Funds depleted, shelters full, Healey urges using transitional escrow to pay costs

BOSTON - Local service organizations, nongovernmental agencies and immigrant advocates throughout Massachusetts have stepped up “from the beginning” to help the migrants being lodged on an emergency basis in the state.

In Gardner, providers have helped with English-language classes, connecting migrants with services and even providing food, clothing and information for accessing medical care.

“Our top priority has been to get individuals work permits from the federal government,” said Rep. Jonathan Zlotnik, D-Gardner. “We’ve made a lot of progress, it’s happened quicker than expected. We were initially told it may take four to six months to move the paperwork. Now almost all those eligible to work have received work permits.”

Some, Zlotnik said, are still waiting for their paperwork. However, the process of finding jobs has started, with some migrants already placed and others in the employment pipeline.

“We will find them all jobs,” Zlotnik said. He praised local partners Mount Wachusett Community College, the Gardner CAC and local churches for their work offering English-language classes to families living in the city.

“There has been positive progress. Helping the new residents has been a top priority since the summer,” Zlotnik said. He has yet to study the governor’s report but said a total cost and a plan for going forward is definitely needed.

Where families are lodged in Worcester County

According to a report released by the Healey/Driscoll administration Monday, there are 38 families lodged in Gardner and a total of 818 families in communities throughout Worcester County. The largest number of migrants, 303 families, have been lodged by state agencies in Worcester. Westborough is host to 105 families, Shrewsbury to 74 families and Milford to 64 families.

To qualify for a spot in the state's shelter system, migrant families must have entered the country legally under federal immigration laws. Those finding their way to Massachusetts hail from countries in Central and South America and have either applied for asylum, been granted temporary protected status or are otherwise lawfully present. Local families must meet different criteria to qualify for emergency shelter including financial restrictions.

As of Monday when the report was released, there were 7,532 families in shelters, roughly half of them, 3,516 families, who were identified as migrants, and about 200 additional families on the waiting list. That list was created in October when Gov. Maura T. Healey capped the system at 7,500 families, claiming the state was running out of lodgings, service providers and funds to care for the influx of migrants and those families with Massachusetts roots who find themselves in crisis and homeless.

In the report, Healey outlines her plan to fund the state’s emergency shelter system at least halfway through fiscal 2025 by using the state’s transitional escrow fund, now estimated at $700 million to pay for lodging, services and the creation of additional housing and development incentives throughout the state.

The fund, created by former Gov. Charlie Baker in 2021 with a nest egg of almost $1.5 billion of surplus funds, was created to ensure funding for fiscal 2022 appropriations, according to a 2021 report issued by the state comptroller’s office. While drawdowns on the fund have diminished it, Healey has earmarked the remainder for the state’s shelter system.

Massachusetts has currently spent $205 million in fiscal 2024 on funding the emergency shelter system and has disbursed an additional $3.03 million to school districts to support the added burdens placed on certain districts including increased enrollments and the need for bilingual teaching and support staff. In July, the state Legislature authorized the appropriation of $325 million for emergency shelters.

What the state allocated to Worcester County school districts

Worcester County school districts have received almost $800,000, with Worcester receiving $436,280, Westborough $186,992, Shrewsbury $102,648 and Oxford $71,552.

Data indicates that most families spend more than a year in the state’s emergency shelter system once they have qualified for aid. That average length of time was used as the basis for calculating future costs of maintaining the shelter system through the end of fiscal 2025.

The report predicts the state will be $224 million short in fiscal 2024 despite a boost of $260 million into the system approved by the Legislature in the supplemental or closeout budget passed last month. It also expects the costs to top $915 million in fiscal 2025.

“Fundamentally, the crisis of family homelessness requires a multifaceted set of policies including shelter, supportive services, education and workforce training, and affordable housing programs that enable families to leave shelter and ultimately move on to stable housing,” according to authors Matthew Gorzkowicz, secretary of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance, and Edward M. Augustus Jr., Executive Office for Housing and Livable Communities.

In the report, the authors said, “Thankfully, the state has the resources available in Transitional Escrow to put a plan in place that will address FY24 and much of FY25 without requiring offsetting budget cuts to other programs to meet the spending requirements of the family shelter crisis.”

In addition, the governor proposes to transfer a portion of the escrow account, $150 million, to the emergency housing and community trust fund to invest in “housing production and preservation” and create dwelling options that are affordable to low-wage earners.

How the escrow fund will be distributed:

• $148 million for support services and safe shelter — case management, housing searches, public health costs, community supports, child care, workforce training and English-language supports

• $67 million for school districts and unhoused K-12 students, increased enrollments, special education services, language supports and recruitment of multilingual staff

• $10 million for specialized immigration and refugee health and community supports

The administration estimates it will hold $326 million in reserve for fiscal 2025.

While Zlotnik supports the administration’s plans to increase housing throughout Massachusetts, he noted that a two-bedroom apartment in his district can cost between $1,200 and $1,500 a month, more affordable than similar apartments in other Massachusetts communities.

“There are some vacancies, but there’s not a plethora either,” Zlotnik said, adding the lack of housing of all types is a problem that has been building for decades.

Lack of dwellings, lack of affordability key issues

“The housing shortage did not happen overnight,” Zlotnik said, noting that it will not be resolved overnight, either. Construction of multifamily dwellings has been few and far between for years, although with the Healey/Driscoll administration’s support, there are new developments being approved and in the pipeline, he said. “They should be coming online in the next few years.”

Sky-high housing costs, a fact of life in Greater Boston, have been creeping westward in recent years, Zlotnik said.

“I’m looking at the house across the street from me that just went on the market for $300,000. I never thought that there would be a house selling for $300,000 on my street,” Zlotnik said.

12.18.2023 EA Report Packet-Final (1) by Michael Elfland on Scribd

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: MA emergency shelter could cost close to $1 billion through FY25