BOSTON – The House of Representatives is looking for a way to make sure the emergency shelter crisis doesn’t get worse as winter comes.
However, with the capacity of safe shelters to be reached any moment, House Speaker Ron Mariano said lawmakers are still in need of a plan for when that happens
What You Need To Know
- The state House will vote on a supplemental budget that will add funding to the shelter crisis
- Gov. Maura Healey has enacted a 7,500 family cap on the state's shelter system
- The cap will be reached likely on Thursday or Friday this week
- Once the cap is reached, there is no plan for what happens to the first family who didn't get a bed
“People are still coming and what are we going to do with them?" Mariano, D-Norfolk, said. "We don’t have time to waste.”
The state Legislature is waiting for Gov. Maura Healey to give them a directive, since she was the one who enacted the cap on shelter spots. Healey has said she is looking to the federal government for help.
When asked on Wednesday, no one on Beacon Hill had an answer as to what happens to that first family placed on the wait list.
“Where are these people going to go?" Mariano said. :Where do they show up when show up at 7 o’clock on a Friday night? Are they going to go exactly to the Common and bed down for the night? Are they going to show up at the emergency room, are they going to show up at the police station or airport?”
There has been a small grant awarded for a safety net shelter, and on Wednesday the House voted to secure supplemental funding. But, that all takes time.
State Rep. David Leboeuf, D-Worcester, wants to pass the supplemental budget that will fund temporary shelters. He said it’s a matter of life and death.
“We need to do what we can to make sure that we don’t have people dying and children dying on the streets,” Leboeuf said.
Right now, it seems that the plan is that there is no plan. When the first family after the cap is reached looks for shelter, there may be nowhere for them to go.