UMass Donahue Institute

From the report's summary:

Tenancy Preservation Program Overview

Comprehensive prevention efforts that include effective, targeted interventions represent a critical step toward
“closing the front door” to homelessness. The Tenancy Preservation Program (TPP) of Massachusetts is an effort
designed to prevent the destabilizing effects of eviction and the impact of housing instability and homelessness for
an extremely vulnerable population—those with disabilities. A collaborative effort of MassHousing, Massachusetts
Housing Court, regional service providers, and state agencies within the Executive Office of Housing and Economic
Development, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and the Executive Office of Elder Affairs, TPP
aims to preserve tenancy among individuals and families at imminent risk of eviction for whom the grounds for
eviction are directly related to a disability.

There are five housing court divisions across the Commonwealth. TPP currently operates in all five housing court
divisions and serves tenants in Berkshire, Bristol, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Plymouth, and Worcester
counties. TPP also operates in Boston, as well as nearly half of the cities and towns in Middlesex and one
community in Norfolk County. TPP does not provide services in communities lacking divisions of housing court.
Thus, TPP does not operate in Barnstable, Dukes, or Nantucket counties, and it is unavailable in all but one
community in Norfolk County. In addition, three communities in Suffolk County and 31 communities in Middlesex
County are not under housing court jurisdiction, and therefore lack TPP services.

TPP currently is administered by six community-based agencies across the Commonwealth. Each program has a
Program Director that may or may not carry a caseload. Program budgets and staffing vary across the six sites.
Since TPP’s inception, MassHousing has provided oversight and brokered funding for the program from state
agencies, notably the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), as well as the Department of
Transitional Assistance (DTA), the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), and the
Department of Mental Health (DMH). As MassHousing and individual programs secured additional funding from
the state, municipalities, local agencies, foundations, and federal sources such as the Community Development
Block Grant (CDBG) and the Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG), TPP expanded across the Commonwealth.

Program Evaluation

In 2007, MassHousing contracted with the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute to evaluate TPP. The
evaluation focused on understanding the extent to which tenant, household, and programmatic characteristics
impacted outcomes, as well as documenting the cost of providing TPP services.