The EMERGEncy Relief Collective provides immediate shelter, outreach, and stabilization services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness or housing instability across Greater Boston. Through emergency shelter, mobile street outreach, warming centers, and supportive services, the EMERGEncy Relief Collective helps meet urgent needs while connecting participants to housing, clinical care, and long-term pathways toward stability and wellbeing.
Our Services
Housing Families provides emergency family shelter and supportive services for families experiencing homelessness and housing instability. Families receive safe temporary shelter alongside intensive case management, housing search support, resource navigation, and connections to clinical and educational services. The program is designed to help families quickly stabilize, address barriers to housing, and transition into permanent homes as efficiently and safely as possible.
Housing Families opened its adult individual shelter in Malden in 2021 in response to the growing need for emergency shelter in Greater Boston. The shelter currently has a capacity for 40 guests and provides more than a safe place to stay. Participants receive intensive case management, housing search assistance, mental health counseling, substance use and recovery support, and individualized services designed to help participants overcome barriers to permanent housing and economic stability.
Housing stabilization services help families maintain permanent housing after exiting family shelter. Staff work closely with participants to strengthen tenancy skills, connect to community resources, access benefits and financial assistance, and navigate ongoing challenges that could place housing at risk. Through continued case management and supportive services, Housing Families helps participants build long-term stability and prevent future homelessness.
The Mobile Street Outreach and Supportive Services team connects directly with individuals and households experiencing homelessness, at risk of homelessness, or facing domestic violence. Operating across eight North Suburban Consortium communities, the outreach team provides food assistance, case management, housing navigation, and clinical mental health support directly in the community. Housing Families partners with The Neighborhood Developers to implement this regional outreach model.
During the winter months, Housing Families operates warming centers in partnership with local municipalities to provide safe overnight shelter from dangerous cold weather conditions. Typically operating from December through April, warming centers offer meals, clinical support, referrals, and connections to additional services for individuals experiencing homelessness. These centers serve as a critical point of safety, stabilization, and engagement during New England winters.
The EMERGEncy Relief Collective integrates supportive services into every aspect of its work to help participants move toward long-term stability. Staff provide housing search assistance, benefits navigation, clinical mental health care, recovery support, referrals, and connections to community resources. We participate in the Community Support Program for Homeless Individuals (CSP-HI), providing housing support to qualifying MassHealth members. Through a trauma-informed and relationship-centered approach, the EMERGEncy Relief Collective helps individuals and families access the tools and support needed to secure and maintain stable housing.
The Challenge
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, nearly 30,000 people experience homelessness in Massachusetts on any given night. Rising housing costs continue to be a primary driver of housing instability across the Commonwealth. While Massachusetts’ minimum wage is $15 per hour, the National Low Income Housing Coalition reports that a worker must earn approximately $45.90 per hour to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent. The Coalition also estimates a shortage of more than 170,000 rental homes that are affordable and available to extremely low-income renters, leaving many households at risk of housing instability and homelessness.
1k
Individuals experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts.
1%
Are members of families with children.
Our Solution
1
Individuals provided with overnight shelter at our warming centers in winter 2026.
1
Individuals served in Housing Families’ shelters in 2025.
The EMERGEncy Relief Collective delivers responsive, trauma-informed services that address both immediate safety needs and the long-term causes of homelessness. By combining emergency shelter, mobile outreach, warming centers, housing search support, access to clinical services, and case management, Housing Families helps individuals and families move from crisis toward stability. Our multidisciplinary teams meet people where they are, build trust through consistent engagement, and connect participants to housing, healthcare, recovery support, and community resources.
Moving into somewhere permanent is a big sigh of relief for us. We have been homeless for just about three years and this has marked our seventh move. I can’t explain how good it feels to call somewhere home.
Ashley
My case worker helped me navigate the state paperwork and housing applications, and we have been living on our own for ten years…I thank God every day that there was an agency like Housing Families to help us in our time of need.