Mike Kennealy, a Republican operating for governor, drew criticism Wednesday from Massachusetts conservatives and Democrats for his oversight of state-funded emergency household shelters throughout his time as a cupboard secretary below former Gov. Charlie Baker.
Kennealy’s Republican major opponent and the Massachusetts Democratic Celebration slammed Kennealy for not recommending any main reforms to the state-run shelter system in a transition doc he handed Gov. Maura Healey in 2022 shortly earlier than she assumed workplace.
Democratic Celebration Chair Steve Kerrigan stated Kennealy, who served as housing and financial improvement secretary for 4 years below Baker, “admits that he saw the number of shelter residents start to increase in June of his final year, but did nothing to change the system.”
“His only solution was to increase spending by millions of dollars and send people into costly hotels,” Kerrigan stated in a press release. “Now that his candidacy is sinking, Mike Kennealy says the only time he recommended making changes to the right-to-shelter law was in a private meeting (with Healey). That’s a lie.”
Brian Shortsleeve, Kennealy’s rival for the GOP nomination for governor stated by means of a spokesperson that Kennealy did “not urge reforms” within the transition doc and as a substitute requested extra money to pay for housing and advantages.
“It was Kennealy’s playbook that Maura Healey picked up and ran with, ultimately costing taxpayers billions of dollars and counting,” stated Holly Robichaud, Shortsleeve’s political strategist.
Kennealy supplied a written warning to Healey a couple of surge of migrants to Massachusetts and dwindling shelter capability within the November 2022 transition doc. The heads-up largely targeted on the necessity to increase shelter capability and supply extra funding to the system.
The Lexington native and one in all his high lieutenants didn’t provide any suggestions to additional put together Massachusetts for the sharp spike in demand for emergency help shelter that will observe months later in Healey’s first yr as governor.
However the doc did present a transparent sign to Healey that this system arrange below the state’s Nineteen Eighties-era right-to-shelter regulation was below pressure.
“More recently, starting in June 2022, there was a significant surge in new asylum-seekers, refugees, and immigrants seeking (emergency assistance) shelter, many of whom have presented as in need of assistance at Boston Medical Center,” the doc stated, in line with a duplicate obtained by the Herald.
In a Nov. 9, 2022 memo included within the transition doc, former Housing and Neighborhood Growth Undersecretary Jennifer Maddox stated the rise in demand would possibly require “additional funding” to increase the system.
Responding to the criticism Tuesday, Kennealy stated Healey is “scrambling to deflect blame for her disastrous handling of the migrant crisis,” whereas Brian Shortlseeve, a enterprise capitalist and former MBTA official who can be operating for governor as a Republican, made a “bizarre decision to echo the governor’s deflection.”
“Brian Shortsleeve is now parroting Healey’s talking points in a desperate attempt to cling to relevance. The simple truth is that Gov. Healey was warned by me, and others of a growing migrant crisis — she ignored the warnings and Massachusetts families paid the price,” Kennealy stated in a press release to the Herald.
Kennealy beforehand claimed that he personally warned Healey concerning the improve in migrant arrivals and beneficial that the incoming Healey administration handle the right-to-shelter regulation throughout a personal, in-person assembly in November 2022.
Kerrigan stated voters know that declare is “a lie because he had four years to change — or even propose changes to — the right to shelter law, and he didn’t do a thing.”
“He’s a failing candidate covering up a failed record,” Kerrigan stated.
A supply aware of Healey’s transition discussions beforehand informed the Herald in Could that Kennealy’s recommendation to Healey targeted solely on elevated funding to assist expanded shelter capability and the state’s right-to-shelter regulation “were never mentioned.”
