After her brother was murdered last year, the Roxbury apartment that April Pinnick had called home for five years felt like the most dangerous place on earth.

Her 32-year-old brother, Zachary Pinnick had been shot near an alleyway beside her building. His killer had to have known his routine and might have lived in the area, she thought. Was her safety at risk?

Pinnick, who li

ved in the subsidized unit with her now 8-year-old son, spent the next several months pleading with her building manager to allow her to move to a unit in another neighborhood. In the meantime, she sought refuge in her grandmother’s crowded home. Eventually, she met a community outreach worker who connected her to the district attorney’s office which helped her secure an emergency Section 8 voucher. She moved into her new home in another neighborhood earlier this year.

Pinnick’s experience is not unusual. Help with moving that is typically available for witnesses to violent crime is hard to come by for the family members of homicide victims who feel unsafe in their homes.

“There is no protocol within the city and state government ... homicide survivors are not yet seen as a population,’’ said Tina Chery, president of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, which works with families of homicide victims and helped relocate 10 families last year. “When someone is afraid for their life or is afraid to go back home, as a society, as a culture, we’re not listening [and] it re-traumatizes these families. This immediate need is not being met.’’

While the city does not have a formal program to assist these families, Lisa Mansdorf Pollack, spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development, said the agency has helped relatives of homicide victims relocate. Pollack said in a statement that requests are handled on “a case-by-case basis.’’

“We receive calls from family members, and frequently from clergy, alerting us to someone having been impacted by crime or violence,’’ Pollack said, adding that the city’s Office of Housing Stability handles the requests. “Our case managers work with each family to meet their needs, using both our internal resources and our external partners to relocate these families.’’

Other agencies have specific criteria when it comes to providing aid, or granting an emergency relocation for those in public housing.

For those living in public housing, the Boston Housing Authority will grant an emergency move if a household member “provided information or testimony on criminal activities to a law enforcement agency.’’

According to data provided by BHA, there were 138 security and safety requests for transfers last year and 108 as of July this year. BHA does not track how many of those requests are related to homicides, but such requests “are extremely rare,’’ agency spokeswoman Lydia ­Agro said.

Agro said immediate transfers are made “in instances of serious threat to health and safety.’’

Security and safety requests are investigated by the BHA Police Department, reviewed by a Transfer Review Committee, and then the resident is placed on a waiting list based on priority. The average wait time for priority transfers is less than seven months.

If a victim’s family includes a potential witness, moving costs may be covered by the state’s Witness Protection Fund, operated by the Executive Office of Public Safety, or the family could be eligible for financial assistance under the Attorney General’s Victims of Violent Crime Compensation fund.

Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, said other options may be available and advocates assigned to the DA’s office are trained to help surviving families find funds and other benefits.

“It really depends on the facts and circumstances of each case,’’ Wark said. “Safety takes a priority, but we can sometimes work with other agencies to get the ball rolling on a move.’’

But formal help should extend to family members of victims, even when they are not witnesses, advocates say.

“Your home is your safety net, a place where you’re suppose to lay your head and have no worries,’’ said Rev. Wayne Daley, the Intergenerational Justice Project Program Coordinator at the Peace Institute. “Imagine being forced out, you got to leave because someone is threatening you.’’

That’s what happened to Melissa Guerrero, who moved with her children outside of Boston after her son, 20-year-old Angel Oller was shot and killed on a Roxbury street along with his friend, 28-year-old Andrew Reed on Aug. 7, 2015.

After his death, the family told the Globe that they received calls and intimidating text messages from unknown numbers inquiring about their whereabouts. A group of men shot at a recreational center during a memorial service for Oller, and men showed up to his grandmother’s home looking for the family. Police rushed them to a hotel after the last incident. Guerrero could not be reached for this story.

Those who own their homes say moving after a crime can be especially difficult.

“Because I own my home, I didn’t qualify for a lot of services,’’ said Shondell Davis, 50, whose son Johnny was killed in 2009, around the corner from her two-story house. Davis said someone spray-painted a sign on the front of her home the week of his death.

“I remember arguing with advocates from the homicide unit and saying, ‘We can’t go home,’ ’’ she said.

Davis and her family stayed in a hotel for two months after her son was killed before returning home. She never found help moving but said she is now considering renting out her home and getting an apartment.

Advocates say that families who don’t know where to start typically are of modest means and can’t afford to move on their own. Their chances of getting help becomes a matter of who they know.

The funeral director who handled Pinnick’s brother’s service introduced her to Frank Farrow, community engagement coordinator for the TenPoint Coalition, an organization that works with at-risk youth, and he connected her to the resources she needed to move. While financial assistance is a plus, he said there should be an entity that helps families locate housing.

“It doesn’t make any sense . . . someone can lose their brother or son in front of their house and there’s this delay, no formal process to help them relocate and it’s not guaranteed,’’ Farrow said.

Jan Ransom can be reached at jan.ransom@globe.com.