How One Group Helps Boston Families Secure Housing

This July, Higher Ground’s Candice Harding wrote the following letter that was placed in the Globe.

Re “Create a common application for subsidized housing” (Editorial, July 17): I know the challenges faced by families seeking access to affordable housing and support the idea of a common, universal pre-application. Higher Ground Boston and its partners work with Boston Public Schools helping homeless families secure stable housing and contribute to improved educational outcomes for their children.

We have reduced wait times to less than two years for most families and to months and even weeks for some. We help families navigate the application process and not give up. We developed a one-page pre-application that allows the family to provide the information and authorization we need to assist them. Post-COVID-19, the pre-application has been online and families are able to complete it using a cellphone. We help families to complete the application for our program and to provide all the required documents, and we follow up with them weekly until they are housed.

Candice Harding

Family advocate

Higher Ground Boston

Roxbury