Legislative & Advocacy Alerts Archive
Here you will find an archive of past MHSA legislative activities and alerts from 2008.
Click here to return to current Legislative Alerts page.
Click here for updates from 2006-2007.
SUMMER 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.
JANUARY 2008
Governor Patrick Releases House 2 Budget for Fiscal Year 2009
On January 23, 2008 Governor Deval Patrick released his FY 09 budget recommendations for the Commonwealth, containing good news for homeless people. A new line item,1599-1004, was instituted and funded at $8.25 million to execute the wide-scale recommendations of the Commission to End Homelessness. Governor Patrick's budget also included $1.75 million through MassHousing for a total of $10 million dedicated to the goal of ending homelessness in Massachusetts.
“Once again, Governor Patrick has demonstrated his commitment to ending homelessness in the Commonwealth,” said MHSA Executive Director Joe Finn. “We are on the cusp of a revolution in the way homelessness is addressed in Massachusetts. These resources will be critical in moving us ever closer to solving, rather than just managing, the problem.”
In the coming months, MHSA will monitor the budget as it moves through the House and Senate and continue to advocate for the needs of chronically homeless individuals. Please click here for a comparative analysis between the final FY 08 budget and Governor Patrick's FY 09 recommendations.
FEBRUARY 2008
State Commission Releases Plan to End Homelessness
Report emphasizes prevention, housing, and asset development
On January 28, 2008 the Massachusetts Commission to End Homelessness publicly released its five-year plan for ending homelessness in the Commonwealth at Project Place in Boston. The report offers wide-scale recommendations for both homeless individuals and families and emphasizes a need to “target the right resources to the right people at the right time.”
The commission, co-chaired by Undersecretary for the Department of Housing and Community Development Tina Brooks and Representative Byron Rushing (pictured above), was an assembly of state and local officials from the executive, legislative and judicial branches as well as service providers and advocates. MHSA Executive Director Joe Finn, who spoke at the event, was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick to serve on the commission and was given the added responsibility of chairing the commission’s Individuals Working Group.
Commission co-chairs Brooks and Rushing commented on the report and took questions from audience members. Additional speakers included Sue Beaton, executive director of One Family, Inc., Philip Mangano, founder of MHSA and executive director of United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Julia Kehoe, Commissioner of the Department of Transitional Assistance, and more.
Pictured above left: Joe Finn, Philip Mangano, State Representative Kay Khan, Tina Brooks, and Vin Perrone of Massachusetts Veterans, Inc.
Pictured above right: Joe Finn and Tina Brooks
The report highlights:
• A three-pronged focus on prevention, housing placement and asset development as key strategies for ending homelessness.
• A tiered approach to ending homelessness that describes differing levels of need and appropriate interventions among four specific subpopulations: transitionally homeless individuals; people discharged from state institutions into homelessness; long-term homeless shelter stayers with moderate service needs; and long-term homeless street dwellers with intensive service needs.
• A strong emphasis on prioritizing the needs of long-term homeless persons through an expansion of permanent supportive housing.
• A shift in the use of shelters away from their role as de facto, and often long-term, housing and back to their original purpose as temporary, emergency facilities to be used in times of crisis.
• The creation of Regional Coordinating Entities to coordinate access to a broad array of housing stabilization services.
The report will be passed along to the Massachusetts Interagency Council on Homelessness and Housing for implementation. Acknowledging the significance and promise of the plan, Governor Patrick recommended $10 million in his proposed FY 09 state budget to carry out its recommendations. To view the entire commission report, click here.
APRIL 2008
House Ways & Means Committee Releases FY 09 Budget
Proposal aims to end homelessness in Massachusetts
On April 16, the House Ways & Means Committee released its FY 09 budget proposal. In good news for homeless people, the proposal contains $10 million for the recommendations of the Commission to End Homelessness.
Earlier this year, Governor Patrick released his FY 09 budget recommendations, introducing line item 1599-1004. This new line item was instituted and funded at $8.25 million to execute the wide-scale recommendations of the Commission to End Homelessness. The funding plan also included $1.75 million through MassHousing for a total of $10 million dedicated to the goal of ending homelessness in Massachusetts. "The revolution in the way homelessness is addressed in Massachusetts continues," said MHSA Executive Director Joe Finn. "With these funds, the House has demonstrated that they are committed to ending, not managing, homelessness."
