Senate Republicans and progressive Democrats scorched a $425 million spending bill Wednesday that shuttles money to the cash-starved emergency shelter as either a measure that placed too many limits on the system or was too weak a proposal to address exorbitant costs.
Lawmakers were in the process of debating the spending proposal about a week after their colleagues in the House passed a similar bill along party lines and Gov. Maura Healey’s administration reported spending nearly $500 million this fiscal year on shelters.
Senate budget chief Michael Rodrigues defended the spending bill he helped craft as one that “strikes a balance” between supporting families in crisis while “responsibly” managing taxpayer dollars as elected officials try to implement policies to bring down costs.
The Westport Democrat said there have been positive developments in a system that Healey expects will cost taxpayers more than $1 billion in fiscal year 2026, including signs that more people are exiting shelters than entering.
Even with “these positive developments,” Rodrigues said public accounts of unsafe shelter conditions and incidents of violent crimes have “undermined public confidence.”
“We all know that we must further prioritize public safety and protect our communities at this critical time. Our residents and the communities we represent need confidence that their tax dollars are being allocated responsibly to support a shelter system that is safe and secure,” he said.
But Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr hammered policies in the bill, like a measure barring non-Massachusetts residents who are not lawfully in the country from receiving services, as “very marginal.”
He said the residency requirement relied on the definition of “domicile” found in state law, which is “a very easy bar to meet and a very easy bar to manipulate.”
“If we are to be serious about a residency requirement, it needs to be clear, it needs to be definitive, and it needs to be such that everyone can understand what it means and what it requires,” he said.
The funding in the bill is time-sensitive because the Healey administration said it ran out of cash to pay shelter providers and fulfill contracts at the end of January, leaving those who serve the system largely relying on their own lines of credit until the state can pay them back.
Tarr said the extra cash for the shelter system is coming at a time when Healey has proposed closing two mental health facilities in the state and laying off case managers at the Department of Mental Health.
“We need to admit to the very real situation that hundreds of millions of dollars are being consumed here while dramatic reductions are being proposed in a whole host of important areas, two of which I’ve cited, but many more which could be brought to our attention,” he said.
Rodrigues told reporters earlier in the day that additional money for the shelter system and an attempt to save the mental health facilities are “not mutually exclusive.”
“We’ll be talking about the fiscal year 2026 budget in the near future,” he said. “We will assess what we can do with fiscal year 2026. I always say you can only spend a dollar once. So we understand that any reserves that we use and we spend on any program can only be spent once. We fully understand that.”
Progressive lawmakers also criticized the proposal, including for its attempt to cut down the maximum length of stay for families in shelter from nine to six months. Healey called on legislators to reduce the length of stay to minimize costs.
Sen. Jamie Eldridge, a Marlborough Democrat, unsuccessfully tried to stop the change, arguing that limitations on lengths of stay are “somewhat arbitrary.”
“I know one of the arguments made for this limitation is that somehow we’re going to save money. I think it’s fair to say that we have not seen any proof from the administration about how this would save any money, and what I would argue is that it’s going to cost more money, not only in the short run, but the long run,” Eldridge said.
Sen. Pat Jahlen, a Somerville Democrat, said she did not support many of the new restrictions the spending bill put on the shelter system because she did not want to see “families on the street.”
She said homelessness and the need for shelters are a symptom of the state’s housing crisis.
“We need to seek real solutions and it is an emergency,” she said. “We can’t just keep putting money into a system without fixing it and I agree with that. But it’s not just the shelter system.”
This is a developing story…