Massachusetts
Outlook for Massachusetts shelter system is hazy as cash runs dry and time runs out – The Boston Globe
Publicly, the Legislature has not put out a plan of how it will pay the bills and create new guidelines for the system. Governor Maura Healey delivered many of her own proposals in a letter, not actual legislation, and there’s no clarity on when the state Legislature could act to pour more money into the system, or what seismic policy shifts lawmakers could also embrace.
At the same time, President Trump is already tearing down tentpoles of the federal immigration system that many migrant families have relied upon, including two Biden-era programs under which migrants have been given permission to temporarily work and live in the country.
In other words: An already unprecedented situation is barreling into unknown territory, perhaps as soon as Friday.
That’s when Healey administration officials say they’ll be unable to make any payments or enter contracts for services within the emergency shelter system, absent a new infusion of cash. It’s left the nonprofit providers who the state has tapped to run shelters statewide skittish about the future.
“Providers in everyone’s districts are putting more urgency to the need for funding,” state Senator Michael Moore, a Millbury Democrat, said Wednesday after Healey administration officials briefed Senate Democrats. “They’re worried about the funding not being there for them to pay for the services after the deadline.”
State officials said there’s often a lag between when providers bill them and when they’re paid. But it wasn’t immediately clear what would happen should Friday come and go without the Legislature approving more money for the system.
One housing provider, who requested anonymity to discuss communications with the state, told the Globe that Healey administration officials informed their organization that it would receive funding in February to cover January costs, but that payments would otherwise stop if the Legislature doesn’t act by Friday.
The system, and the Legislature, have faced similar pressure before. Lawmakers passed a supplemental spending bill at the end of April last year at a time when Healey said funding was running low.
Months earlier, her administration warned the system would run out of cash early in 2024 if the state did not set a limit on how many families could enter the system — as well as receive more funding from the Legislature. Healey ultimately capped the system at 7,500 families — a limit that remains today — and the Legislature pushed an overdue spending bill to Healey’s desk over Republican objections with weeks to spare.
The latest attempt, however, has its own complications. Healey initially asked lawmakers in early January to dedicate $425 million to the system, while also cutting the length of stay in the shelter system from nine months to six.
Then, days later, she proposed a series of dramatic changes to the state’s unique right-to-shelter law. But she made that request in a letter, without proposing actual legislation, prompting a series of questions from House leaders who said they needed more information before proposing their own bill.
Members of Healey’s Cabinet sent back a 23-page response Monday night, but they did not say how much their various proposals could ultimately save the state — information that would otherwise influence how much money lawmakers set aside for the system for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in June.
The circumstances have left the Legislature’s Democratic leaders to weigh far-reaching policy and funding decisions while facing a short clock and their own internal limitations. The House and Senate have yet to announce committee or leadership assignments, assign first-year lawmakers to offices, or vote on rules that will govern their two-year legislative calendar. All legislators began their new term on Jan. 1.
At a news conference Wednesday, Healey declined to give more detail about how the state will continue to fund the system. Lawmakers have not filed legislation of their own and the House, which must act first, does not have a formal session scheduled this week, when a spending bill could theoretically emerge for a vote.
State Representative Aaron Michlewitz, the House budget chief who sent Healey officials questions last week, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
“I know discussions are going on right now with the Legislature. I know they’re aware of the calendar on this,” Healey told reporters at an unrelated event at her office Wednesday. “So hopefully we’ll be able to get some resolution.”
Down the hall, Healey’s housing secretary, Ed Augustus, gave a closed-door presentation on the shelter system to Senate Democrats. But he declined to divulge what was discussed to reporters, or whether he gave a similar meeting to House members. He also didn’t respond to a Globe reporter who asked what the plan is for when the cash runs dry.
It’s also unclear if senators were satisfied with the answers they received.
“Lots of questions, lots of questions,” state Senator Cindy Friedman, an Arlington Democrat, told reporters after she left the meeting. She declined to further comment.
The shelter system has sagged under soaring demand in the last few years, demand fueled in part by a surge in migrants fleeing violence and economic instability in their home countries. A report Healey officials filed with lawmakers Monday said that nearly 700 families had applied for shelter in the two weeks between Jan. 9 and Jan. 23, while just 220 families exited the system.
State officials said there were 6,290 families in the system as of Wednesday, far below the state-imposed cap.
Healey has repeatedly sought to tighten the system, and pledged to move out the thousands of families currently being housed in hotels or motels by year’s end. She told lawmakers earlier this month she wants a variety of changes to state law, including eliminating so-called presumed eligibility in the state’s screening process.
Under current law, shelter applicants don’t need to provide documentation upfront that they meet the system’s wide-ranging eligibility requirements. Healey instead wants to require that the state first verify identity, residency, and other information before someone is admitted to the system.
Healey also wants a requirement that all shelter applicants show they have “an intent to remain in Massachusetts,” either through what she called “independent documentary verification,” or by having a “physical presence” here over the previous three months. She also proposed reducing the length of stay in the shelter system from nine months to six.
State Senator Liz Miranda, a Roxbury Democrat, said some of the Healey administration’s proposals give her pause.
“People can’t find housing in six months, right? They can’t find it in nine months,” she said.
Samantha J. Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com. Follow her @samanthajgross. Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him @mattpstout.
Police shot and killed a man who officials say rushed officers with a knife during a call in Lexington, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said the situation started around 1:40 p.m. when Lexington police received a 911 call from a resident of Mason Street reporting that his son had injured himself with a knife.
Officers from the Lexington Police Department and officers from the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC), who were already in town for Patriots’ Day events, responded to the call.
