Emergency shelter costs will approach $1 billion annually this fiscal year and next fiscal year, according to the Healey administration, which plans to drain a $700 million state escrow account to cover a portion of the unanticipated expenses.
After weeks of legislative procrastination, parliamentary delays and finger-pointing, a $3.1 billion spending bill packed with money for the stretched-thin emergency shelter system and public worker raises landed on Gov. Maura Healey’s desk Monday
Weeks after their talks collapsed, Democrats filed a $3.1 billion compromise spending bill packed with money for the state’s emergency shelter system. But they could not get the overdue legislation across the finish line in the face of frustrated Republicans.
A certain speaker of the house is in the doghouse for letting the formal legislative session end without passing a big budget bill to pay state workers’ salaries and fund extra homeless shelters.
Shortly before a court hearing challenging the Healey administration’s allegedly “rushed” changes to the shelter system, officials filed new emergency regulations seeking to enable a temporary hard cap on the number of families that can be housed.
With the state’s emergency assistance shelter system expected to “imminently” hit the 7,500-family cap that Gov. Maura Healey has said it is subject to, housing vouchers are being extended to families already in the system to free up more space.
While it’s right-to-shelter law will remain in place, Massachusetts may not be able to guarantee shelter for immigrant families as soon as the end of this month as the state’s shelter system reaches capacity, Gov. Maura Healey said Monday.
A hotel slated for demolition as part of the Riverside development in West Newton would serve as a homeless shelter for two years under preliminary plans by Mark Development.
Advocates for people experiencing homelessness and elected officials are hoping to capitalize on pandemic-era experiences in an effort to shift the state’s shelter system to other settings, like repurposed hotels or purpose-built shelters with individual rooms.
