOCAL SCHOOLS

GOAL: is to identify which families are homeless and to help place them into permanent housing.

GOAL: is to stabilize the children so that they can thrive in school.

NEXT STEPS:

Hire Case Manager / Housing Search Specialist

Identify Homeless Families

Secure resources for housing families

SCALE UP EVICTION PREVENTION WORK

Data shows that for very little $$ evictions can be prevented;

According to 2006 Boston Housing Court data, of those who were evicted the average arrearage was about $1400;

Project Hope’s work with Maloney Properties and new work with Winn;

75 Maloney tenants preserved tenancies through our work;

7 Winn Sites in the neighborhood will be served by Project Hope starting next month through a grant form the City of Boston

Key ingredients: Flex funds, relationships and case management;

FORECLOSURE PREVENTION WORK

Boston Community Capital “Stabilizing Urban Neighborhoods”

program

City Life/Vida Urbana Bank Organizing: Post-Foreclosure Eviction

Defense Campaign

Coalition for Occupied Homes in Foreclosure (COHIF) Pilot Project

City of Boston Foreclosure Intervention Teams

Dudley Neighbors Inc. Acquisition of Foreclosed Properties