Gov. Maura Healey filed a $425 million spending invoice Tuesday that makes an attempt to empty practically all of an account crammed with pandemic-era surplus {dollars} to pay for emergency shelter prices by the remainder of fiscal 12 months 2025.
Cash for the state-run shelter system — which is housing each migrants and native residents — is predicted to run dry by the top of January with out one other infusion and Healey argued more money is important to “ensure continued safe shelter and services for families” amid heightened demand.
“In the face of this continued demand and the federal government’s failure to advance a solution, additional resources are necessary to fund the current system in the short term while accelerating efforts to increase the rate of exits and bring the caseload down to sustainable levels in the medium- to long-term,” Healey stated in a letter to lawmakers.
Healey coupled her practically half-billion greenback request with proposed coverage modifications that make good on her promise to slash the period of time households can keep in state-run shelters from 9 to 6 months, section out the usage of pricey resorts and resorts by the top of the 12 months, and scale back the inhabitants of the shelter system to 4,000 households by June 2026.
Each the spending request and coverage proposals will want buy-in from Democrats who management the Home and Senate. A spokesperson for Senate President Karen Spilka stated her workplace would assessment the invoice “once it arrives in the Senate.”
A spokesperson for Home Speaker Ron Mariano stated the Home “looks forward to reviewing the governor’s proposal in a manner consistent with our continued focus on ensuring that shelter system can remain financially viable in the long-term.”
The governor has confronted criticism over the previous 12 months and a half for her spending choices associated to the emergency shelter system, which has come to deal with 7,500 households with youngsters and pregnant ladies.
The warmth intensified after a migrant from the Dominican Republic was arrested final month at a shelter in Revere with an AR-15 and roughly $1 million value of fentanyl. The incident got here after a migrant lady was allegedly raped final 12 months by a Haitian nationwide at a Rockland shelter.
In her letter to lawmakers, Healey acknowledged the present construction of the shelter system is “unsustainable” and politicians should “work together to make sure the need in this area does not unduly crowd out our ability to serve residents through other programming in our budget.”
“That is why funding alone is not sufficient. This supplemental budget that I am filing for your consideration includes policy reforms that build on lessons learned from the last year and ensure that the (emergency assistance) shelter system can appropriately meet the needs of families while balancing the need to return EA caseloads to sustainable, affordable levels,” Healey wrote.
Massachusetts Republicans instantly slammed Healey for asking for extra money to pay for the state-run shelter system, which was created below a decades-old legislation that sought to offer short-term housing to households with youngsters and pregnant ladies.
MassGOP spokesman Logan Trupiano stated the Healey administration will drive the state “into financial ruin before they listen to Republicans and address the root causes of the migrant crisis.”
“Their unchecked spending has spiraled into a perpetual cycle of escalating costs that has led to a humanitarian disaster in the commonwealth,” Trupiano stated in a press release. “Massachusetts residents are being forced to foot the bill to fund a crisis that puts their own well-being and safety at risk.”
The Healey administration spent simply over $856 million in fiscal 12 months 2024 on the emergency shelter system — which was lower than initially projected — and has already dolled out greater than $357 million by the primary half of fiscal 12 months 2025, in accordance with state knowledge final up to date Dec. 19.
The Legislature handed Healey $639 million to pay for shelter companies in fiscal 12 months 2025, together with $325 million within the annual funds and one other $256 million in a supplemental spending invoice.
With money anticipated to expire on Jan. 31, the Healey administration stated it wanted one other $425 million injection to outlive the remainder of the fiscal 12 months that ends in June.
In her spending invoice, the first-term Democrat proposed tapping practically all of what stays in an account crammed with surplus {dollars} leftover from the pandemic. A Healey spokesperson stated there will probably be a “small amount” leftover within the account if the Legislature approves the request as written.
Healey stated her administration has taken “significant steps” to scale back the price related to the shelter system, together with capping the variety of households at 7,500, implementing length-of-stay necessities, and lowering the usage of costly resorts.
“We appreciate the Legislature’s consideration of this proposal, and we continue to call on the federal government to act on a bipartisan border security bill because Massachusetts taxpayers should not be footing the bill for this federal problem,” Healey stated in a press release.
Matt Stone/Boston Herald
Gov. Maura Healey filed a 5 million spending invoice Tuesday to pay for shelter prices in fiscal 12 months 2025. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Initially Printed:
