Citizens Housing & Planning Association Inc

Housing counseling and education programs - chapa manages several programs to increase homeownership opportunities for low-income households. These include: a homeownership counseling grant program under a contract with the u.s. Department of housing and urban development ("hud") and the massachusetts homeownership collaborative, which provides technical assistance and training to home buyer counseling agencies.

New lease for homeless families - chapa serves as the fiscal sponsor for new lease for homeless families ("nl"). The nl program works collaboratively with state agencies, quasipublic organizations, affordable housing providers and nonprofit organizations to reduce homelessness in the commonwealth of massachusetts.

Training and education - chapa acts as an information clearinghouse for the affordable housing and planning community. The organization maintains a web page with monthly updates and sends out regular newsletters with updates on state and federal housing policy. The organization also holds conferences and forums to keep affordable housing stakeholders informed of new programs, developments and/or changes in public policies.

Massaccess registry - funded by massachusetts rehabilitation commission and managed by chapa, the massachusetts accessible housing registry is a database of accessible units throughout massachusetts that helps to match people with disabilities with vacant apartments.

Massachusetts smart growth alliance - chapa serves as the fiscal sponsor for the massachusetts smart growth alliance ("msga"). Msga is made up of leading nonprofit organizations that work together to promote state policies that foster smart growth planning and development. The activity for this program became stagnant during a prior year, however, chapa remains the fiscal sponsor and the net assets remain restricted for msga's purposes.