Mass. Legislature sends Gov. Healey $426 million shelter bill that caps stays at nine months

BOSTON — Massachusetts lawmakers shipped Gov. Maura Healey a spending bill Thursday that hands her $426 million to spend on emergency shelters over the next year-plus and caps families’ time in the system at nine months.

The dollars come at a crucial moment for the Healey administration, which has warned for months that cash to pay for shelter services was quickly running out and expected to run dry this month.

But the decision to throw more money at family emergency shelters has drawn heavy scrutiny from Republicans in Massachusetts who argue the state needs reforms before greenlighting additional spending on a system that has come to house thousands of local and migrant families.

Lawmakers released a compromise on competing House-Senate versions of the spending bill Wednesday after a month of closed-door negotiations between six negotiators. The four Democratic negotiators signed onto the deal while two Republicans did not.

Rep. Todd Smola, the top Republican on the House’s budget writing committee who was also part of the negotiating group, said spending on the shelter system is like a “bottomless pit” with no clear end.

“How far are we going to keep going until we realize you know what, this policy isn’t working,” he told the Herald.

House budget chief Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, a Democrat who led talks on behalf of the House, said with the federal government “missing in action on the migrant crisis,” Massachusetts is alone in confronting the challenge.

“The changes that are being offered in this bill would still leave the commonwealth with by far the most generous length of stay in the nation, with places like New York City and Chicago measuring caps in days, not months,” he said. “By making these temporary adjustments, we will ensure the sustainability of the right to shelter law here in the commonwealth for years to come.”

House lawmakers voted 120-36 and the Senate 29-9 to approve the compromise bill. After a handful of procedural votes later in the afternoon, the proposal was sent to the governor’s desk.

The bill awaiting action from Healey grants her administration access to $251 million in surplus revenues leftover from the pandemic to pay for shelter-related costs this fiscal year and another $175 million to cover spending in fiscal year 2025.

That is on top of the $325 million in emergency shelter funding the House proposed in their fiscal year 2025 state budget. If both bills become law as they are written, Healey would have $500 million for shelters next fiscal year, well short of the $915 million tab the state is expected to rack up.

Democrats who negotiated the supplemental spending bill that cleared the Legislature Thursday said the document keeps the system “financially viable” because of the steps to curtail families’ time in shelters.

Senate budget chief Michael Rodrigues said the spending bill approves enough money for shelters to bring Beacon Hill “well into” fiscal year 2025 but lawmakers may be back at the negotiating table sooner rather than later.

“It does spend significantly less dollars than what the Senate provided for in its (version of the) bill so that means that we will … have to address this again in a shorter period of time. But right now, I think this is the right bill and the right version to vote on,” the Democrat said.

Local Republicans and Democrats have slammed Congress for not providing more federal aid to states like Massachusetts dealing with an influx of migrants or reforming immigration laws in the United States.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr said federal lawmakers have not acted to change policies “that are causing this incredible influx and incredible burden to be placed upon the commonwealth and other states like us around the country.”

“It has not acted to provide substantial resources to assist us with this problem even as we are dealing with declining revenues and trying to fund other long-standing priorities,” Tarr said.

Democrats also pointed to language in the bill that creates a commission to make recommendations by the end of the year on the sustainability of the emergency shelter system, how to ensure long-term “sufficiency,” and creating a regional response to support families in need.

Sen. Cindy Friedman, a Democrat, said the group is also charged with reviewing past work so members do not have to start from scratch.

“The purpose of having this commission and to take it very seriously and to keep our eyes on it is to start to once again address those programs and why they’re not working for so many of the residents of Massachusetts,” Friedman said.

The bill also codifies the popular pandemic-era law allowing for the purchase of cocktails to-go, though it cuts out beer and wine from the program, and makes permanent outdoor dining rules, another measure that dates back to COVID-19 times.