This week, the Massachusetts Senate passed S.16, a $425 million supplemental budget bill aimed at funding emergency housing assistance for unhoused families in the state. This supplemental bill brings this year’s funding for the emergency shelter system to over $1 billion.
This was a difficult vote for me.
I fully support our state’s right to shelter, which is based on the principle that we will not render any child in the Commonwealth homeless. Yet like so many of my colleagues, I know that $1 billion for shelter is not sustainable. Nor should we be spending $1 billion on shelter. I say this because I know there are better ways to support families through housing preservation and rehousing programs. As with so many of our systems, when we are more compassionate about how we respond to those in need, we will also be more cost effective.
However, rather than addressing the underlying stressors in the current system or increasing the efficiency of keeping families housed or rehousing them quickly, this bill continues to rely on restricting access to supports. For example, the bill sets a six-month limit on shelter stays, with minimal hardship extensions available for families with young children, pregnant individuals in late pregnancy, or others in particularly vulnerable situations. Additionally, the legislation caps the number of families in shelters at 4,000 beginning December 31, 2025.
While restrictions reduce the number of families in shelter, time and again we see the costs increase in other systems when families cannot get the help they need. Families, especially children, are very vulnerable to the disruption and harsh environment of the street and other unsafe living conditions that they will be forced into without access to support. There have been and will continue to be costs to our healthcare system, our workforce, and to educational outcomes, etc with these disruptions.
We desperately need to fix the emergency shelter system that has been broken for decades. We need to invest in housing strategies and address the root causes of homelessness.
That said, I voted yes on the bill. We adopted an amendment I filed to expand the families that are eligible for hardship extensions beyond on the 6 month limit to include families with children under the age of 6 and because we adopted other amendments put forth by my colleagues to improve the system. I voted yes because I know that our providers need this funding to support the families currently in the system.
With the Senate’s approval, the bill will now move to the next step in the legislative process, where differences between the House and Senate versions will be reconciled before it is sent to the Governor for her signature.
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For media questions, please contact:
Giselle Rivera-Flores, Director of Communications at giselle.riveraflores@masenate.gov
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