Legislative & Advocacy Alerts
MHSA, partnering with its member agencies, works with legislators and government officials to re-orient responses to homelessness from emergency services to permanent solutions. Bookmark this page and check back often for our most recent advocacy alerts. Click here to retrieve contact information for your state and federal legislators. Let them know you are committed to ending homelessness! Click here for past legislative and advocacy alerts.
LATE SPRING 2009
The Senate released its proposal for the FY10 budget on May 21, 2009. There are a number of discrepancies between this Senate version and the House version of the budget. These differences will need to be resolved in the upcoming Conference Committee. The Senate appointed Senators Panagiotakos, Brewer and Knapik to a conference committee on the matter. They will confer with Representatives C. Murphy, L’Italien and DeMacedo.
Click here for an updated analysis of the House 1 budget. This is an analysis of the line items that MHSA traditionally follows:
- The Senate and House passed budgets that level funded the line item for Services for Homeless Individuals, 7004-0102 (formerly 4406-3000) and the Home & Healthy for Good line item (7004-0104). The Senate consolidated these two line items into one line item (7004-0102).
- The Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP), in line item 7004-9024, is funded at $35,797,061 in the House version and $27,997,096 in the Senate.
- Tenancy Preservation Program (TPP), in line item 7004-3045, has been cut in half in the Senate proposal to $250,000. The House has level funded TPP at $500,000.
Click here for the Commonwealth's budget process page. MHSA will continue its tracking and will analyze the budget that is released by the Conference Committee. It is expected that the budget will be sent to the Governor by July 1, 2009.
SPRING 2009
House Ways & Means Committee Releases FY 10 Proposed Budget
Line items 4406-3000 and 4406-3010 have been level funded in the new “Homeless Individuals Assistance” line items, 7004-0102 and 7004-0104. These changes reflect the Administration’s decision to move the homeless and housing programs from the Department of Transitional Assistance to Department of Housing and Community Development.
MHSA will continue to analyze the House Ways & Means proposal. Additionally, MHSA will review total state spending on homelessness and look at other areas where homeless individuals may be impacted.
Click here to see a comparison of last year’s budget with some 9C cuts, the Governor’s proposal and the House Ways & Means proposal.
Click here to visit the FY 2010 Budget Process Web site.
WINTER 2009
House 1 Budget Released
On January 28, Governor Deval Patrick released his FY10 budget recommendations. These recommendations include several changes in how homelessness funding would be organized – changes that could have a significant impact on homelessness policy in the Commonwealth.
Due to the proposed reorganization of homeless services from the Department of Transitional Assistance to the Department of Housing and Community Development, many of the line items that MHSA tracks have been consolidated in the new budget.
- Line items 4406-3000 and 4406-3010 have been level funded in the new “Homeless Individuals Assistance” line item, 7004-0102.
- Other homeless funding has been consolidated into line item 7004-0100.
- Other homeless programs have also been consolidated into larger agency administration line items. The Special Initiative to House the Homeless Mentally Ill (5046-2000) has been consolidated under 5046-0000 and the Residential Placement for Homeless Elders has been consolidated into a new line item (9110-1800).
Click here to see a comparison to last year’s final budget.
Click here to read a Q & A with ICHH Executive Director Robert Pulster regarding Article 87, the proposed restructuring of emergency shelter programs from Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) to Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).
