Oooof, my friend.
The legislature has officially wrapped up formal sessions, meaning that essentially anything that hasn’t been passed can be considered dead now. And that includes our bill to shed light on Beacon Hill: the Sunlight Act. 🌚🪦
That’s right, the bill to require all committee votes to be publicly available online, to subject the governor’s office to public records law, and to expand public access to the hearing process has died in the Senate Ways + Means committee.
Among the other priorities that have been left on the table:
- Prison moratorium
- Preventing wage theft
- Right of state house staff to unionize
- Enhancing abortion access
- Medically-accurate, LGBTQ+ inclusive sex ed
- Same-day voter registration
And the list goes on and on…
While our legislators could technically pass bills all the way through the end of the year, the end of July marks the end of formal sessions, meaning anything from now on must be passed in informal sessions where votes are off the record and any single legislator can object and prevent a bill from passing.
Ah, aren’t you so glad we elected a democratic supermajority trifecta to pass crucial progressive policy? 🙃
There is a loophole here: technically, the legislature could call a special formal session and come back to vote on major policies. Our elected officials could choose to reconvene and hash out major priorities they promised, like a sweeping climate bill, addressing the Steward health crisis and impending community hospital closures, or funding our shelter program.
And to that I say: Do it, I dare you!
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State House Scoop
Healey imposes cruel limits and penalties for emergency overflow shelter stays
Speaking of the shelter system — eviction notices have gone out to 57 families staying in the emergency overflow shelters in accordance with Healey administration policy limiting the right-to-shelter in Massachusetts. Back in May, Healey imposed a 30-day limit on stays in overflow shelters with limited opportunities to reapply monthly. But now, the administration has slashed that to a 5-day limit and added a penalty making anyone who has stayed in an emergency overflow shelter ineligible for family shelter for 6 months.
Read that bold part back; soak in just how cruel it is.
We are in a state with an ostensible right to shelter. We are in a state that is run by a supermajority of Democrats. And yet this state is cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes for the wealthy and leaving our shelter system hundreds of millions of dollars underfunded.
My friend, you should be enraged.
But it only gets more disgusting from here. Along with these new policies comes a shift in language from the Healey administration, seemingly just euphemisms for her inhumane policies. The administration is trying to downplay the severity of these actions by now referring to emergency overflow shelters as “temporary respite centers.” And they’re “reticketing” dozens of families, which is a really soft way of saying they’re shipping people out of Massachusetts. How this policy is different from the relocation policies of Republican governors, which Healey previously regarded as “incredibly cruel” is unclear.
While our Democratic supermajority government continues to underfund our shelter system and evict people from homeless shelters, a new report has been released showing that the Greater Boston area has the 2nd highest homelessness rate in the country, growing by 27% between 2022 and 2023.
The report also found that racial disparities exist in the extremes when it comes to the unhoused population: the rate of unhoused Black people is 11 times higher than that of white people. The majority of people experiencing housing insecurity in Greater Boston are families. And by age group, the highest rate of homelessness is experienced by children under 18.
The new 5-day limit is a cruel, despicable, and deliberate policy choice by Maura Healey that is hurting the most vulnerable of our neighbors. And yet the Democratic Governor continues to send them eviction notices, to the streets, or with a one-way ticket out of Massachusetts.
Tell Governor Healey to repeal the shelter stay limits: (617) 725-4005
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Missed a Scoop or two? You can find a full archive of all past Saturday Scoops on our blog.
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Syd's Sprinkles: Analysis on the final, signed Housing Bond Bill
Welcome to Syd’s Sprinkles! A Scoop section where I, Sydney the Act on Mass Policy Fellow, tell you everything you need to know (or wish you didn’t) about the status of key issues before the Legislature.
The long-awaited Housing Bond bill finally made it out of the legislature and was signed by Healey this past week, with the final draft of the bill amounting to about $5 billion instead of the original $6.5 billion. With all of the changes that have been made to the bill, some believe that the force behind it has faded. The “historic” piece of legislation has left many activists and residents of Massachusetts disillusioned.
What made the final cut?
In addition to the 30% increase in spending on housing in the fiscal budget, the bill includes:
- Just over $2 billion toward the public housing system
- The right to build accessory dwelling units up to 900 square feet
- New tax credits for housing conversion projects
- Eviction records sealing for evictions due to specific reasons
- Bans on limiting the right of buyers to home inspections
- Expansions to seasonal communities designation
This all seems great, but these policies alone do little to impact the state’s ever-worsening housing crisis. And critically, there are still several key policies that were left out of the final bill.
What was left out?
While lead negotiator Senator William Brownsberger downplayed what was left out after negotiations — saying “lots of minor stuff is not in there” — the final version of the housing bond bill is deeply disappointing.
Several key proposals were left out of the final bill, which advocate and activist groups feel weakened the bill. The left-out proposals included:
- local options for transfer fees
- methods for easier passage of inclusionary zoning laws
- improving procurement measures for public transportation
- public housing redevelopment exemptions from certain requirements
- removal of home rule petition requirements for regionalization
- expansion of Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
- grants for rural and suburban housing
- requiring landlords to pay a broker's fee instead of residents
Housing Secretary Ed Augustus told reporters earlier this week that this legislation could create over 45,000 new units and preserve up to 27,000. However, the state is on track to have a shortage of over 220,000 housing units by 2030.
The so-called “minor stuff” that was left out of the final negotiations between the House and Senate could’ve prompted more impactful changes in housing to address the dire situation that the state and its residents are in.
Who’s to blame?
Beholden to the real estate lobby and paralyzed by inactivity, the Democratic-supermajority state legislature has passed a housing bond bill that is frankly disappointing. Since lawmakers are waiting until the end of the session to negotiate bills that have just been sitting on their desks, there is little time to really investigate certain policies and their projected impact or to hear from constituents about what would make a real difference in their day-to-day lives.
This disconnect in communication between and within the chambers in the State House has prevented deliberation and debate that could’ve saved major bills from losing key policies.
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In case you missed it: New blog post!
Between April 2023 and April 2024, nearly 400,000 people lost their MassHealth insurance coverage in a post-pandemic enrollment purge. Of these people, two-thirds lost their coverage due to providing “insufficient information”. But what prompted this stark decrease in enrollment in the state’s Medicaid program, also known as MassHealth?
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Take Action
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Save the Date: State House 101 at 6PM on 8/20
Save the date for our next workshop: State House 101, with Evan MacKay! On Tuesday, August 20th from 6-7:30PM, we'll be meeting virtually to give a workshop on all things Beacon Hill. We'll discuss the impacts of consolidating power, democratic dysfunction, and the lack of transparency on issues that matter most to Cambridge residents and Bay Staters at large: housing, public transit, climate change, and more.
Keep an eye out next week for the link to RSVP!
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Wooof. If you're feeling despair, rage, or hopelessness, you are not alone my friend. But that rage can also fuel your power: rant to a friend about something you read about today! Call Governor Healey (617-725-4005) and tell her to lift the shelter stay limits! Find the groups in your community that are working to support your neighbors experiencing housing insecurity and volunteer or donate!
Oh my cod, it's brutal out there. But our job is to dream of a better world, and then make it that way.So by golly, let's go make it that way.
- Brenna
Brenna Ransden (she/her)
Acting Executive Director, Act on Mass