Hildebrand Family Self Help

Hildebrand Family Self-Help Center is a nonprofit that helps families experiencing homelessness in Cambridge and Boston move into safe, affordable, permanent housing. It runs emergency shelters for families, provides culturally responsive case management and supportive services, and works to disrupt the systems that lead to poverty and homelessness. Serving families exclusively, it is one of Metro Boston’s largest providers of emergency shelter for homeless families and also operates permanent affordable housing.

Hildebrand began as an outgrowth of a social action ministry at St. Paul AME Church in Cambridge and is named for regional bishop Rev. Richard Allen Hildebrand, who authorized converting the church’s former parsonage into a family shelter. Support continues after families leave shelter: a stabilization program works with them for two years to help them stay housed and keep working toward their goals. In a recent year Hildebrand worked with more than 390 families, over 1,100 people, 55 percent of them children.

What to Know

• In a recent year, 134 families moved from Hildebrand’s shelter program into permanent housing.
• About 95 percent of families in the Stabilization Services Program remain housed for at least two years.
• The organization employs a staff of more than 70.
• Its Brews & Blues fundraiser, held in October, features live music, food and drinks.