Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to common questions. Don't see yours? Ask below.

No. You can browse every listing and the map without an account. While browsing, names and personal details stay hidden. You only need an account to post a listing or contact someone.

No. Map pins are offset by roughly 0.2 miles from the real location, so your exact address is never displayed. All contact goes through a private relay, so your email address is never revealed to other members.

Apartment Needed is for people looking for a place or a roommate. Need a Roommate is for those who have a lease and want to fill a bed. Sublet / Temporary covers stays shorter than a year. Community Housing is for intentional or long-term Catholic housing communities.

Technical Details

Version 1.5.1

Recent updates

  • v1.5.1 — 2026-08-25
    • Listing photos are now stored in Cloudflare R2 and served from img.catholichousingboston.com, so uploads survive a redeploy instead of living on the web server's temporary disk. Nothing changes for posters — photos upload and display exactly as before.
  • v1.5.0 — 2026-08-25
    • Living details are now checkboxes instead of one free-text box — non-smoking, pets, in-unit laundry, parking, furnished, utilities, A/C, accessibility and more. Anything you'd already written moved into the new “Other requirements” box, and anything you don't tick shows as “not specified” rather than a no.
    • Listings now describe the whole unit (type, total bedrooms and bathrooms) separately from the space actually available (beds, private or shared bedroom and bathroom, and a description).
    • Photos can be tagged as the unit, shared spaces, or the available room, and the tag shows on each photo.
    • New filters on the browse pages for in-unit laundry, pets, and parking.
    • Contacting a poster now requires an account, and every message you send is saved under “Listings you've contacted” on My Listings — including listings that have since been taken down.
  • v1.4.0 — 2026-08-25
    • Listing pages: added a ♡ Save button next to Contact and Flag, so you can save a listing while viewing its full details.
    • My Listings: the page is now two columns of tiles — your own listings on the left, your saved listings on the right — instead of two tables.
    • Every tile's title links to that listing's own page (owners can open their own listing page even while it's paused, hidden, or expired).
    • Your listings now show “Saved by X other users”, with a note that saved listings are only kept for 30 days; saves older than that are dropped automatically.
  • v1.3.2 — 2026-08-25
    • Admin dashboard: open questions now have a one-click Spam button that dismisses the message with the note filled in as 'Spam'.
  • v1.3.1 — 2026-08-16
    • Home map: clicking an Apartment Needed area (the blue circles) and then a person in the list now opens their full details, the same popup you get on the Apartment Needed page.
    • All maps: listing popups now have a ♡ Save button, so you can add a listing to your saved list without leaving the map.
  • v1.3.0 — 2026-08-16
    • Password reset: a 'Forgot password?' link on the log-in page emails a one-hour reset link.
    • Security: CSRF protection on every form, and rate limits on the contact, flag, question, signup, and login endpoints.
    • Shareable listings: every listing now has its own page and a 'Copy link' button.
    • Saved listings: click ♡ Save on any listing; saved ones collect under My Listings.
    • Listing pages: price and beds filters, plus pagination (25 per page).
    • Emails: welcome email on signup, a moderation notice when a listing is hidden, and a 7-day expiry reminder with a one-click renew link (plus an 'Extend 30 days' button on My Listings).
    • Photos are now compressed on upload and tables use fast thumbnails.
    • Profiles: optional parish + bio shown in an 'About the poster' section on your listings.
    • Mobile polish for tables, the List/Map toggle, and pagination.
  • v1.2.1 — 2026-07-27
    • Home map: replaced the Men/Women toggle with a Women · Both · Men slider (Men blue, Women pink, Both a blue→pink gradient). Both shows everyone and is the default until a gender is chosen; once picked, that gender persists and becomes the default. Sub-page maps keep the two-option Women/Men slider.
  • v1.2.0 — 2026-07-27
    • Admin listings (DB) viewer: trimmed to ID / Category / Posted / Name / Email / Location / M/F / Status / Actions, added Active, Paused, Expired, Hidden and Flagged filters, and paginated with a 25/50 results-per-page control.
    • Manage Users: the 🔴 flag now links straight to the flagged listings.
    • My Listings: made the delete-account box more compact.
    • Admin and moderator accounts can no longer self-delete (another admin must remove the role first, or delete from Manage Users).
    • Dashboard: the Appeals section is hidden when there are none.
  • v1.1.0 — 2026-07-27
    • My Listings: added a 'Delete my account and all data' option (type-to-confirm); blocked while any of your listings are under moderator review.
    • New Moderator role: moderators get the full admin dashboard and moderation tools, but can't manage users.
    • Manage Users: admins can now delete users, transfer the admin role (up to 3 admins, no self-removal), and grant/revoke moderators.
    • Manage Users: added an email/name search and a Flagged column that sorts users with flagged listings to the top.
  • v1.0.3 — 2026-07-27
    • Beds-to-fill listings now separate a private exact Location (used only for the map's privacy offset) from a public Area shown on listings.
    • Added the ~0.2 mi map-offset privacy note below category maps.
    • My Listings: expired listings now show a yellow 'Expired (Hidden)' status with a note to update the expiration date to renew.
  • v1.0.2 — 2026-07-27
    • Login: the email field no longer requires an '@' to submit.
  • v1.0.1 — 2026-07-27
    • Added a Technical/FAQ page with version and update history.
    • Homepage map: 'Apartment Needed' now shown by default; popups link to each category's full listings in the category color.
  • v1.0.0 — 2026-07-27
    • Initial release: listings, map, private contact relay, and admin tools.