With evolving news of COVID-19, the Boston Housing Authority’s highest priority is the health and safety of our community, and to ensure that essential services continue as needed. We are working closely with the City of Boston and the Boston Public Health Commission to implement best practices and heightened safety and cleaning procedures for all BHA sites, including our Chauncy Street headquarters and across our Family and Elderly/Disabled Public Housing developments for the benefit of our residents, voucher holders, applicants and staff.

BHA is reaching out to residents in a number of ways to ensure that we are connected and providing essential services. Read BHA Administrator Kate Bennett's letters to residents to learn more.

• 4.16 Letter to Public Housing residents concerning BHA activities & local COVID-19 Cases: English, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Arabic, Cape Verdean, Polish, Russian, Somali, Vietnamese.

• 4.7 Letter to Public Housing resident concerning what to do if you contract COVID-19. English. Spanish & Chinese Translation with attached safety guidances from the CDC.

• 3.20 Letter to Public Housing residents at BHA-managed sites: English, Spanish, Chinese.

• 3.20 Letter to Public Housing residents at privately-managed sites: English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Vietnamese, Cape Verdean, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Russian, and Somali.

• Read BHA's Leased Housing Department letter to program participants. English, Spanish, Chinese.

BHA Updates:

The following toolkit is composed of a PHA best practices guide, tenant brochure with tips to prevent eviction, HCV landlord flyer to encourage engagement with tenants before the eviction moratorium expires, repayment agreement guidance and examples, and a needs assessment tool. Click following link: https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/PIH/documents/eps_toolkit_Attachment2-TenantBrochure.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

BHA has adopted waivers pursuant to the federal CARES Act. Click the link for more information.

BHA is restricting walk-in visits at our offices at 52 Chauncy St, and visitation at our public housing communities around the city. All essential services, including public safety, maintenance and management will continue. While BHA staff remain on-site, we are asking visits to be limited and communications be conducted by phone and email. Learn more.

BHA posted this notice to visitors at our public housing sites, discouraging nonessential visitation. English, Spanish, Chinese, Albanian, Arabic, Cape Verdean, Haitian Creole, Russian, Somali, Vietnamese.

To reduce crowding at homeless shelters, BHA and Boston Public Schools are partnering together up to offer housing vouchers to BPS students and their families facing homelessness.

BHA has instituted a temporary stay on all nonessential eviction actions for the foreseeable future. Learn more.

Housing Choice Voucher participants facing a change in income & circumstances should fill out an Interim Change Request and send it to the Boston Housing Authority's Leased Housing Department at 52 Chauncy St. Boston, MA 02111. English, Spanish, Chinese.

General Guidance:

The most important thing for residents to do is to follow basic COVID-19 guidance:  frequent hand-washing; avoiding touching your face; limiting visitors; cleaning high-touch surfaces frequently; and practicing social distancing.  Social distancing means seriously limiting in-person contact with others, and when it is necessary to be in the same room, keeping six feet away from others.

Please visit the Boston Public Health Commission website and the City of Boston website for the most up to date information and guidance concerning COVID-19/Coronavirus here in Boston.

The City of Boston shared a general guide to understanding the coronavirus in multiple languages.

The Boston Public Health Commission shared a COVID-19 safety guidance for residents in multifamily buildings.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has distributed a flyer with instructions for all Boston Residents who are sick or have contracted Coronavirus. English, Spanish, Amharic, Arabic, Burmese, Chinese, Dari, Farsi, French, Haitian, Nepali, Pashto, Russian, Somali, Swahili, Tigryna, Ukrainian, Vietnamese

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has created flyer instructions for how to wear cloth/face coverings. English, Spanish.

US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams shares easy instructions for a homemade cloth face covering.

See Mayor Walsh's letter to all Boston residents. English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Vietnamese, Cape Verdean Creole, Somali.

If you’re feeling unwell, please consult your primary care physician.

Reach the City of Boston Health Line at 3-1-1.

Residents can text BOSCOVID to 99411 to opt-in to alerts in English and the following keywords to opt-in to alerts in the languages below: 

• Text BOSEspanol to 99411 for Spanish

• Text BOSKreyol to 99411 for Haitian Creole

• Text BOSFrancais to 99411 for French

• Text BOSKriolu to 99411 for Cabo Verdean Creole

• Text BOSPortugues to 99411 for Portuguese

The State of Massachusetts' non-emergency hotline is providing updates on Coronavirus at 2-1-1.

Food Resources:

The City of Boston has compiled a complete list and interactive map for residents in need of food assistance during this public health emergency. Click here to find your local meal site.

If you are seeking food for yourself, your family, a neighbor, coworker or friend, you can use The Greater Boston Food Bank's partner agency locator here to find help in your community by following this link https://www.gbfb.org/need-food/.

City Mission is now providing emergency food and rental assistance due to COVID-19.

• Food Assistance Request: https://citymissionboston.org/food-assistance-request

• Rental Assistance Request: https://citymissionboston.org/rental-assistance-request

Other Resources:

Covid-19 resource guide for Boston immigrants is now up on Boston.gov in 6 different languages. The translations are posted on the right side of this website:
https://www.boston.gov/news/covid-19-resource-guide-bostons-immigrants. Another way to access the guide is to go to boston.gov/immigrants and clink on the link at the top of the page.

In response to COVID-19, local housing provider Winn Companies created a resident-facing version of their CONNECT platform so residents can navigate needed resources such as housing, food, education and other forms of assistance. https://connect.winncompanies.com/

BHA's Family Self Sufficiency provider Compass Working Capital is sharing a variety of resources to assist residents with the impact of COVID-19. English, Spanish.

BHA distributed a flyer to landlords encouraging them to make units available to new voucher holders in order to decrease crowding in homeless shelters and to secure a steady source of rental income. Landloards and property owners can help by visiting www.bostonhousing.org/helpfamilies, where landlords can list units to house vulnerable families.

Brigham & Women’s Hospital trauma response work is being adapted for virtual outreach and online support.  If you know of someone who is impacted by trauma caused by violence, have them contact the citywide Trauma team network at the 24 hour support line at 617.431.0125 or they can contact the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Trauma Team (Tree of Life, Inc, Brigham and Women’s Hospital) Family Partner Sade Smith at sjonessmith@bwh.harvard.edu Community Outreach Advocate Bashier Kayou at Bashier.Kayou@yahoo.com and Behavioral Health Clinician Josh McNeil at mjmcneil@bwh.harvard.edu.
 
Support for youth in school is offered by Bashier Kayou and Sherman Hart, the school liaison for the Curley, Hennigan, Kennedy and Hernandez School.