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Homelessness Prevention

This program provides three outreach workers who assist individuals and families when they are at risk of losing their housing due, in part, to behavior problems.  Individuals who are about to be evicted may refer themselves to this service, or they may be referred by schools, social services, or health- care providers  The services are available without charge to prevent people from becoming homeless.

The staff includes outreach workers who are bi-lingual in Spanish and in Haitian Creole.  They assist individuals and families to gain access to community resources that will help them stabilize their housing.  This may include housing specialists, legal aid, social services, health care, mental health and substance abuse services, and cash assistance.  To make available and coordinate the key resources from different community agencies, this program is operated as a collaboration among Somerville Mental Health, Somerville Community Corporation, Somerville Homelessness Coalition, and Community Action Agency of Somerville.  They use a shared system of referral, outreach, and case coordination to provide housing-assistance, training, and treatment services.     

The outreach workers collaborate directly with the housing and social service agencies to:

• assist families and individuals to utilize available housing resources effectively despite their behavior problems
• assist them to access appropriate treatment for their health and behavioral health problems, even when they initially see no connection between their behavior and their housing problems

To address the behavioral problems that may contribute to their housing problems, the outreach workers are backed up by consultation from the clinical staff of Somerville Mental Health.