PowerPoint Presentation

							    Paying for Housing:
Innovative Housing Subsidy
    Sources and Design

Lessons from Massachusetts

                             Susanne Beaton
                             One Family Inc.
                             Boston,
                             Massachusetts
                             November 30,
                             2007
    Massachusetts: Family Shelter System


• Right to shelter state - eligible families
  guaranteed shelter accommodation
• Annual expenditures:
  – Approximately $70 million/annually
  – At one point 599 families per night residing in
    motels at annual cost of $20 million
     Setting the Environment for Change


• Budget constraints – investing $ differently
• Build political will
  – Education
  – Relationship building
  – Focus on solutions versus problems
• Small steps - pilots
• Evaluate & refine interventions
  – Success (and praise!) breeds new
    investments
    Paying for Housing: Lessons Learned


• Providing flexible funds to community-
  based, housing counseling agencies
  – Shelter to Housing, Toolbox
  – Outcome focused
• Accessing subsidized housing – breaking
  through waiting lists
  – Creating opportunities, overcoming reluctance
• Generating new dollars
• Accessing/using existing $ differently
                    Advice


• Identify key stakeholders, unlikely friends,
  bring people together
• Share best practices - what’s working
  what is not?
• Where are resources now being
  expended? Is this the best way?
• Can you reach more people, in a better
  way, with the same or less $$?