Police were able to escort two other residents out of the home, initially leaving a 26-year-old man inside. According to Ryan, while officers were setting up outside, the man ran out of the home and approached officers with a large kitchen knife.
She added that police tried twice to use non-lethal force, but it was not effective in stopping him. The man was shot by a Wilmington police officer who is a member of NEMLEC. The man was pronounced dead on scene and the officer who fired that shot was taken to a local hospital as a precaution.
The man’s name has not been released.
Ryan said typically in a call like this where someone was described as harming themselves, officers would first try to separate anyone else to keep them out of danger, which was done, and then standard practice would be to try to wait outside.
“It would be their practice to just wait for the person to come out. In the terrible circumstances of today, he suddenly rushed the officers, still clutching the knife,” Ryan said.
The investigation is still in the preliminary stages and more information is expected in time. Ryan said her office will request a formal inquest from the court to review whether any criminal conduct has occurred, which is the standard process.
This happened around the same time as the annual Patriots’ Day Parade, and just hours after a reenactment of the Battle of Lexington, which drew large crowds to town.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Massachusetts
‘An impossible choice’: With little federal help to combat rising costs, Head Start looks to Massachusetts for more help – The Boston Globe
In Massachusetts, roughly 1,300 slots for children across Head Start’s 28 agencies have been eliminated in the last three years because federal funding has plateaued over that time, while the cost of running the program continues to rise, according to the Massachusetts Head Start Association. Nationally, Head Start enrollment dropped from 1.1 million kids in 2013 to around 785,000 in 2022, according to research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
“If they didn’t get into a Head Start program, they would be sitting at home,” said Brittany Acosta, a Head Start parent in Dorchester.
It’s teachers are drastically underpaid, and there’s a serious need for a rainy day-type fund should the federal government shut down again, the association says. As they’ve done in years past, state lawmakers have offered to provide financial relief, but the Massachusetts Head Start Association’s request for 3 percent above the amount it received last year, an additional $4.6 million to help its staff keep up with the state’s rising cost of living, so far has not been allocated.
Last year, President Trump’s leaked budget proposal revealed he considered eliminating Head Start entirely. Then, in the summer, he cut off Head Start enrollment for immigrants without legal status. And during the fall’s government shutdown, four Head Start centers in Massachusetts closed because they couldn’t access their funding.
Trump’s latest budget proposal shows a fourth year without increasing funding for the program, which was established in the mid-1960s.
Michelle Haimowitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Head Start Association, said the program doesn’t want to eliminate more child slots than it already has, but paying teachers a competitive salary is equally important in order to keep them from leaving for higher paying jobs. Head Start teachers make under $50,000 annually compared to over $85,000 for the average Massachusetts kindergarten teacher.
“It’s an impossible choice,” Haimowitz said. “When we reduce the size of our programs, we’re not reducing the size of the need.”
Massachusetts is one of few states that supplements federal funding for Head Start, and last year it increased the program’s state grant from $5 million to $20 million, adding to the $189 million in federal aid it receives in this state.
“We can’t run a program without giving staff a raise for three years,” Haimowitz said. “Our next fight now is not just for survival, but it’s for thriving and growth.”
The Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday released its budget, which doesn’t grant Head Start’s request of a 3 percent boost. But state Representative Christopher Worrell filed an amendment for additional funding. Worrell, whose district covers parts of Dorchester and Roxbury, said he loves Head Start’s embrace of culture, recalling one visit to a center where he could smell staff cooking stew chicken, a traditional Caribbean dish.
“I’ve been to dozens of schools throughout the district, and you don’t get that home-cooked meal,” Worrell said. “[The state is] stepping up and doing the best we can with what we have.”
At the Action for Boston Community Development’s Head Start and Early Head Start center in Dorchester, the children of Classroom 7 arrived one Monday morning and dove into bins of magnetic tiles before their teachers, Paola Polanco and Leolina Rasundar Chinnappa, served breakfast. Acosta dropped off her 4-year-old daughter, Violeta, before reporting to her teaching position at the center, where several other Head Start parents also work.
“It’s important for all Head Start parents to have the opportunity to give their child an experience in a learning environment before they actually start kindergarten,” Acosta said.
Beyond providing early education and care to children of low-income families, from birth to age 5, the program helps them access other resources, including mental health services, SNAP benefits, homelessness assistance, and employment opportunities.
It also serves as daycare for parents who might not be able to afford it, while they’re at work.
Research has shown the importance of preschool in a child’s development with one 2023 study, focused on Boston public preschools, finding that it improves student behavior and increases the likelihood of high school graduation and college enrollment.
For Rickencia Clerveaux and Christopher Mclean, the Dorchester Head Start center is the only place they feel comfortable sending their 3-year-old son, Shontz, who is on the autism spectrum. Shontz’s stimming — repetitive movements that stimulate the senses — has reduced, and his speech has improved since he joined the center in 2024, Clerveaux said.
His parents say he’s also come out of his shell. Mclean now drops his son off and gets a simple “bye” as Shontz joins his classmates, he said.
He and Clerveaux said they appreciate the specialized attention Shontz can receive from teachers, such as when staff identified that Shontz might have hearing issues. His parents were able to follow up with their doctor and get Shontz to have surgery to improve his hearing.
“It’s a safe net for parents,” Clerveaux said. “There’s so many ways that him being here helps him grow better.”
Without Head Start, Clerveaux said a lot of pressure would be put on parents to find care for their children, “knowing that they’re already struggling or not getting the ends to meet.”
“That’s a burden for everybody in the community,” she said. “If there’s no funding, there’s no daycare and parents cannot work.”
Lauren Albano can be reached at lauren.albano@globe.com. Follow her on X @LaurenAlbano_.
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