For residents of Boston on the brink of being forced out of their homes, staying afloat while researching their options can feel like an insurmountable challenge. The city’s Office of Housing Stability has been settling into its role of coordinating city and non-profit resources to help residents meet that challenge, stave off displacement, and more effectively manage individual cases.

“We’re making some serious progress,” said Sheila Dillon, the city’s housing chief. The stability office reports directly to her, housed under the Department of Neighborhood Development.

Mayor Martin Walsh’s proposed budget, which still has to be discussed, adjusted, and approved by the city council, allocates $1.6 million for the Office of Housing Stability. Dillon said this provides funding for a new deputy director position, along with tech support, and the creation of a fluid case management system.

The office has been fielding calls since its establishment in February, Dillon said. While case management is taking place, they are also focusing on data collection, she added.

“If we’re going to be effective in this work, we need to get a better idea about evictions,” Dillon said, “where they’re happening, to whom, what landlords are doing the most evictions, in what neighborhoods.”

In Boston, 16 percent of homeowners put more than half their income toward housing-related expenses, according to the US Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey. No more than 30 percent of a household’s income should be directed toward such costs, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Beyond that point the household is considered “cost burdened” for its limited ability to buy food, clothing, and other necessities.

Dillon said the office will be consolidating some smaller departments, creating a structure of four or five people working under the deputy director. They would take in cases and ensure that service is consistent as the resident is directed between departmental and non-profit resources.

In a hypothetical case, if a resident faced a sudden and untenable rent hike, he or she could reach out to the office. Dillon said, and case managers would attempt to negotiate with the landlord and also connect the resident with resources that may be able to provide emergency funding.

In the event that the resident is displaced anyway, “then we start a pretty aggressive housing search on their behalf, because we don’t want folks to be homeless,” Dillon said. “We don’t want people to enter the system.”

Inter-agency coordination is key, Dillon said. The office is looking to better connect effective services and inventory everything the city and partner organizations are doing. The data and case management system is meant to close any gaps in assistance between services.

“We will make sure that whoever calls us is getting what they need, from us or others, until they are safely housed,” she said. “We never want to leave someone without a home.”