The Massachusetts House is planning to implement many of Governor Healey's harmful restrictions on shelter access. Read more about the situation below.

From our allies at the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless:

For over 40 years, the Emergency Assistance (EA) shelter program has provided shelter and services to eligible Massachusetts children and families experiencing homelessness. This program represents a commitment to protect children and families in the greatest need. Since November 2023, new policies from the Governor and Legislature have chipped away at access to shelter.

Please join us in asking the Legislature to fully fund Emergency Assistance, reject further punitive family homelessness policies, and invest more in rehousing and homelessness prevention.

Background:

On January 6th, Governor Healey filed a Fiscal Year 2025 supplemental budget request (H51).

This bill would:

1. Provide $425 million in supplemental FY25 funding from the Transitional Escrow Fund to fund the Emergency Assistance (EA) system and related resources for children and families experiencing homelessness.

2. Restrict access to EA to 6 months, replacing the current 9-month limit, which already is harming families.

3. Eliminate opportunities for families to seek up to two 90-day extensions to their time in EA shelter and require families to receive a waiver from the Secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) to stay in shelter beyond 6 months.

4. Allow EOHLC to terminate an unlimited number of families each week from the EA program by removing the current cap of 150 families/week.

Following up on her official supplemental budget request, on January 15th, Governor Healey proposed significant changes to the right to shelter law in a letter to the Legislature. These proposed changes would further erode the right to shelter and limit access to shelter for children experiencing homelessness.

The proposed changes:

1. Reduce the length of stay limit from 9 months to 6 months and eliminate most extension possibilities

2. Allow state officials to remove an unlimited number of families from EA shelter, by removing the weekly cap on terminations

3. Impose statutory residency requirements

4. Eliminate presumptive eligibility and require complete documentation at the time of application

5. Exclude many immigrant families who otherwise meet strict shelter eligibility requirements

Shelter restrictions are forcing more children, parents, and pregnant people with nowhere to sleep into unsafe places; increasing unsheltered homelessness; and disproportionately harming immigrant families. Additional proposed changes will further perpetuate discrimination, inequality, and trauma to children and families. Limiting access to the EA program will not solve the Commonwealth’s underlying housing crisis.