Massachusetts Receives Housing Vouchers to Keep Families Together

Nearly $2 million in funding will keep children from foster care

BOSTON — The Patrick Administration announced today that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is awarding 2,500 rental assistance vouchers to 37 public housing authorities across the U.S. to reunite more than 7,500 children in foster care with their parents. Massachusetts will receive 187 of those vouchers valued at nearly $2 million dollars.

“HUD’s award of new FUP vouchers to Massachusetts is a clear validation of the Commonwealth’s successful history of keeping families together and safe through savvy investments in affordable housing,” said Ruth White, Executive Director of the National Center for Housing and Child Welfare. “These desperately needed housing subsidies will allow the Department of Children and Families to expand their efforts to reunify families and improve housing outcomes among youth aging out of foster care.”

HUD has provided this funding through its Family Unification Program (FUP), which provides Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) rental assistance to families whose lack of adequate housing is a primary cause of parents being separated or near separation from their children. In addition, these vouchers will help provide stable housing for young adults (ages 18-22) who have "aged-out" of the foster care system. Massachusetts is the only state who has allocated a portion of their vouchers to this population.

These vouchers, like regular Housing Choice Vouchers, allow a family to rent housing from a private landlord and generally pay 30 percent of the family's monthly adjusted gross income towards rent and utilities.

“Given the current economic climate, we are incredibly grateful to HUD for providing this level of support to Massachusetts’ families,” said Department of Children and Families Commissioner Angelo McClain. “We are particularly excited about our ability to support the needs of young adults aging out of our system and helping them transition to stable, permanent settings.”

Massachusetts’s rental vouchers will be distributed as follows:

Framingham Housing Authority – 50 vouchers, $513,432
Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development – 87 vouchers, $915,713
Somerville Housing Authority – 50 vouchers, $565,476

The Massachusetts’ Departments of Children and Families (DCF) and Housing and Community Development (DHCD) will work closely with the housing authorities that were awarded the vouchers in order to identify youth at risk of homelessness and families for whom the lack of adequate housing is a primary reason the family's children are in, or must be placed in, foster care.

In Fiscal Year 2008, DCF’s Housing Stabilization Unit consulted on 896 families open with the Department who were struggling with housing related issues. This was an increase from the previous fiscal year when the Department consulted on 622 cases. The majority of these families will benefit from the vouchers Massachusetts will receive.

"In these very challenging economic times, this is wonderful news for Massachusetts," said Tina Brooks, the state's Undersecretary for Housing and Community Development. "These new vouchers will be put to good use to keep extremely low-income families together and in their homes."

In order to ensure that the neediest families receive this support, DCF and DHCD have identified four target populations for these vouchers:

Families for whom housing is a barrier to reunification;
Families for whom lack of housing is the primary threat for imminent placement of the family's child;
Battered women and their children who have been unable to move into permanent housing; and
Youth who are age 18 or older who left the foster care system and have not been able secure affordable housing.

The current infrastructure will make sure families and youth who have aged out are properly referred and supported in the voucher application process.

Under the leadership of Governor Deval Patrick, the state is committed to improving access to affordable housing for all residents of the Commonwealth. Quality, stable housing has a direct impact on the quality of life for families and communities across Massachusetts. In 2008, Massachusetts made the largest investment ever in housing and community development projects across the state when the Governor signed a five-year, $1.275 billion bond authorization.

About the Department of Children and Families (DCF)

The Department of Children and Families is charged with protecting children from abuse and neglect and strengthening families. There are currently 10,000 children in foster care across Massachusetts and more than 40,000 children in all served by the Department. With the understanding that every child is entitled to a home that is free from abuse and neglect, the Department’s vision is to ensure the safety of children in a manner that holds the best hope of nurturing a sustained, resilient network of relationships to support the child’s growth and development into adulthood. Programs through the Department of Children and Families include foster care, adoption, adolescent services and domestic violence services.

About the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD)

The Department of Housing and Community Development’s mission is to strengthen cities, towns and neighborhoods to enhance the quality of life of Massachusetts residents. It oversees the state’s portfolio of 50,000 public housing units located within 245 local housing authorities statewide as well the distribution of approximately 19,000 of the 70,000 federally issued Section 8 rental vouchers distributed in Massachusetts. The agency recently assumed responsibility of the state’s emergency shelter system through its new Division of Housing Stabilization. DHCD is now charged with the mission of preventing homelessness, and sheltering those for whom homelessness is unavoidable with the focus on rapidly re-housing that population in stable, permanent housing.

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