Please join us online this Friday, February 23rd, for our next Housing and Benefits Committee meeting!

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February 20, 2024

Greetings!

It's almost time for our February Housing and Benefits Committee meeting, coming up this Friday, February 23rd, 10:00–11:30 a.m. on Zoom. Please RSVP and plan to join us!

Here is our agenda:

Welcome/Introductions

Overview of the Coalition's FY25 Budget Priorities and Governor Healey's FY25 State Budget Recommendations – Presented by Kelly Turley, Associate Director, Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless
See the Coalition's FY25 budget chart for details on our top priorities: https://tinyurl.com/mchfy2025
Governor Healey and Lieutenant Governor Driscoll filed their $56.1 billion FY25 budget proposal on January 24, 2024. See their press release here.
Other materials:
Statewide Summary
Line Item Summary
Outside Sections

Updates/Advocacy on Access to Counsel in the FY25 State Budget – Presented by Mark Martinez, Housing Attorney, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute
Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) provides statewide advocacy and leadership in advancing laws, policies, and practices that secure economic, racial, and social justice for low-income people and communities.
Access to Counsel Fact Sheet
FY25 budget request letters to Governor Healey from endorsing organizations of the Access to Counsel Campaign can be found here.
See Governor Healey's FY25 state budget recommendation for Access to Counsel here.

Updates on the Emergency Assistance Family Shelter System – Presented by Tyler Newhall, Director of Municipal Relations, Executive Office of Housing & Livable Communities (EOHLC) & Kelly Turley, Associate Director, Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless
The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) was established in 2023 to create more homes and lower housing costs for Massachusetts residents. EOHLC also distributes funding to municipalities, oversees the state-aided public housing portfolio, and operates the state's Emergency Family Shelter (EA) program.
As of February 12th, there were 748 families approved for Emergency Assistance family shelter and placed on the waiting list to access shelter.
Since passage of the supplemental budget in December, the Healey Administration has been required to submit biweekly EA reports to the Legislature. The reports, including the most recent report from February 12, 2024, can be found here.
Details on the Governor's latest supplemental budget request, focused on family homelessness resources, can be found on MCH's bill and budget priority page.
Check out some of the related EA news coverage in this Google Folder.

Invitation to the Coalition's Legislative Action Day
Please register today for Legislative Action Day 2024, taking place at the Massachusetts State House on Thursday, March 7th. This year's Legislative Action Day event will be hosted by State Representative Jim O'Day in the Great Hall (second floor). Registration will begin at 9:30 a.m., and the formal agenda will run 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Look forward to hearing from inspiring speakers, learning how to advocate with legislators, and meeting with your state legislators and legislative staff to talk about issues and policy recommendations to address homelessness in Massachusetts. Participants will meet with legislative offices in the afternoon. At Legislative Action Day, we will be pushing for key budget and bill priorities. Hope to see you there!
The Coalition will be offering a training on Zoom to help participants prepare to take part in our upcoming Legislative Action Day 2024. To register for the February 28th training from 10:30-11:30 a.m., please visit: http://tinyurl.com/lad24training.