Representatives voted along party lines Tuesday to advance inter-branch compromise emergency shelter reforms, which are now on track for potential enactment this week along with $425 million in supplemental funds for the cash-starved Emergency Assistance system.
A 128-23 vote advanced the bill (H 58), which aims to fund the shelter system until fiscal 2025 ends June 30. It would also place a 4,000-family cap on family shelters for all of calendar year 2026, along with other reforms such as requiring Massachusetts criminal background checks for all people entering the system on a permanent basis.
A spokesperson for the Senate Ways and Means Committee said Tuesday that the branches had indeed reached an “agreement in principle” after passing separate versions of the legislation. The Senate will hold a formal session Wednesday and plans to take it up then.
The bill moving back to the Senate institutes a competitive bidding process for EA program services, requires the Healey administration to report on how it plans to phase out the use of hotels and motels as EA shelter sites, and grants an automatic 30-day stay in a temporary respite site while EA applicants gather documentation for housing approval, according to an updated summary shared by the House Ways and Means Committee.
A 6-month cap on family shelter stays is in the bill, although the Executive Office of Housing would be able to grant additional time for veterans, domestic violence victims, people with children under 6 years old, families that include a person with disabilities, and people with high-risk pregnancies or who have just given birth.
Gov. Maura Healey asked for the funding to recapitalize the program on Jan. 6, calling it “both timely and necessary,” and funds for family shelters then ran out at the end of the month. The governor also asked the Legislature in January to bake more systematic reforms into the legislation she had filed.
The bill could get back to Healey’s desk this week. The Senate plans to take it up during a formal session Wednesday, according to its tentative agenda, and both branches plan to meet Thursday. Each branch would need to take two more votes, on emergency preamble language and on enactment, to finish work on the bill.
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