The Massachusetts House of Representatives’ budget chief told the Healey administration Wednesday that the branch needs more information before it can act on Gov. Maura Healey’s family shelter funding and reform plans.
House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz asked for answers to more than two pages of questions by Monday, Jan. 27. The questions were included in a letter to Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz and Housing Secretary Edward Augustus, a copy of which was obtained by the State House News Service.
The committee has been weighing the $425 million shelter mini-budget (H 51) since Jan. 9. Healey added additional proposals to reform the 1983 Right to Shelter Law into the mix in a Jan. 15 letter to top lawmakers.
Gorzkowicz said Wednesday that existing funding for the shelter system is due to run out around Jan. 31, give or take a week. Michlewitz acknowledged the timeline in his letter, noting the “time-sensitive” nature of the spending portion of the bill to keep the shelters running.
“Now as the House continues discussing the Governor’s request it is important for our Members to understand how the [Emergency Assistance] system is currently operating. The Governor’s request for changes to the Right to Shelter Law, a law that has been in place for 42 years, is significant and would have major implications that we need to better understand. For the House to move forward with H.51 and the Governor’s request for changes to the EA system, we need more information on the impact of the potential modifications to the EA system and its beneficiaries,” Michlewitz wrote to the Cabinet secretaries.
The Boston Democrat’s questions cover impacts on school systems, safety and security of the Emergency Assistance program, citizenship and residency requirements, and general background. Some inquiries try to get a handle on ongoing costs related to the family shelter system.
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The state has been aiding school districts that have seen influxes of students because of the homelessness crisis. When Healey filed her bill, she said the $425 million pot of money would include continued aid to districts.
Michlewitz asked for more detail this week, writing: “Do you anticipate continuing to provide $104 per student per day through the remainder of FY25? If yes, how frequently will you monitor and verify enrollment numbers to ensure districts are receiving the necessary resources?”
Healey’s reform ideas shared on Jan. 15 included strengthening criminal background checks for shelter residents, requiring that all family members in shelters prove lawful U.S. residency, and restricting eviction-based eligibility for shelters to people who were evicted from residences in Massachusetts.
The governor’s Jan. 15 letter did not include an estimate of how her latest reforms would affect state spending on the system. When she unveiled the initial bill, she said it aimed to cut shelter costs from the current level, around $1 billion this year and last, down to around $400 million.
Michlewitz asked Healey’s Cabinet members for the latest numbers: the overall amount by which her Jan. 15 proposal would “bring down the costs” from fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2026, and a “detailed breakdown of each proposed change and the fiscal impact.”
Healey did not file legislation to implement some of her reforms, leaving the technical wording to lawmakers. Michlewitz asked whether she intended the changes to be temporary, and if so, when they would sunset.
President Donald Trump was inaugurated five days after Healey’s letter, and the president immediately set about issuing executive orders that affect the right of citizenship. Gorzkowicz and Augustus were asked to explain how Trump’s orders would affect the shelters and the Jan. 15 reform proposal.
The shelter crisis burst back into the headlines in January following the arrest of 28-year-old Leonardo Andujar Sanchez, a Dominican national living at a Revere family shelter with his girlfriend. Sanchez allegedly had five kilograms of fentanyl and a loaded AR-style rifle in the room. The administration ultimately said it had not been running comprehensive background checks on shelter residents as it had previously claimed.
While Healey’s reform list would require CORI checks before families are placed in shelters, some lawmakers have raised red flags and said that the CORI (Mass. Criminal Offender Record Information) system would not capture crimes committed in other countries.
Rep. Steven Xiarhos, a Barnstable Republican who served 40 years as a police officer, said at a press conference this month that it was not enough to rely on a CORI check, which “is just Massachusetts records.”
“We had someone living at Joint Base Cape Cod that was a wanted murderer from another country. How did that happen? … There should be what we used to call a universal check, where you’re able to check someone with hopefully legitimate identification, what their records are all over the world,” Xiarhos said.
Michlewitz also quizzed the administration about going beyond a simple CORI check.
“Have you considered other types of background checks,” he wrote, “besides, or in addition to, a CORI as CORIs are unlikely to uncover any criminal or other conduct of migrants? What other types of background checks or other checks have you considered? What other types of background checks are being performed in other states?”
And Michlewitz sought to drill down on who, exactly, is in the shelters. He asked for the number of shelter residents who are U.S. citizens but are not Massachusetts residents, asked how residency is currently verified, and asked how the state is defining a “family unit” and what family members are included in shelter eligibility.
Both Healey and Michlewitz are top Democrats on Beacon Hill, and the extent of questions in the chairman’s letter raises questions about the level of communication occurring between the Legislature and the Executive Branch.
The Ways and Means chairman forwarded his letter to fellow House members Thursday morning and told them he looked forward to working with them on the issue “in the days and weeks ahead.”
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