By Paul Tuthill
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Springfield, MA – Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed a 30 point six billion dollar state budget today for the fiscal year that began July First. The budget shifts funds now used to provide emergency shelter for homeless families into a new program that provides rental assistance and other support services.. WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports..
The new program, called HomeBASE, provides up to 4 thousand dollars in annual cash assistance to eligible families to prevent eviction, and failing that to rent a new apartment, pay utilities and cover other expenses.. The program also includes support services for the heads of the households to advance their education and find jobs, according to Sarah Page, Associate Executive Director of HAP Housing..
HAP, is one of several non-profits that will be administering the HomeBASE program under contract with the state .
The program is an outgrowth of work done for the last two years in different regions of the state to prevent families from going to emergency shelters, or move them out of shelters as rapidly as possible, according to Pamela Schwartz, the director of the Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness.
In late June, there were more than 15 hundred families living in motels in the state. It costs the state on average of 24 hundred dollars a month to put homeless families up in motels.. The state spent 161 million dollars on emergency assistance to homeless families in the last fiscal year. That is double what was spent five years ago.
Schwartz says the program's success for the long haul depends on the availability of affordable housing..
State Senator Gale Candaras says the state has to lower the costs of sheltering homeless families..
The compromise 30 point six billion dollar state budget approved by the House and Senate also included a boost in funding for shelters for homeless individuals. The budget set a minimum reimbursement rate of 20 dollars per bed per night.. That will effectively boost the reimbursement rate for Springfield's largest shelter, the Friends of the Homeless Resource Center. Executive director Bill Miller said without the higher rate, the shelter would have been forced to cut services.
Miller said the reimbursement to Friends of the Homeless, will still be below the state contract average of 30 dollars per bed.
Miller said the disparity is the result of contract payments that were based on earmarks continued from prior year state budgets.