Governor Maura Healey’s office has conceived a plan, scheduled to be carried out over an approximated duration of 19 months. This strategy aims to end the deployment of hotels and motels for exigency accommodation, call for adjustments under the law to augment rental aid for underprivileged families, inaugurate a backup account meant for shelter costs, and reduce the typical duration spent in conventional shelters, though making it easier to extend stays in auxiliary sites.
With the state’s emergency shelter system for families racking up more than one billion dollars in yearly expenditure, Healey’s administration has announced a series of notably new revamps. These modifications, however, are bereft of targeted expenses, expected cost cutbacks, or exact timelines for implementation.
These policy changes and legislative overhaul suggestions sprung into the picture just days following the endorsement of a report by the Special Commission on Emergency Housing Assistance Programs. Although the report provides overarching guidance, it falls short of pinpointing tangible measures or coming initiatives from Healey’s administration to tackle the identified problems.
The report encourages the development of an emergency shelter system for families that is operationally and economically viable. This includes a reduction in the dependence on hotels and motels for emergency shelters, more specific resource allocation to families, and improved clarity on shelter rules and anticipations.
Under Healey’s recently publicized strategy, the administration will methodically lessen reliance on hotels and motels in the fiscal years of 2025 and 2026. The objective is to transition towards a ‘more cost-friendly and supportive’ assortment of shelter choices. Well in advance, families and local neighborhoods will be alerted when hotels cease to serve as emergency shelters; such steps will be taken after dialogues are arranged with service providers.
Governor Healey plans to introduce legislative amendments to the HomeBASE rental assistance initiative. Should the proposed alterations take effect, eligible families will receive up to $25,000 in rental assistance annually for a duration of two years.
Simultaneously, the administration will request the legislature for a supplementary budget to provide supplemental funding for the remainder of the fiscal year 2025 dedicated to the shelter system. This additional allocation will be channeled into a newly formed ‘Family Shelter and Services Reserve’ account.
Within the very same supplementary budget, the Healey administration proposes to cut down the duration of conventional shelter stays from nine to six months. Furthermore, they will adjust the extension regulations to expedite the rehousing process for both families and service providers.
Families that are recipients of comprehensive support at auxiliary shelters ‘will not qualify for a place in the Bridge Shelter Track’, as per the statement released by Healey’s administration. This adjustment to stay duration in auxiliary shelters would commence on December 10. However, reducing the stay length in standard shelters will necessitate legislative approval.
Healey’s administration has laid out an ambitious plan to ‘considerably diminish’ the usage of hotels and motels ‘as swiftly as practicable’. Key personnel in recent commission gatherings have underscored the necessity of isolating hotels and motels from emergency shelter provision.
Hotels and motels, identified as the priciest shelters in the Emergency Assistance framework, usually do not come equipped with kitchens or laundry services, thereby only partially addressing the needs of families. According to the commission’s report findings, these typically inexpensive forms of emergency shelters fall short due to significant deficiencies in terms of family requisites.
Another key drawback of deploying hotels and motels as shelters is their frequent locations far away from public transportation. This poses significant hurdles for those seeking employment who depend on public transit.
In 2014, when shelter demand reached a peak with 4,600 families seeking assistance, including 1,500 families housed in hotels and motels, the state establishment came up with diversion and exit strategies, the report recalled.
While it remains vital to undertake necessary reforms, the emphasis should also be on crafting an affordable, viable, and efficient emergency housing assistance strategy. The amalgamation of these fundamental changes aimed at broadening the possibilities for emergency shelter seeks to contribute towards the same.