With a long-standing and broad portfolio of work, UMDI has played a key role in shaping understanding of housing and homelessness in Massachusetts and beyond. We conduct wide-ranging research and analysis for state and local governments and community organizations to inform public policy discussions around housing and its relationships to access, affordability, opportunity, economic stability, and more. We have also worked for nearly a decade with youth-serving nonprofits across New England to secure federal funding to deliver cutting-edge programming for homeless and runaway youth.
Featured Projects
Massachusetts’ First-Ever Comprehensive Statewide Housing Plan
In collaboration with the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, UMDI provided critical data analysis that contributed to the execution of the Commonwealth's very first comprehensive housing plan as part of Governor Maura Healey’s directive to address the statewide housing crisis. “A Home for Everyone” explores all aspects of the state’s housing landscape and outlines key strategies to create a more affordable Commonwealth.
Organizational Assessment for Craig’s Doors
UMDI completed an organizational assessment of governance, leadership, finances, staffing, and community engagement for Craig’s Doors, an emergency shelter provider in Amherst, MA. Ultimately, the assessment offered a roadmap for how Craig’s Doors can sustain its values of radical compassion while also strengthening systems for the long haul, ensuring that vulnerable residents continue to have a reliable place to turn.
Mixed-Methods Study on Housing Crisis in Western Massachusetts
In 2025, UMDI was commissioned by Way Finders, an affordable housing organization dedicated to bringing home stability to people across Western Massachusetts, to update previous regional housing studies. Their goal was to obtain a comprehensive picture of housing conditions in the area's four counties, as well as gain some region-specific context to the findings of the Statewide Housing Needs Assessment and Housing Production Plan. UMDI’s findings indicate, in part, that Western Massachusetts’s housing affordability crisis requires multi-step solutions, including more housing at all income levels and investment in affordability solutions and eviction prevention measures.
Grant Writing for Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
For nearly a decade, UMDI has helped seven youth-serving nonprofits across New England to secure funding from the federal DHHS Family & Youth Services Bureau to deliver cutting-edge programming for homeless and runaway youth. Every year, UMDI’s grant writers and program design experts have leveraged between $5 million and $24 million on behalf of our clients on supports and resources from warming centers in the middle of winter to drop-in centers and 24/7 hotlines.
Research Study for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
UMDI conducted a mixed-methods study for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to learn more about students experiencing homelessness and the efforts in place to support them. This study, which combined quantitative and qualitative components, is the first comprehensive analysis of students experiencing homelessness using DESE’s student-level data.
Program Evaluation for Housing Security Community Health Initiative
UMDI provided multi-year evaluation support and progress monitoring for Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s Housing Security Community Health Initiative, a grant-funded initiative aimed at reducing housing insecurity and addressing inequities affecting local low-income tenants. UMDI’s report summarized the housing security services implemented, programs developed, households engaged, and the outcomes documented at the individual, organizational, and community levels at the conclusion of the grant.
Professional Development for Homelessness Center Staff
The Department of Mental Health Children’s Behavioral Health Knowledge Center enlisted UMDI to develop, deliver, and manage training sessions on early childhood social and emotional development for staff at homelessness centers across the state. Attended by more than 100 participants over the course of nine months, this three-tiered approach educates staff on working with young children, parent engagement techniques, and action plans to ensure shelters can implement early childhood social emotional screening to their practices.