Please Contact your MA State Senator and Ask for Restored Funding for Housing Consumer Education Centers.

RCAP Solutions, along with the eight partner agencies that provide vital housing programs and services to families throughout the Commonwealth, request that funding for the Housing Consumer Education Centers (amendment 335) be restored to the FY14 level of $2.6 million. This amendment will allow HCECs to meet the continued demand for services from individuals and families at urgent risk of homelessness and serve all Massachusetts residents in need of housing supports and services.

The Commonwealth’s nine Housing Consumer Education Centers (HCECs) are the front line for housing crisis response across the state.  They are an essential element in the delivery system for other state-funded programs, including RAFT and HomeBASE.

HCECs have assisted more than 56,350 households through March of this fiscal year, and are on track to assist more than 75,000 households this fiscal year. Over the last ten years, this assistance has an average cost of less than $28 per household.

Crisis prevention and housing education services provided through the HCECs result in fewer evictions and foreclosures and take pressure off housing courts and other state services. However, assisting people in crisis requires time-intensive counseling by professional staff.

We ask you to contact your Massachusetts State Senator immediately and ask that they support Senator Wolf’s amendment 335.  This will restore RCAP Solutions’ ability to serve the residents of Central Massachusetts through the cost effective HCEC program, by providing $2.6 million in Fiscal Year 2016, restoring funding to the nine regional housing agencies.

Find your MA State Senator by clicking here.

For more information, please click here or contact Brian Scales, Chief Development and Governmental Affairs Officer at 978-630-6649 or bscales@rcapsolutions.org.

Thank you for your continued support.