Shelter dollars in Mass. 'close to running out' as funding bill sits on Beacon Hill, Gov. Healey says

BOSTON — A panel of lawmakers tasked with delivering a compromise on a spending bill that includes hundreds of millions for the state-funded shelter system appears no closer to a deal as the cash left to pay for services dwindles.

Two top Beacon Hill budget writers are privately hashing out the differences between legislation that taps surplus revenues leftover from the pandemic to at least pay for shelter costs through the end of this fiscal year. A deal did not surface Monday when the House and Senate held brief informal sessions.

Gov. Maura Healey’s administration has said for weeks that it can use alternate pots of money to cover shelter spending until the Legislature delivers more cash. Healey said Tuesday that already allocated funding is drying up fast, echoing remarks made by lawmakers earlier this month.

“We know we’re coming up close to running out. We’re continuing to identify other resources that we might be able to use to cover things and we continue to work with and wait for the Legislature, who I know is working hard on coming up with a (supplemental) budget as we speak,” Healey told the Herald while walking to her office inside the State House.

The number of families with children and pregnant women in state-run shelters has hovered around 7,500 since the fall, when Healey unilaterally imposed a cap on the number of people in the system. An influx of migrants seeking shelter has placed a strain on services here.

The state has shelled out $528 million to pay for services as of April 18, according to a report released Monday by the Executive Offices of Housing and Livable Communities and Administration and Finance.

That is nearly all of the $575 million the Legislature has handed the administration to pay for services this fiscal year — $325 million in the fiscal year 2024 state budget and $250 million in a separate supplemental spending bill signed into law last year.

A spokesperson for Senate budget writer Michael Rodrigues, who is one of the lead negotiators on the pending spending bill that includes shelter dollars, said lawmakers working on a deal are “continuously engaged.”

“We are optimistic that we’ll have an agreement soon,” the spokesperson, Sean Fitzgerald, said in a statement to the Herald.

A spokesperson for House budget writer Aaron Michlewitz did not respond to a request for comment.

The two competing versions of the spending bill stuck on Beacon Hill differ in how much money is available, with the House proposing to hand over $245 million in surplus revenues in fiscal year 2024 and the Senate targeting up to $840 million over fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

Cash is running out quickly, with the administration reportedly spending $75 million a month to keep up with demand. Legislative budget writers have said money could run dry up this month, though Healey said Tuesday that a cash run-out date is a “moving target.”

“It’s a moving target because the numbers continue to move in terms of the number of people coming in, and also the number of people that we are able to exit,” she said in a brief interview. “It’s a fluid situation. I continue to call on Congress to act. They need to help here. The states are bearing the burden for what is a federal problem.”

Healey has long hammered Congress over what she argues is a lack of action on immigration reform, including the inability to pass federal legislation earlier this year that could have sent millions in aid to states like Massachusetts dealing with a surge of migrant arrivals.

During an interview on WBUR’s Radio Boston earlier in the day, Healey said “certain states” have had to bear a disproportionate burden of immigrant arrivals and she is “always worried” about the potential of running out of money.

“Over the last several months, a better part of a year, this has been a significant issue. And I have spoken with great urgency and intensity about the need for funding, certainly from the state but it can’t be all on the state,” she said.

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