Maura's plan to raise the rent on working class families by shifting illegals into apartments
Shift from hotels to apartments for illegals floods rental market with subsidies and increased demand - Pilot program not going well
Maura Healey’s shift from the failing Healey Hotel strategy toward housing illegals in apartments will increase rents in working class communities throughout the Commonwealth by infusing the rental market with a flood of state subsidy dollars and increased demand in state where “Rent Is [already] Too Damn High.”
Of course the state has no obligation to house “migrants, refugees or asylum seekers.” Massachusetts is the only state with an illegal immigrant electromagnet: the Shelter Law, which could be amended to require a strict citizenship requirement.
But that would turn off the potential voter and low wage worker pipeline, so the Democrat super majority will never consider taking that action.
Hence the strategy from here is one of failure management.
You might remember Jimmy McMillian from his campaign as the nominee of the “Rent is Too Damn High Party” for NY governor back in 2010. A populist, Jimmy endorsed Donald Trump in 2016, and epitomizes what many people feel about Massachusetts in 2024 - living here is unaffordable, especially housing.
Healey’s plan which will make Massachusetts even more expensive for working class families has been in motion for sometime as detailed by a December 2023 CommonwealthBeacon opinion piece “A better way to deal with the state’s shelter crisis” authored by Alexandra Weber and Jeff Thielman both of the International Institute of New England.
Thielman is a frequently quoted advocate of on the “resettlement strategy” Healey now plans employ to shift migrants from hotels to the rental market. Thielman he told Fox25 in March: “Our goal is to move 400 families from hotels and shelters into apartments and more permanent housing by the end of the calendar year.”
International Institute of New England is also one of eight non-profits receiving $8 million in state money to pilot the resettlement strategy this year.
It is not going well.
According to the Resettlement Agency Report released November 18th: “As of the end of October, a total of 57 immigrants and refugee families have been resettled into long-term housing through the efforts of the RAs funded through this appropriation, while 73 have signed leases and appear poised to move.”
Remember, Thielman’s goal for the program was 400 families by the end of the year, even if you include the 73 "families poised to move” the program has resettled only 130 families into long-term housing (apartments) far less than half the goal with only two months left in the year.
One of the many problems? Demand for apartments is high and supply is low.
In speaking with Fox25 Thielman acknowledged the housing shortage.
“So, we are going to have to be creative in terms of casting a very broad geographic net. We are going to have to go to parts of the state and parts of the regions we haven’t looked at before. I’m sure,” he said.
Consequently shifting thousands of families from hotels to apartments will increase demand and of course price, all while most likely taking, if the pilot program is any indication, much longer than Healey predicts. The state reported 7115 families in Emergency Assistance housing at end of this week.
How does Healey intend to speed the transition of migrants, refugees or asylum seekers into the apartment rental market? A massive increase in government subsidies.
Healey announced Friday that her new “supplemental budget will also propose to increase the amount of the HomeBASE rental stipend from $15,000 per family per year to $25,000 per family per year.”
And with no sense of irony, Healey declared she’s doing this “to better reflect current rental market prices” which will only go up more with increased government money flooding the marketplace.
Making apartments even more expensive for working people not receiving the subsidy.
The Healey administration did not reveal how much more she’ll seek for the HomeBASE program going forward.
But the state has been beefing up HomeBASE for several years (not a bad program if restricted to a citizenship requirement). “The state has significantly increased funding for housing stabilization programs like HomeBASE since the start of the most recent surge in demand, from $32 million in FY 2017 to $57 million in FY 2025, and Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT), from $13 million in FY 2017 to $197 million in FY 2025. These programs are designed to prevent families from experiencing homelessness or to exit and divert families from shelter in order to ensure that families’ stays in shelter are brief, rare, and non-recurring,” according to the Special Commission Report.
Until a strict citizenship requirement is adopted for the shelter law, the rent going higher.
The shelter law should not need to state not for illegals when we are under the hood of federal law that already restricts illegal immigration.
She and anyone ok with this is a treasonist
From Healey's Nov 22nd Press Release:
"More needs to be done so that Massachusetts taxpayers do not continue to be on the hook for this federal problem."
Healey and her administration chose to declare Massachusetts a sanctuary state, refused to enforce a residency requirement for the Right to Shelter Law, and passed supplemental spending bills to provide welfare entitlements to illegal immigrants who would otherwise be ineligible for benefits. Now she wants to increase migrant housing subsidies by 66%. And still she shirks responsibility for the fiscal impact to taxpayers, saying that this is a federal problem.