What will the Bill do?
Currently in front of the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities is Homes for Families’ fourth legislative priority: S.111/H.202, or by the bill’s full name, “An Act Improving Emergency Housing Assistance for Children and Families Experiencing Homelessness.” If this bill becomes law, the government would be required to immediately start providing emergency housing for people who have experienced self-declared housing insecurity.
This bill would also establish an ombudsperson (an advocate) for participants of emergency housing programs such as EA Shelter and HomeBASE. If an issue arises in a program, such as a participant not having the required documentation, or when a conflict arises between participants and administrators, the ombudsperson can help mediate and resolve the issue. The ombudsperson is also tasked with writing an annual report to various legislative committees on these emergency housing programs. This report will provide information on program participants such as the number of requests for emergency housing assistance.
An important aspect of S.111/H.202 is that families in shelter programs will only be required to provide documentation if the state cannot find their information through State databases themselves. Participants will be notified within 30 days of entering the program of any information needed to determine their eligibility.
Lastly, this bill would allow applicants to self-certify their documentation for emergency housing eligibility during states of emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with this, emergency housing programs will continue for at least 90 days after the state of emergency has been declared over, and the 12-month waiting period that people must wait before re-entering housing programs that is currently in place would be waived.
S.111/H.202 currently has 35 total co-sponsors. To see if your Rep/Senator have signed on to support, check the MA Legislature website here:
H. 202: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/H202/BillHistory
S. 111: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/S111
How Can You Help?
We are asking for your help to continue to advocate for this bill by emailing or calling your state Representative and Senator.
You can find your State Representative and Senator HERE. These elected officials work for you, and it is immensely important that they hear from their constituents about what you want them to do as your representative. Here is a script you can use to email or call your representatives:
Dear Representative/Senator [NAME],
My name is [NAME] and I am Emailing on behalf of [ORGANIZATION]. I live in your district and wanted to talk to you about a piece of legislation that is crucial to helping end family homelessness in Massachusetts. This bill is incredibly important to me and I would really appreciate your advocacy around, especially by co-sponsoring the bill.
On any given night in our state, 18,471 people experience homelessness, a number that has more than doubled since 1990, and over 12,000 of them are in families with children. Since 2007, no other State in America has seen a larger increase in family homelessness. It doesn’t have to be this way! There are concrete laws that can be passed that will drastically transform Massachusetts into a State where homelessness really is brief, rare, and non-recurring.
As your constituent, here is the bill I’d like you to co-sponsor and support:
Find your Legislators: https://malegislature.gov/Legislators
Homes for Families: Opening Doors 