Join with the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless in taking action to improve the Emergency Assistance (EA) family shelter and services program!
At this time, we are seeking organizational endorsements for our 2023-2024 bill campaign and our fiscal year 2024 (FY24) state budget campaign.
Bill Campaign:
This omnibus legislation would address access and administrative issues for families and children seeking to access or retain Emergency Assistance shelter and HomeBASE rehousing benefits. It would allow families that appear to be imminently at risk of homelessness to gain admission into EA shelter. It also would prohibit the Department of Housing and Community Development from turning families away due to lack of documentation and mandate that DHCD look in existing state benefits databases to obtain requested documentation instead of delaying applications by requiring families to provide such documentation directly. The bill also would establish an independent ombudsperson unit located in the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development (or the anticipated successor Executive Office of Housing) to mediate between EA and HomeBASE participants/applicants and DHCD.
Representative Decker's version of the bill also includes additional language to ensure that each family approved for Emergency Assistance family shelter is placed in their own room or rooms, separate from other families. While this generally is the case, DHCD recently placed families in a barracks-style shelter in Devens, in which families are given cots instead of beds and sleep with other families in a shared room, without privacy and adequate public health precautions. (The Devens site was open from December 2022–March 2023.)
Budget Campaign:
In addition to the bill campaign, we also are seeking your organization's support for our FY24 budget campaign to secure funding and language for the EA line item, 7004-0101, and related line items.
- Provide at least $325 million in FY24, above the estimated FY23 spending level of $264 million, to serve the increasing number of children and parents, including newly arrived immigrant families, facing homelessness.
- Increase the income eligibility limit from 115% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines (FPG) to 200% FPG for Emergency Assistance applicants, and increase the income limit for families already in EA shelter from 200% FPG to 285% FPG (while also maintaining the over-income grace period).
- Continue to include language from the FY23 budget to provide shelter to otherwise eligible families who are at imminent risk of staying in a place not meant for human habitation, and provide further guidance and oversight to ensure that DHCD properly implements this language in FY24.
- Add new language to ensure that each family approved for Emergency Assistance family shelter is placed in their own room(s), separate from other families, with their own private sleeping area with a door and the ability to turn the lights on and off. (See above.)
- Maintain the requirement that the Administration give the Legislature 90-days advance notice before reducing benefits or imposing new limits on program eligibility.
- Restore FY22 language to create an ombudsperson unit under the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development (EOHED) with dedicated staff to address issues and concerns from families applying for and participating in the EA and HomeBASE programs.
- Retain FY23 language in the related Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) administrative line item (7004-0099) to maintain access to in-person applications for families seeking shelter. Language in the FY23 budget requires DHCD to take applications in the ten cities and towns where DHCD had staff as of January 1, 2022, and to maintain adequate staffing levels, and prohibits DHCD from shifting to a remote-access only system, in which families would have to use a phone, computer, or other technology to apply or otherwise forego applying. DHCD still has not fully restored in-person access to the EA application process since the March 2020 COVID-19 state of emergency declaration.
Take action with us to promote easier access to shelter, improved emergency housing services, and equity! Please contact Kelly at the Coalition for more details:
kelly@mahomeless.orgShare this form with other organizations:
https://tinyurl.com/ea2324 