Gov's Housing Veto Stirs Anger, Confusion

Alison Kuznitz|SHNS

The creation of hundreds of affordable housing units meant to support people with complicated physical and mental health needs could be jeopardized as a result of Gov. Maura Healey's decision to slash funding for a program in the new state budget, housing providers say.

The Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, a nonprofit and advocacy organization, has been urging lawmakers to override Healey's veto that cut $2.5 million to the Home and Healthy for Good (HHG) program, CEO Joyce Tavon told the News Service Thursday. The alliance describes itself as the lead project planner and leasing manager for projects in Lynn, Chelsea and Everett.

"We're in a housing crisis," Tavon said, as she asked rhetorically why the Healey administration chose to cut funding for what's viewed as a successful program like HHG. "We know that overall as a state, it's been defined as we need over 200,000 units by the end of the decade, and we have shown that within that, we need really 10,000 of those units to be supportive housing for all of these vulnerable populations who have experienced long-term homelessness and disabling conditions."

Compounding the governor's veto, the alliance is concerned by a surge of homeless encampments cropping up around the state, including in Worcester, Plymouth and Norfolk counties, Tavon said. The housing crunch is also exacerbated by the surge of immigrants who are coming into Massachusetts and straining the state's emergency shelter system.

In a veto document, Healey said she was striking budget language that "earmarks funding not necessary for the operation of the program" and reducing HHG funding "to the amount projected to be necessary." Her veto left about $6.4 million for the program.

Top House and Senate Democrats have given no indication when they'll resume formal sessions where votes on veto overrides can be taken. Lawmakers are in the midst of an extended recess that began at the end of July.

Sen. Lydia Edwards, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Housing, told the News Service Thursday she couldn't commit to supporting an override effort without seeing whether the administration's forthcoming bond bill to address housing affordability and availability crisis incorporates any additional HHG money. During a tour of housing projects in western Massachusetts last week, providers voiced concerns about Healey's veto, Edwards said.

"I need to speak extensively with the secretary of housing and governor to understand what this means," Edwards said of Healey's veto.

Spokespeople for the administration didn't answer News Service questions about why Healey chose to cut HHG funding, as well as what data officials used to inform the decision. Officials did point to $436 million in emergency shelter funding in the budget Healey signed that can be used to build supportive housing.

"Our Administration is proud that our budget includes record funding for emergency and individual shelter programs as well as critical investments in permanent supportive housing," a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said in a statement Thursday. "To build on this progress the Administration intends on filing a housing bond bill in the fall of 2023 to further invest in and implement policies that support housing production."

Tavon praised the flexibility of HHG dollars, which can close financial gaps when building, opening and running permanent supportive housing projects. She said a $2 million boost to the HHG program in last year's budget helped support nearly 350 new units for people who are chronically homeless, according to a July report from the alliance.

Worcester Community Housing Resources received its first round of $250,000 in HGG funding in the last fiscal year for a project that will convert a 114-room hotel into 90 units of permanent supportive housing, said executive director Jennifer Schanck-Bolwell.

The money is covering some pre-development expenses, but Schank-Bolwell said the organization was aiming to secure another $1 million for upcoming construction and operational expenses. The not-for-profit organization is now worried whether that money will be available this year -- and if not, if their project might be delayed, she said.

Healey's funding cut is "definitely a detriment" to the affordable housing field, said Schank-Bolwell, who stressed the HHG program is serving vulnerable residents who are limited in their ability to pay rent.

"Flexible funds are a very rare thing to get for anything -- especially these kinds of projects are very hard to finance because you're renting to people at the lowest income, so you don't have a lot of wiggle room in the financing," Schank-Bolwell said. "These projects are really hard to get off the ground."

Schank-Bolwell said Worcester Community Housing Resources intends to urge Healey to restore the HHG funding that was included in the compromise budget that lawmakers approved.

Tavon said the HHG program ultimately saves money, particularly for medical costs by connecting residents -- many of whom have repeatedly cycled through emergency and acute care facilities -- with long overdue treatment. Through case managers, residents in supportive housing units are also connected to other resources, such as transportation, job training and education about life skills like budgeting, Tavon said.

Of the governor's $2.5 million funding reduction, Tavon said $2 million was new funding intended to bolster resources for new housing units. Tayvon said the other $500,000, which has appeared in a separate line item in past budgets, was earmarked for the alliance to pursue longer-term planning and policymaking surrounding homelessness and emergency shelter, among other areas.

"For many years there was no increase in funding," Tavon said. "It was in recent years, as we've given more attention to the housing crisis, that we were finally seeing some increases and this ability to broaden the pot."