Healey seeks $282 million for shelter, food aid programs

Gov. Maura Healey on Monday filed a $282 million spending bill she said is necessary to manage a surge in demand for emergency shelter and prevent the free school meals program from running out of money, reviving a debate from her predecessor's tenure.

Healey called on top House and Senate Democrats to make quick work of her new supplemental budget bill, which would steer $85 million toward an emergency shelter "crisis," allocate $130 million to keep expanded nutrition assistance in place for a few more months, and appropriate $65 million to ensure a universal school meals program remains afloat through the end of the academic year.

Her bill targets the same growing shelter strain, fueled in part by an influx of migrant arrivals to Massachusetts, that prompted Gov. Charlie Baker to unsuccessfully seek $130 million in November.

Healey's office said about $65 million would help the Department of Housing and Community Development expand shelter options, projecting the state will need more than 1,100 units beyond its baseline to meet demand. Another $21.9 million would help schools place a surge of students who have arrived through the process of shelter placements.

"The demand for emergency shelter by families experiencing homelessness in the Commonwealth has significantly increased, and the emergency temporary shelter system is at capacity," Healey wrote in a letter to lawmakers. "While the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) has been working to place vulnerable people and expanding capacity to meet its revised caseload projections, Emergency Assistance (EA) funds have been depleted. As a right to shelter state, the Commonwealth is committed to providing safe temporary shelter to these families."

Healey also said she would press Congress to pursue immigration reform, warning that Massachusetts has "too many people here who aren't able to work who would like to work and we have employers who are ready to hire people, frankly."

Top House Democrats declined to advance Baker's measure before the 2021-2022 term ended and said they had had several unanswered questions.

The Baker administration warned in late December that the system was close to capacity and, within 90 days, would no longer be able to immediately place eligible families into emergency assistance shelter.

House Speaker Ron Mariano said last week he viewed that timeline as an "artificial deadline."

After meeting privately with Healey and other legislative leaders Monday, Mariano drew a contrast between Healey's request for $85 million and Baker's request for $130 million.

"The supp budget presented us with realistic options today on the immigration money. The prior administration gave us a number of $115 million, and we often asked for details on how many people are going to be affected by that, how many people they're dealing with," Mariano said. "This present administration has given us some numbers and reduced the amount necessary by about $30 million. That's a significant change in the way we want to do business."

Asked if he was more amenable to Healey's proposal than Baker's, Mariano replied, "We're more amenable to the real numbers, yeah, absolutely." He did not say when the House would take up the legislation.