Housing Help.org

Nonprofit in formation

After the eviction, someone should still be on your side.

Housing Help is a housing advocacy organization being formed to stand beside people displaced by eviction or foreclosure. We are not a rental assistance fund and we do not write checks. We are advocates, and our work is to help a displaced household find the next place to land, and then the permanent one after it.

What stop-gap housing means

An eviction or a foreclosure does not usually end with a family standing on a sidewalk. It ends with a gap. There are weeks or months between the home someone is losing and the home they can actually keep, and that gap is where households fall out of stable housing altogether. Our work lives in the gap.

Where it starts Displacement

A judgment, a writ, a sale date, or a notice to vacate.

Stop-gap
housing
Where it should end A lease they can keep

Housing the household can hold onto without another crisis.

Today we help a household find that stop-gap. Our long term intention is to provide it.

We help find the stop-gap housing solution, until the day we can provide the stop-gap housing solution.

Founding principle

How we help, and what we will not do

Being clear about the second column matters as much as the first. It is what keeps this organization honest about the help it actually provides.

What an advocate does

  • Sits down with a household and works out where they can realistically go next.
  • Makes the calls, waits on the holds, and follows up when a referral goes quiet.
  • Translates the paperwork, the deadlines, and the terms nobody explains.
  • Talks to landlords and property managers about an applicant who has an eviction on record.
  • Connects the household to the shelter system, the local Continuum of Care, and HUD approved counselors.
  • Works on the practical things that sink a move: storage, transportation, documents, and keeping children in the same school where that is possible.

What we are not

  • We are not a rental assistance program. We do not pay rent, deposits, or arrears.
  • We do not fund a household staying in the home they are leaving. Our work begins at the next address, not the last one.
  • We are not a law firm. We do not give legal advice, we do not represent anyone, and we are not anyone's attorney.
  • We are not a shelter, and we are not an emergency responder.
  • We never charge the household. Not a fee, not a percentage, not a repayment.

The barriers we exist to work on

These are the specific obstacles that turn a single displacement into long term housing instability. Each one is workable with someone advocating on the household's behalf.

An eviction on record
A filing follows a person through tenant screening for years, including filings that were dismissed or satisfied. It is the single largest barrier to the next lease, and it is often the one a landlord will reconsider if someone makes the case.
Move-in cost at the worst moment
A deposit and first month come due exactly when a household has the least. We do not pay it, but we know which local programs do and how to reach them before the unit is gone.
The paperwork wall
Identification, income verification, and program applications, each with its own deadline and its own office. Households lose housing to missed paperwork more often than to a lack of options.
Belongings and the clock
A set-out date does not wait for a moving plan. Storage, transportation, and a place for what a family owns are what decide whether they can recover at all.
Children mid-school-year
A move across a district line can cost a child the year. Continuity is usually possible and almost never offered without someone asking for it.

Where we are right now

  • Forming

    We are organizing as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Incorporation and the federal exemption application are in progress, and this page will say so until that is finished.

  • Not yet open

    We are not accepting client referrals. If you need help now, use 211 above.

  • No donations

    We are not soliciting or accepting donations, and nothing here is an appeal for funds. When that changes, this page will say so, and it will say what the money does.

  • Independent

    Housing Help is being built as a separate and distinct organization with its own governance. It is not a law firm and it does not practice law.

Help us be ready

An advocacy organization is only as good as the doors it can get someone through. Before we open, we are looking for the people who hold those doors.

  • Landlords and property managers willing to look at an applicant with a filing on record, and to tell us what would make that a yes.
  • Shelters, case managers, and Continuum of Care partners who can tell us where the real gaps in the local system are.
  • Volunteer advocates who are patient on the phone and unafraid of a form.
  • Founding contributors and board candidates who want to help build this correctly from the start.
hello@housing-help.org