Policy Reports and Publications
RAFT in Review for Fiscal Year 2023
Released November 2023
A Right to Rental Assistance in Massachusetts
Released December 2022
How Policy Change Can Advance Equitable Housing
RAFT/EHPA in Review for Fiscal Year 2022
Released December 2022
Annual overview and analysis of Metro Housing|Boston’s Emergency Housing Payment Assistance Programs
EHPA in Review for Fiscal Year 2021
Released November 2021
Annual overview and analysis of Metro Housing|Boston’s Emergency Housing Payment Assistance Programs
RAFT in Review for Fiscal Year 2020
Released November 2020
Annual overview and analysis of Metro Housing|Boston’s Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) program.
RAFT During the Pandemic
Released October 2020
Overview and analysis of the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) Program During the Pandemic
RAFT in Review for Fiscal Year 2019
Released November 2019
Annual overview and analysis of Metro Housing|Boston’s Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) program
Metro Housing|Boston Colocations: Integrating and Expanding Access to Housing Services in Greater Boston
Released May 2019
Metro Housing|Boston has released its report on its colocation services offered at 15 sites throughout greater Boston. With this report, Metro Housing advances the research on integrated services with a model through cross-sector partnerships.
New England Public Policy Center: The Growing Shortage of Affordable Housing for the Extremely Low Income in Massachusetts
Released April 2019
Metro Housing|Boston was a co-sponsor of a forum at which the findings of this report were released. This report examines existing shortages of affordable and available (AA) rental housing for ELI households at both the state and local levels.
Metro Housing|Boston Report: The RAFT PROGRAM|Preventing Homelessness, Providing Family Stability
Released February, 2019
Metro Housing|Boston has released its fifth annual Report on the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) showing how the state’s largest homelessness prevention program saved Massachusetts $26 million and helped nearly 1,400 families in greater Boston avoid homelessness.
The Massachusetts RAFT Program:|Preventing Homelessness, Providing Family Stability
Released February, 2019
This report was developed and produced by the Regional Housing Network of Massachusetts. RAFT continues to be extremely cost-effective in helping Massachusetts families avoid homelessness. In FY 2018, the Commonwealth spent an average of $3,130 per family on the RAFT program to ensure continued housing for households.
Metro Housing|Boston Report: RAFT 2016-2017 – Residential Assistance for Families in Transition in Greater Boston
Released December 2017
Metro Housing|Boston has released its fourth annual RAFT IN REVIEW report showing how the state’s largest homelessness prevention program saved Massachusetts $31 million and helped nearly 1,500 families in greater Boston avoid homelessness. In Metro Housing’s 29-community Greater Boston service area, the $3.8 million RAFT investment helped 1,474 families resolve a housing crisis that may have led to homelessness.
Metro Housing|Boston Report: RAFT 2015-2016 – Residential Assistance for Families in Transition in Greater Boston
Released November 2016
“This report, a continuation of RAFT reports published by MBHP in 2014 and 2015, validates our position that it is dramatically more cost effective to help families retain their housing than to pay the necessary costs for shelter after a family becomes homeless,” noted Christopher Norris, executive director of MBHP.
RHN Statewide Report: RAFT in Massachusetts 2015-2016 – A Survey of the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition program
Released November 2016
As RAFT heads into its 12th year, the program has resulted in keeping thousands of at-risk families stably housed and out of shelter. It has been a responsive effort by the state to the problem of homelessness, but will require ongoing annual funding approved by both the legislative and executive branches of Massachusetts government.
Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership’s Family Self-Sufficiency Program Evaluation, July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2015
Released 2015
Finding and keeping housing is difficult. There are issues of affordability, location, access to services and the quality of the housing. The clinic speakers will provide you with information, strategies and problem solving as valuable tools to assist you to meet your housing goals. The topics in the clinic are housing search, utility resources and fair housing.
RAFT in Review II
Annual overview and analysis of MBHP’s FY15 Residential Assistance for Families in Transition program
Released September 2015
Findings from tracking three years of data since the program was reinstated in FY13.
Rethinking Hoarding Intervention
MBHP’s Analysis of the Hoarding Intervention and Tenancy Preservation Project
Released January 2015
The HI/TPP saw a 98 percent success rate of preventing people from losing their housing due to hoarding behavior. This report includes promising practices and recommendations for practitioners looking to create similar programs.
A New Approach to Hoarding Intervention
Preliminary data from the first three years of the Hoarding Intervention and Tenancy Preservation Project
Released October 2014
Select findings from the first three years of MBHP’s joint-program with the Tenancy Preservation Project.
Two Years of HomeBASE
Following up with families after the end of HomeBASE Rental Assistance
Released October 2014
Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership (MBHP) surveyed participants who ended HomeBASE Rental Assistance between September 2013 and November 2013 to determine what would happen to families during the six months after their rental assistance ended. This report is a summary of those findings.
RAFT in Review 2014
An overview and analysis of MBHP’s Residential Assistance for Families in Transition program
Released September 2014
With RAFT resources available again to families within MBHP’s region after a two-year hiatus, MBHP staff thought this was the appropriate time to review and reflect on the program in a thoughtful, deliberate manner.
Housing Challenges and Opportunities
Released September 2013
In winter and spring 2013, MBHP invited residents, local housing professionals, elected officials, and other community members in eight communities to discuss housing and housing-related issues. The goals of the meetings, titled Housing Challenges and Opportunities: Partnering for Innovative Solutions, were to highlight the programs and services of MBHP and participating agencies; connect tenants, landlords, city and state officials, and housing providers; and to identify ways in which all involved organizations and agencies can partner to identify solutions to resolve the housing challenges our communities face.
Safe at Home: The Families of HomeBASE
Released May 2013
In May 2013, MBHP partnered with Senator James Eldridge, Chair of the Joint Committee on Housing, and Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA) to co-host a policy briefing on the fate of the Commonwealth’s homelessness prevention program known as HomeBASE rental assistance. This report, released at the briefing, gave a face and a voice to the families participating in the program. Their stories, challenges, and successes provided a personal look at the HomeBASE program’s positive impact.
The Hoarding Intervention and Tenancy Preservation Project
Released May 2013
In 2011, the Oak Foundation provided a major, four-year grant to the Hoarding Intervention and Tenancy Preservation Project (HI/TPP). This report released in spring 2013 outlines the goals of the program, the services provided, and completed efforts 18 months into the grant period.
Preserving Tenancies with the HomeBASE Program
Released July 2012
From August 2011 to June 2012, MBHP provided 2,174 families with HomeBASE financial assistance, re-housing 848 families who had been housed in shelter or motels, thereby exceeding DHCD’s goal for MBHP of 816 placements. Read the report to learn more about MBHP’s outcomes.
Rapid Re-Housing of Families Experiencing Homelessness in Massachusetts: Maintaining Housing Stability (HRPR II)
Released April 2012
This report documents the follow-up that took place after 12-18 months of family participation in HPRP.
Rapid Re-Housing of Motel-Sheltered Families: MBHP’s Preliminary Assessment (HPRP I)
Released November 2010
This reports covers MBHP’s preliminary assessment study of the Commonwealth’s rapid re-housing of families experiencing homelessness as part of the federally-funded Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP).
Housing and Homelessness
A year of candid community-based conversations about housing trends, challenges and resources in Greater Boston
Released September 2009
As a regional housing agency, MBHP recognizes the necessity of strong relationships within our region. To improve our relationships with the cities and towns on our region, MBHP decided to undertake our Community Housing Conversation project, in which from April 2008 through June 2009 we visited the communities in our region to discuss the trends in housing, responses to the challenges, and available resources.