Thanks to leadership and advocacy from elected officials like Representative Jessica Giannino, we received a $100,000 earmark in the State’s FY24 budget that allowed us to deepen our reach in the Revere community and serve more community members. Highlights include:
Revere Warming Center:
On January 10th, we opened our second-annual Revere Warming Center, which provides shelter for up to 15 people per night who would otherwise not have shelter with protection from the weather. So far, we’ve provided 561 overnight stays for 79 unique guests. Additionally, this year’s Warming Center has already seen a 108% increase in center utilization for January and February compared to last year’s operation. Based on this trend, we expect the Warming Center to provide significantly more total stays compared to the 588 stays provided last year.
Homelessness Prevention and Legal Services Program (HPLSP):
Our HPLSP expanded program access in Revere by hiring a new paralegal dedicated to serving Revere residents’ housing legal needs. In her first three months, this paralegal was able to help 16 Revere households secure $103,000 in RAFT funding and assist a very sick Revere resident in getting into subsidized housing. In addition to our new hire, we also have a Balance of Programs Attorney working with Revere residents. Last year, our team served 114 Revere residents, and so far in FY24, we’ve already exceeded that number, serving 138 Revere residents with homelessness prevention and legal services. We anticipate serving over 200 Revere residents in this program by the end of this fiscal year.
Housing and Shelter Services in Revere:
Housing Families currently operates 26 units of EA Family Shelter in Revere, where we provide emergency housing and case management services to approx. 80 individuals. Additionally, we own and lease 6 units in Revere to provide Permanent Supportive Housing to formerly homeless individuals, many of whom have chronic disabilities.
Beyond these properties, we are excited to share that we were recently awarded a contract through the North Suburban Consortium to conduct street outreach to people experiencing homelessness across 8 communities, one being Revere. Over this next year, we will continue the work we have been doing in Revere to further increase our capacity and serve more residents.