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Dear Friends:
What makes a community?
Is it the traditions and shared history? Your neighbors, friends and family? Is it the relationships you build and how you help one another out? Or is it some ethereal mix of all these things? However you define it, a strong community begins with having a home.
Massachusetts is third in housing unaffordability and twelfth in numbers of people becoming homeless. The result, communities from Pittsfield to Provincetown are being torn apart by the unaffordable rents. Today, the work that the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless undertakes for our most vulnerable residents is needed desperately.
The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless Casa Housing Advocates over the coming year will continue their work helping families, individuals, and older adults to retain or obtain housing. Casa Advocates offer individual wrap around case management that addresses the immediate housing crisis from securing financial assistance to pay back rent to stabilize their housing to crafting a livable budget to help to build a stable future.
This coming year Casa Advocates will work with over 1,500 low-income households who are at risk of becoming homeless or sadly are experiencing homelessness.
One out of every three people experiencing homelessness are over the age of 55.
As rents have escalated many people's wages have not kept pace or others are living on a fixed income. Many are struggling to afford rent or being forced to decide between this month's medication and groceries, more and more are realizing they no longer have the resources to remain in their home. The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless in partnership with Elder Service Agencies across the Commonwealth have launched a public policy campaign to secure funding within the state budget to create a Bridge Subsidy Program which would allow older adults to remain in their home and community while they wait for long term affordable housing. The Bridge Subsidy Program would ensure
that thousands of older adults would not become homeless.
A bed is not the first thing that pops into your mind when talking about childhood poverty, yet thousands of children who are growing up in a low-income family don't have a bed of their own simply because it is financially out of reach. The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless launched A Bed for Every Child over 10 years ago to help low-income children to have a bed of their own. Partnering first with public schools and now with hundreds of non-profits across the state annually who identify the children in need. This past year, A Bed for Every Child has made it possible for 1,988 children to have a bed of their own.
Housing instability, homelessness, and displacement are daunting realities faced daily by thousands of families around the state, including pregnant women, for whom securing a place to call home and preparing an adequate sleep environment for their children are just distant luxuries. The Casa Project-Birth to Big Kid Initiative is a programming integration started by the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless that combines the agency's two decades of expertise in homelessness prevention through the Casa Project and over a decade of expertise implementing programming for healthy sleep education. Casa Project-Birth to Big Kid works towards addressing the challenges faced by expectant mothers living in poverty by partnering with hospitals and community health centers to assist low-income expectant mothers with housing stability and safe sleep education support. Today, 264 moms and 271 children (7 sets of twins) are enrolled in the initiative.
It is only through the generous support of people like yourself that makes it possible for the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless to do so much. Over the next twelve months, with your support, we can continue offering these essential resources and make strides toward ensuring everyone has a place to call home.
Thank you for joining us in making a difference throughout 2025!
With much appreciation,
Robyn Frost Executive Director
