Participate – Go to www.chapa.org/home-at-last or www.nshousingtrust.org to find out where a home@last meeting is taking place in or near your community, and get your friends and neighbors to participate.

• Click here for a schedule of home@last presentations
  
  
• For a schedule of meetings related to housing issues, visit CHAPA's website at www.chapa.org
  
  

Get Involved – Attend local meetings with housing and planning officials to support affordable housing proposals in your town.

• Locate the organization in your community that is discussing the need for affordable housing by contacting your town or city hall.
  
  
• If your community does not already have such a group, bring people together to discuss this issue. Visit the Massachusetts Housing Partnership Funds’ website at www.mhp.net for guidance in establishing a local housing partnership.
  
  

Get Organized – Contact your Mayor, Board of Selectmen and local Representatives to voice your support for actively expanding housing choices.

• Visit the Massachusetts Municipal Association at www.mma.org. The Massachusetts Municipal Association includes the Massachusetts Mayors Association, the Massachusetts Selectmen’s Association, the Massachusetts Municipal Management Association and the Massachusetts Municipal Personnel Association.
  
  
• Visit the directory maintained by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that identifies your State Representatives and State Senators at www.state.ma.us/cc
  
  
• Call your local city or town hall to learn how to contact your local appointed and elected officials.
  
  

Be Heard – There are a number of ways in which you may communicate with the public on a large scale. They include but are not limited to:

• Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper supporting a local housing proposal and/or emphasizing the real need to get housing built in your community. Click here for sample letters.
  
  
• Create a brief public service announcement.
  
  
• Create a local listserv.
  
  
• Submit announcements of meetings/events to your local cable and radio stations.
  
  

Learn More – Go to www.chapa.org and www.nshousingtrust.org to learn more about affordable housing options and issues.

• Learn about tools used by communities to create housing that is affordable by visiting www.chapa.org or www.mhp.net or www.mass.gov/dhcd/
  
  
• Read a case study about combining affordable housing with “green” technology in Gloucester at www.chapa.org [Download this PDF: http://www.chapa.org/SGCaseStudyGloucester.pdf]

Learn more about the issues related to affordable housing by reading some of the research accomplished by a number of prestigious academic institutions in our area, including but not limited to:

• Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies at www.jchs.harvard.edu/
  
  
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology's MIT Center for Real Estate at web.mit.edu/cre/
  
  
• Northeastern University ’s Center for Urban and Regional Policy at www.curp.neu.edu/