(MassLive- Luis Fieldman) Massachusetts lawmakers want to establish a commission to study the state’s unique “right-to-shelter” law as rapidly escalating demand over the past year has pushed the shelter system to the limit and created what legislators are calling a “humanitarian crisis.”
The state Senate passed a $2.8 billion supplemental budget Tuesday night, with $250 million allotted to the overburdened emergency family shelter system, as well as an amendment to establish a commission tasked with studying the long-term sustainability of the state’s shelter system.
State Sen. John Velis, D-Hampden/Hampshire, introduced the amendment, which he described at the most basic level as focused on the sustainability of the state’s current emergency shelter system and the various supports offered to individuals and families.
“The reality is that our state’s emergency shelters program was never meant to handle the number of individuals that it is currently housing today,” Velis said. “That is irrefutable.”
Velis, a National Guardsman on the frontlines of the shelter crisis, made his remarks on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday night as lawmakers debated the overall supplemental bill. His amendment passed unanimously.
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“We need to take a hard look at the current shelter structure,” Velis said. “What is the off-ramp for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts?”
Should Healey approve the supplementary budget and Velis’s amendment, the commission would need to make recommendations by March 1, 2024, on the sustainability of the state’s current shelter system.
“A thoughtful but realistic examination of our response efforts and its impact on individuals throughout the Commonwealth and on the Commonwealth itself,” Velis said of the commission’s work.
The commission would be made up of 16 individuals from various state agencies, lawmakers, and appointed members by the governor and legislative leadership.
The state shelter system involves services and resources provided to individuals and families that require a lot of coordination between state programs, resettlement agencies and local organizations.
The financial sustainability of the shelter system and related efforts need to be re-examined, Velis said, as well as the financial impacts on communities across the state and on the state itself.
“As so many of my colleagues across the legislature have noted, without action from the federal government, without additional resources and support, our Commonwealth will continue to face enormous rising costs and some very difficult decisions,” Velis said.