There is actually no "right to shelter" in Massachusetts
"Right to shelter" law is "subject to appropriation"
The so-called “Right to Shelter Law”, is not an entitlement enshrined in the state constitution as the mainstream media would have you believe, but a social program subject to annual appropriation by the Massachusetts state legislature. The legislature could amend or repeal the appropriation at anytime.
The Commonwealth has no legal requirement to provide shelter, especially as a “right”, under the Emergency housing assistance program Chapter 23B, Section 30.
The conventional wisdom is that the state has no other choice but to house every qualified applicant, similar to a federal government entitlement program, but that is not true. Only New York City has a similar law as Massachusetts, both passed in the early 1980’s. New York City is under a consent decree to provide housing, which Mayor Adams is seeking to suspend, Massachusetts is not.
Governor Healey reportedly considered suspending the law according to the Boston Herald on September 8th. The Governor denied the report.
Speaker Ron Mariano acknowledged as much in an interview with the Boston Globe today, “Unless we get help, we are going to have some difficult decisions.”
Mariano was commenting after holding video conference with the state's entire congressional delegation on the crisis by design. Minority “leaders” Rep. Brad Jones and Sen. Bruce Tarr were not invited.
Over 6800 families (and growing) are being housed under the Emergency Assistance program, with over 3000 families in hotel/motels.
The first paragraph of Section 30 clearly states that the provision of Emergency Assistance shelter is entirely subject to funding approval by the state legislature: “Section 30. Subject to appropriation, the department shall administer a program of emergency housing assistance to needy families.”
The first words of the first paragraph of the law are crystal clear: “subject to appropriation.”
The current fiscal year the state approved $325 million of the shelter program, with Governor Healey already requesting an additional $250 million more, which would boost the total spending to near $600 million in this fiscal year alone.
But none of the spending is required by the state constitution or state law.
Jack, You write "Over 6800 families (and growing) are being housed under the Emergency Assistance program, with over 3000 families in hotel/motels." It would be interesting to find out how few are illegal migrant families (as you define "illegal" in reference to migrants)