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| home | join | contact | cle | sections | calendar | search | updated: April 17, 2008 | |
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| State House News Service Articles and Special Offer
Sign up now for a month-long free trial subscription and then continue it with your BBA discount. "BIG EXPERIMENT" TO END HOMELESSNESS BY 2013 TO GET $10 MILLION IN HOUSE BUDGET By Michael Norton STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, APRIL 15, 2008…..The House budget due for release Wednesday will include $10 million sought by Gov. Deval Patrick to advance experimental policy changes aimed at ending homelessness in Massachusetts within five years. House leaders were intrigued by the proposal since it was recommended by a special commission and because of its promise to move homeless individuals out of shelters and into permanent housing, a shift viewed by many on Beacon Hill as more cost effective than the current spread of state supports and services. The initiative was promoted Monday by House leaders in advance of a fiscal 2009 state spending plan that is likely to push state spending higher, investing heavily in local aid, education and health care while cutting back on unspecified accounts to comport with predictions of slower revenue growth. The full House budget, including cuts and other controversial plans, will be unveiled on Wednesday at noon. "This is a tight budget year and we are obviously going to be talking about the efficiencies, savings and cuts to the state budget but it is also important to make smart investments and expansions," said David Guarino, spokesman for House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi. "We put cities and towns first with a $223 million local aid increase, or more than 6 percent when state revenues are expected to increase only 3.8 percent. We are also making a significant investment in homelessness because the Speaker, like the Governor, believes that with the right kind of spending and the right ideas, we can end homelessness in the Commonwealth." To pay for the so-called "housing first" initiative, the House budget will appropriate $8.25 million for the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, with MassHousing committed to setting aside $1.75 million. Gov. Patrick recommended a similar funding breakdown back in January. According to Patrick's budget, the initial funding is needed to advance the recommendations of the Special Commission to End Homelessness and help the state towards its "immense" goal of ending homelessness by 2013. Patrick sees the effort as part of a "comprehensive systems change" towards permanent housing and away from emergency shelters. A pilot program is envisioned to "develop the new service delivery model" along with rental and emergency assistance for homeless individuals. Rep. Byron Rushing (D-Boston), co-chairman of the 30-member commission, believes the commission's recommendations are workable and if properly funded, should lead to the decommissioning of most shelter beds and reallocation of funds to prevent homelessness. The commission, noting the state supports more than 2,900 individual emergency shelter beds and nearly 1,900 family beds, envisions shelters eventually functioning strictly for emergency, short-term residency. The most recent "snapshot" points to 5,000 homeless families in Massachusetts and 24,000 more homeless individuals, Rushing said. "This is the big experiment," Rushing told the News Service. "What we are just very, very pleased about is that the House has looked at this and Ways and Means has agreed that the plan is reasonable and that the investment is worth it in these tough times." The state currently spends between $120 million and $160 million directly on shelters and related assistance programs, Rushing said. The $10 million requested for next year would be in addition to those funds. "We will need about this amount of money every year if it works," Rushing said. "We are not saying that this is going to save the Commonwealth money. We're saying that without expending a huge amount of additional money, we are going to be able to reallocate the money that is being spent on this population by putting them into permanent housing." |
