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.

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