Kevin Sheehan Former Board Member I want to thank you for visiting us at the Cambridge Housing Assistance Fund. Homelessness on a daily basis is terrifying, draining, and damaging. Dreams and lives are silenced, and children and adults are at risk for their safety. Financial assistance is sometimes the only consideration between a person or a family and the bitter cold. The cycle of generosity you are helping create as a friend to our organization, as a donor, or as a sponsor to CHAF is changing the landscape of our community. Social problems that people once thought insoluble are being solved, and people are coming together to make an important difference. The first impulse a family has when it gets new housing is often to invite friends who are still homeless to come in out of the cold and share the new home. That level of generosity displayed regularly by people in the midst of the greatest life crises keeps us all driving forward here every day to get involved and to solve the problem once and for all.

CHAF's Mission

The Cambridge Housing Assistance Fund is operated by the Cambridge Community of Realtors in a public/private partnership with the Cambridge banking community, HomeStart and the Cambridge Multi-Service Center for the Homeless. CHAF provides a bridge to housing for homeless and near homeless families and individuals by assisting with the initial costs of renting an apartment and providing one time assistance grants to families at risk of becoming homeless.

CHAF is a broad-based community coalition of Realtors, civic and business leaders, universities and
local banks pulling together to break the cycle of homelessness. Since its inception in 1999, CHAF
has raised more than $1,600,000 - enough to open doors for more than 1,500 households.

CHAF is operated by the Cambridge Community of Realtors in a public/private partnership with the Cambridge banking community, HomeStart, and the Cambridge Multi-Service Center for the Homeless.

HomeStart, Inc.

HomeStart is dedicated to ending homelessness and changing lives. Homeless people are assisted to find housing and settle in the community while those on the verge of homelessness are helped to retain their housing. HomeStart also promotes the creation of housing solutions system wide. 

Founded in 1994, the agency assists nearly 1,500 families and individuals in Greater Boston a year. HomeStart is committed to achieving results that end homelessness. It has tracked every person the organization has ever served and the housing outcomes achieved. The results: HomeStart just passed the 4,000 mark for housing placements; 350 more people move to housing each year, and 98% of those assisted with housing retention are still housed on year later. Another 300 low-income neighbors on the verge of eviction are prevented from becoming homeless in the first place.

HomeStart’s housing search services are offered at most shelters and other programs serving homeless adults in Boston and Cambridge. HomeStart’s follow-up housing retention services assist people, once housed, to become good tenants, budget their incomes, maintain substance abuse recovery, and more. HomeStart doesn’t just provide services, it also provides housing. It manages a portfolio of 350 government-funded housing subsidies. Some of the most disabled and vulnerable people who were once homeless are today living successfully in housing, with HomeStart subsidies and support services.

The Cambridge Multi-Service Center for the Homeless

The Cambridge Multi-Service Center for the Homeless helps homeless and near-homeless people from the Cambridge area locate and maintain stable, appropriate housing by providing counseling, home search and stabilization services.  The city of Cambridge Department of Human Services Program in collaboration with several other agencies, including HomeStart, Inc., operates the Multi-Service Center.

Programs sponsored by the city of Cambridge at the Center include the Family Housing Search, the Transitional Shelter Program, the Elder/Disabled Housing Assistance Program, Human Services Case Management and the Haitian Services Collaborative.