MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE PASSES FY24 SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET
Legislation funds emergency shelter system into 2025
BOSTON (4/25/2024)—Today, the Massachusetts
Legislature passed a supplemental budget that funds the emergency shelter
system for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2024 and provides a glide path into
Fiscal Year 2025 while instituting reforms to ensure the integrity and financial
stability of the program. The bill further extends certain COVID-era
flexibilities, most notably allowing for permanent outdoor dining options and
restaurants to sell cocktails to-go, as well as expanding nursing eligibility
to graduate students and certain staff in assisted living facilities.
The bill includes
targeted funding to support families exiting the shelter system, puts
reasonable limitations on the length of time families can remain in the
program, creates a recurrent certification requirement to ensure program
participants are complying with eligibility requirements, and establishes a
commission to study the future of the shelter program.
“I’m proud that this
legislation puts us on a responsible path forward without sacrificing our
values of treating families with dignity and respect,” said Senate
President Karen E. Spilka (D-Ashland). “This legislative action was
warranted because of inaction at the federal level on a challenge of their own
creation. Massachusetts has once again shown that we can work together to
address complicated issues, as we have done today. I’m grateful to Chair
Rodrigues for his work, my colleagues in the Senate for their thoughtfulness,
and to Speaker Mariano and Chair Michlewitz for their partnership.”
“Ensuring
that people exit the shelter system in a timely manner is crucial to the
emergency assistance program’s long-term viability. This is the current reality
due to the status of the migrant crisis, the lack of federal support, the
number of people on the waitlist, and the revenue challenges facing
Massachusetts,” said House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano (D-Quincy).
“It’s also critical that we ensure that folks in the shelter system receive
ample support aimed at helping them to successfully enter the workforce, which
is exactly what this legislation does. I want to thank Chairman Michlewitz for
working diligently to ensure that we take action to ease the strain being
placed on the Commonwealth’s shelter system and on our communities, and I am
grateful to all my colleagues in the House, and to Senate President Spilka and
our partners in the Senate, for their collaboration throughout this process.”
“Negotiating the
differences between our two respective bodies is never an easy task, but in the
end, we were able to reach a compromise agreement on the Fiscal Year 2024
supplemental budget that ensures our collective response to the ongoing
emergency assistance shelter crisis is responsible, humane, and sustainable,”
said Senator Michael J. Rodrigues, (D-Westport) Chair of the Senate
Committee on Ways and Means. “This budget strikes an appropriate balance
and establishes a fiscal glide path by providing sufficient resources to
sustain support for the emergency shelter system into Fiscal Year 2025. It
places families and children on a path to exiting the shelter system, and
dedicates resources to support regional response efforts, assistance with
rehousing, work authorization, workforce training, and English language
learning. The agreement also creates a special commission to begin a more
comprehensive conversation on the future of the shelter system. I’m pleased the
supplemental budget has been approved, as we now turn our full attention to the
Fiscal Year 2025 budget. I’m thankful to my fellow conferees, my Senate
colleagues, and Senate President Spilka for her dedicated and compassionate
leadership in these ever-changing times.”
“Since
the beginning of the migrant crisis, we have attempted to uphold the
Commonwealth’s right to shelter law while also being mindful of the long-term
fiscal sustainability of the program. The reforms contained in this legislation
will ensure that right to shelter is maintained by capping the length of stay.
The bill also refocusing the emphasis on workforce development and job training
so we can concentration on getting migrants the job skills they need while also
enhancing the Commonwealth’s economic output,” said Representative
Aaron Michlewitz, Chair of the House Committee on Ways & Means (D-Boston).
“I would like to thank my colleagues in the Legislature for their work and
support on this issue, specifically Speaker Mariano and my counterpart Senator
Rodrigues.”
The legislation
allocates $251 million for Fiscal Year 2024 shelter costs, which includes $10
million for approved workforce training programs; $10 million for a tax credit
for companies that provide job training to Emergency Assistance (EA)
participants; $3 million for family welcome centers; $1 million for
supplemental staffing at emergency housing assistance program shelters, and $7
million for resettlement agencies and shelter providers to assist families with
rehousing, work authorization, and English language learning.
Addressing the long-term
needs of the shelter system, the supplemental budget additionally
authorizes up to $175 million in funds from the transitional escrow fund to
place the shelter system on a fiscally sustainable glide path into FY 2025.
The legislation requires
the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) to create a rehousing plan
and provide case management for all individuals in shelters to help them
successfully exit the program, and requires recertification every 60 days for
families to remain eligible. Beginning June 1, 2024, the total length of stay would
be limited to nine months, at the end of which families would be eligible for
up to two 90-day extensions.
Extensions would be based
on circumstances that include employment or participation in a workforce
training program, veteran status, imminent placement in housing, avoiding
educational interruptions for children in public school, pregnancy or having
recently given birth, diagnosed disability or medical condition, a single
parent caring for disabled child or family member, a single parent without
adequate childcare, and risk of harm due to domestic violence.
Families who face the end
of their shelter time limit may be granted a hardship waiver from the
Administration, and all families would need to be provided with 90 days' notice
before terminating benefits.
To ensure the long-term
sustainability of the shelter system, the legislation establishes a commission
to study the future of the shelter program. It creates a tax credit for
employers to provide workforce training to families in shelter and includes robust
reporting to ensure close monitoring of how the administration is managing the
shelter program.
The legislation also
requires the Governor to seek federal approvals for a waiver from the federal
Department of Homeland Security to permit expedited, temporary, and provisional
work authorizations for newly arriving migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
These authorizations are key to creating pathways to work to ultimately
alleviate the shelter capacity crisis.
Pandemic era policies made
permanent in the legislation include allowing outdoor dining and craft-made
mixed drinks to-go, allowing graduates and students in their last semester of
nursing education programs to practice nursing, in accordance with guidance
from the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing; and permitting remote
reverse mortgage counseling. It extends for one year the ability of nurses
employed by assisted living residences to provide skilled nursing care in
accordance with valid medical orders, provided the nurse holds a valid license
to provide such care.
Having been passed by the House of Representatives and
Senate, the supplemental budget now goes to the Governor’s desk for her
signature.
