Somerville housing director reports 637 households sought help; warns HUD funding shift will limit prevention

Ellen Schachter, director of the Office of Housing Stability, told the Somerville City Housing & Community Development Committee on Nov. 18 that 637 unique Somerville households sought assistance between January and September 2025 and that roughly 49% (about 312 households) were at imminent risk of displacement.

Schachter, appearing at the committee’s quarterly briefing, said 118 households had already received eviction notices or court summonses during that period and that about 41% of referrals reported a monthly household income below $2,000; nearly one-third reported no income. "Those were unique households," she said.

The director said the city’s main rental-assistance programs are administered by the Community Action Agency of Somerville and the Somerville Homeless Coalition. She said OHS assisted 102 unique families in obtaining rental assistance from federal, state and city sources and cited $42,674 obtained through the state RAFT program. Schachter also referenced combined assistance of about $2,593,000 in the first nine months of 2025; a second dollar figure in the transcript is unclear and was not restated here because it could not be verified from the record.

Why it matters: Schachter warned the committee that a recently posted HUD Notice of Funding Availability (CoC NOFA) restricts permanent‑housing uses to roughly 30% of CoC funding and redirects much of the remainder toward supportive services, which she said will limit homelessness‑prevention uses such as rapid rehousing and vouchers. "The amount that we will be able to use for that purpose is going to go down," she said, adding that the balance‑of‑state allocation could fall from about $27 million to less than $10 million.

Committee members pressed Schachter on whether those shifts are final. She said the NOFA is currently live and applications are due in January; she added that, absent successful litigation or an administrative reversal, the allocation priorities in the NOFA will govern the next funding round. "The funding is changing unless there's some kind of litigation or other strategy to get HUD to turn around on it," she said.

Schachter described local countermeasures. Somerville operates a municipally funded voucher program—tied to public‑school priorities—that she said has housed 29 of 30 families and is funded through fiscal 2027, though long‑term sustainability will require new local revenue or reallocation. She also said an older‑adult bridge program that received an initial FY25 award of $100,000 has now been allocated additional state funds (she cited $220,000) to admit new seniors this year and prevent short‑term homelessness while they wait for permanent units.

On Section 8, Schachter said the Somerville Housing Authority has not issued general Section 8 vouchers in roughly six months and does not expect to issue new general vouchers in the next six months, though niche vouchers (for veterans or DCF‑involved households) have continued. She said the pause reduces prevention options and constrains project‑based subsidy strategies for new affordable developments.

What’s next: Committee members offered to assist and asked staff to return with more granular local impact figures. The committee kept the item in committee for follow-up.