Mass. Senate approves up to $840M for state-run shelters

Massachusetts senators voted Thursday to shuttle hundreds of millions of one-time use dollars to a state-run shelter system buckling under the weight of an influx of migrants from other countries and soaring costs that show little sign of slowing down.

The spending bill that passed the Senate on a 32-8 vote inches Beacon Hill closer to figuring out how to temporarily finance a flailing emergency shelter network that is projected to run out of money this spring amid record demand on services, declining state revenues, and no help from Washington.

But the stamp of approval from the Senate sets up what could be tense and time sensitive negotiations with the House, where lawmakers will have to hammer out the details of two different funding solutions for fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

It is a conversation where speed will likely be critical, a fact that was not lost on Senate budget writer Michael Rodrigues, a Democrat from Westport who shepherded the spending bill to the floor of the Senate.

“About half the families in our shelter system currently are Massachusetts residents. If the money were to run out without any action on the plan, we would be talking about thousands of these families suddenly on the street in many communities across the state. This is an unacceptable and equally irresponsible outcome,” Rodrigues said.

The Senate plan hands Gov. Maura Healey the keys to a more than $1 billion account filled with surplus dollars leftover from the pandemic that can be used only once. It allows her to spend up to $840 million over fiscal years 2024 and 2025 with declining monthly spending limits.

The proposal also caps the time families with children and pregnant people can stay in state-run shelters at nine months, with opportunities to renew their stay in 90-day increments if they meet certain criteria like being a single parent of a child with disability.

Tapping the one-time account would come as Massachusetts finds itself in a difficult financial situation having consistently missed already downgraded monthly revenue benchmarks since the start of fiscal year 2024.

House lawmakers took a more targeted approach in a spending bill they passed earlier this month, setting aside $245 million in surplus revenues from the pandemic to pay for shelter costs only in fiscal year 2024.

Rodrigues said his “sense” is that money for the shelter system is set to run out the first or second week of April, putting pressure on House-Senate negotiators to find a deal before then.

“We’re going to try to get it done as quickly as possible,” he told the Herald. “I don’t draw any lines in the sand. I’ll go into conference committee with Chairman (Aaron) Michlewitz with an open mind.”

Massachusetts is spending about $75 million each month — or about $10,000 per family — on the 7,500 migrant and local families that are living in a sweeping net of emergency shelters across the state, Rodrigues said.

That is a large jump from the $45 million a month Healey said the state was spending when she first declared a state of emergency over the shelter crisis in August.

The Healey administration projected the state will spend $932 million on shelters this fiscal year and $915 million in the next, a massive cost that has so far led lawmakers to funnel millions to the system to keep services afloat.

Republicans, who have very little sway over policy in the Legislature, have hammered Democrats on Beacon Hill for throwing more money at the shelter system without putting in place what they argue are sufficient measures to stem demand on services.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr unsuccessfully attempted to get Democrats to agree to a six-month residency requirement for shelter access, a measure some lawmakers have repeatedly pushed this session.

He said if lawmakers and the Healey administration are going to fundamentally change the right-to-shelter law by capping the system at 7,500 families and attempt to impose a nine-month time limit, then officials should also look at a residency requirement.

“We are proposing to change this law collectively in the bill that now pends before us. The question is … how should we best change it?” Tarr said. “Clearly, we would do well to say that in terms of those that would be enfranchised with a right to shelter, we should narrow that opening.”

Amid a flurry of wheeling and dealing amendments, many senators were clear that the demand on shelters in Massachusetts was not going to end in the near future.

An unfolding crisis in Haiti, where armed gangs are regularly launching attacks across the country amid a governmental upheaval, has the potential to send more families to Massachusetts, which has one of the largest Haitian communities in the United States.

Sen. John Velis, a Westfield Democrat, said he interacted with people from Haiti during a National Guard deployment to a shelter in Massachusetts and found himself wondering what “would I do if I were in their circumstance.”

“I’ll tell you what I’d do if I was in their circumstance, I’d grab my son, if I was in a place like Haiti, I’d grab my wife and I’d get the hell out of there. People are dying, people are getting raped. Gangs are running the country in Haiti,” he said.