2006-2007 Legislative & Advocacy Alerts Archive

Here you will find an archive of past MHSA legislative activities and alerts.

SUMMER 2007
Governor Patrick Signs FY 08 State Budget
Home & Healthy for Good funding doubled

The final FY 2008 state budget doubled funding for the Commonwealth’s premier Housing First initiative, adding momentum to the effort to end homelessness through permanent residential solutions.

Home & Healthy for Good, Line Item 4406-3010, was funded at $1.2 million in the state spending plan, approved by the House and Senate on July 2, 2007. On July 12, Gov. Patrick signed the budget into law.

“Through this budget, the Legislature and Gov. Patrick have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to homeless people in the Commonwealth,” said Joe Finn, executive director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance (MHSA). “Home & Healthy for Good represents a major shift in thinking that is taking place across the state and across the country. We have seen that it is more effective – and less costly – to move chronically homeless individuals into permanent supportive housing rather than let them linger on the streets and in shelters day after day, year after year.”

Unlike last year, Home & Healthy for Good appeared in both the House and Senate budget proposals. While the House proposal had originally level funded the initiative for FY 2008, the conference committee agreed to go with the $1.2 million figure found in the Senate budget proposal.

“I was so pleased to see Home & Healthy show up in both the House and Senate budgets this year,” Finn added. “It’s great to see that branches, chambers, political parties and ideologies need not be an issue when coming up with practical solutions for homelessness.”

MHSA is currently working with service providers across the state to place chronically homeless individuals in permanent housing. As of July, more than 150 individuals have moved into their own apartments. MHSA is collecting cost and outcome data on the participants of the Home & Healthy for Good program, and initial results have shown a cost-savings of more than $11,000 per person per year.

The final FY 2008 state budget also included: a $564,0000 increase in an earmark in the Department of Mental Health budget to provide housing for the homeless mentally ill; level funding for the Tenancy Preservation Program, which helps disabled renters maintain their tenancies; continued funding for a statewide homeless management information system to collect data about homeless service clients; a slight funding increase for Line Item 4406-3000, which funds homeless services and shelter for homeless individuals; and level funding for the Special Initiative to House the Homeless Mentally Ill.

“We commend the Legislature and Gov. Patrick for their commitment to homeless people across the state,” Finn said. “While they have maintained current levels of funding to deal with the immediate crisis on hand, they have also shown a desire to move closer to ending the social disgrace of homelessness.”

LATE SPRING 2007
Senate Passes FY 08 State Budget
Home and Healthy for Good funding doubled

The Senate Ways and Means Committee FY08 state budget proposal released on May 16 included a significant expansion of the Home and Healthy for Good pilot program, the premier state-funded Housing First initiative created by the Legislature in 2006. The Senate proposal would invest $1.2 million in Home and Healthy for Good, doubling its funding level from the previous fiscal year.

“Once again the Senate has shown its unwavering commitment to homeless people in the Commonwealth,” said Joe Finn, executive director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance. “Home and Healthy for Good represents a major shift in thinking that is taking place across the state and across the country. We have seen that it is more effective – and less costly – to move chronically homeless individuals into permanent supportive housing rather than let them linger on the streets and in shelters day after day, year after year.”

MHSA is currently working with service providers across the state to place chronically homeless individuals into supportive housing. As of May, more than 130 individuals have moved into housing. MHSA is collecting cost and outcome data on the participants of the Home and Healthy for Good program, and initial results have shown a cost-savings of more than $11,000 per person per year. Click here for a fact sheet on Home and Healthy for Good.

Budget conference committee members are Senators Tolman, Panagiotakos and Knapik, and Reps. DeLeo, St. Fleur and deMacedo.  The conferees will be working in the coming weeks to negotiate a final budget proposal, which will then be submitted to Governor Patrick for consideration.

MARCH 2007
House 1 Budget Released

On February 28, Governor Deval Patrick released his FY 08 budget recommendations, now available here. These recommendations included several changes in how homelessness funding would be organized – changes that could have a significant impact on homelessness policy in the Commonwealth.

The governor's budget consolidated five line items spent on homeless services into one, Line Item 4000-0250.  This line item, called Homelessness Prevention and Elimination Services, was funded at $122,051,622.  It is a consolidation of line items 1410-0250, 1410-0251, 4403-2120, 4406-3000, 4406-3010 and 9110-1700 (ERAP), and represented a 3 percent increase in spending overall.

“While it is still too early to tell whether these recommendations would be in the best interest of homeless people, MHSA is pleased that the Patrick Administration is looking at new ways to eliminate and prevent homelessness,” said MHSA Executive Director Joe Finn.  “We look forward to working with both the Administration and the Legislature to ensure that budget decisions and any reorganization of homeless funding focuses on permanent residential solutions for our poorest neighbors.”

In the governor’s budget recommendations, Line Item 4000-0250 is placed directly under the control of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS).  It MHSA’s understanding that the Patrick Administration aims to place the issue of homelessness directly under the control of EOHHS and the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.

Homelessness housing programs were also consolidated.  Line Item 7004-9024, the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program, was transferred to Line Item 7004-0100, also called Homelessness Prevention and Elimination Services. Line items 7004-3036, 7004-3045 (Tenancy Preservation Program), 7004-9316 and 7004-9317 were also integrated into 7004-0100.  This represented about a 7 percent increase overall.

In the coming weeks, MHSA will be working with the Administration and others to determine how funding would be allocated to homeless programs under the governor's plan.

JANUARY 2007
MHSA Issues Policy Points for New Gubernatorial Administration

In December 2006 MHSA staff briefed the Patrick- Murray transition team on chronic homelessness, housing first, discharge planning, and other key issues related to ending homelessness in the Commonwealth.  MHSA representatives urged the new Administration to implement "a housing investment strategy that builds upon a coordinated targeting of resources which fully integrate housing production strategies coupled with a supportive social service provision."  Click here to read "Homelessness in Massachusetts: Policy Points for the Patrick Transition Team."