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The Public Housing Youth Academy (PHYA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit incorporated in 2018.  Our Mission:  “Linking Public Housing Youth to Opportunity.”

  • TENANT LED
  • FOR tenants, By tenants

We aim to ENGAGE public housing youth and keep them off the streets. We are interested in every young person aged 0-24…living at the 3 public housing FAMILY developments in South Boston, a neighborhood in the Massachusetts capital affectionately known as “Southie”.  Currently, we are focusing on youth ages 10-18, middle-high school.

National figures/2013 show that among all renters public housing tenants have the lowest high-school graduation rate among all renter households nationwide.

  • Only one in four public housing tenants is educated beyond high school.
  • About one in ten (12%) did not continue schooling beyond 9th grade.
  • About one-in-five left school between 9-12th grade with NO high school diploma.
  • Less than half public housing tenants (41%) reported income from wages/salaries.
  • 5% report getting retirement or pensions.
  • 30% get Social Security income.
  • 24% are on Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
  • 12% are on welfare.
  • 55% on food stamps.
  • Nearly half of public housing tenants are headed by females; married couples make up about a quarter of all households.

We need all the help we can get (donors, volunteers, others) to help CHANGE these figures and open avenues of opportunity for public housing youth!