For nearly 50 years, Heading Home has been one of Boston’s leading providers of emergency shelter, transitional, and permanent housing for extremely low-income families and individuals currently or formerly experiencing homeles
sness. Heading Home’s reach is spread throughout the Greater Boston area, primarily in Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Lawrence, Malden, Medford, Quincy, Revere, and Somerville. By the end of 2023, Heading Home will have supported 2,000+ men, women, and children, 83% identifying as non-white and/or Hispanic/Latinx.
In July 2022, Heading Home expanded its reach and impact when former Casa Nueva Vida programs joined Heading Home as Camino a Casa, a division of Heading Home supporting primarily Spanish-speaking families in Boston and Lawrence. With this division, Heading Home is Massachusetts’s largest shelter provider for families.
Annually, Heading Home assists over 1,600 families and individuals with a safe, stable home and specialized supportive services, including:
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- Housing and shelter for 539 families each night, including approximately 700 children, the majority of whom are cared for by a single mom.
- Permanent supportive housing for 70 single adult individuals experiencing chronic homelessness.
- A dedicated economic mobility services department, providing employment readiness, work force development, setting and achieving academic goals, financial independence and empowerment, job search coaching, career development, credit building, debt management, and more.
- Coordination with outside services to provide multifaceted assistance beyond the scope of our own services.
- 1:1 case management support for every Heading Home household, including regular check-in meetings to monitor housing stability and goal achievement.
- Stabilization services for 24 months after moving out of shelter help families remain housed permanently.
- Our annual Backpack Buddies collection drive brings in more than $20,000 in backpacks and school supplies, and our Heading Home for the Holidays event collects more than 1,000+ toys and games for children in their programs.
- An in-house clinical services team that provides trauma-informed and recovery-oriented care for Heading Home clients as needed.
To learn more about Heading Home, you can visit their website at headinghomeinc.org
