The House Ways and Means FY 2013 Budget Proposal: MLRI's Preliminary Analysis of Selected Issues

MLRI has prepared a detailed analysis of how the House Ways and Means budget proposal for fiscal year 2013 will affect the state's poorest and most vulnerable residents in the areas of housing and homelessness, cash and nutrition assistance, health, child welfare and child care. The full House will debate the budget during the week of April 23, 2012.

Governor's FY 2013 Budget Proposal: MLRI's Preliminary Analysis of Selected Issues

On January 25, 2011, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2013 ("House 2").  MLRI issues its summary and preliminary analysis of selected accounts in House 2 relating to housing and homelessness, cash and nutrition assistance, health, child welfare, and child care line items.

House 2 does not propose major cuts in benefits or eligibility for most of the accounts discussed, except for the two main accounts serving homeless children and their families. House 2 would make most homeless children and their families ineligible for both emergency shelter and temporary rental assistance, rending the safety net for homeless families with children. House 2 does include important increases to other housing-related programs, but it would not ensure that homeless children and their families who would be rendered ineligible for shelter will be housed instead.

• The Governor’s FY 2013 Budget Proposal

MLRI Files Lawsuit to Protect Housing Admission Priorities of Homeless Families

On December 21, 2011, MLRI filed a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development ("DHCD") in Massachusetts Superior Court.  The lawsuit challenges DHCD's failure to comply with the state Legislature's directive in the FY 2012 budget requiring DHCD to issue regulations safeguarding the homeless-related housing admissions priorities of families receiving temporary rental subsidies such as HomeBASE.

Rather than protecting those priorities, DHCD issued an emergency regulation on September 16, 2011 and again on December 16, 2011 that denies the priority to almost all families receiving temporary rental subsidies - the opposite of what the statute mandates. As a result, families in time limited rental assistance programs--who formerly had a decent chance of coming to the top of the housing waiting list in a reasonable period of time--will now lose the opportunity for admission to state subsidized housing. These families, having been denied the homelessness-related priority, will likely have no reasonable chance of renting on the private market before their temporary subsidy expires, and may once again find themselves homeless.   For a copy of the complaint, see below:

MLRI Urges Super Committee to Protect Critical Safety Net Programs in Deficit Reduction Process

MLRI submitted a letter and Briefing Paper (see documents below) to Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, a member of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction ("Super Committee"), urging the Senator and his fellow Committee members to protect safety net programs from reductions during the deficit reduction deliberations.  MLRI's Briefing Paper, "The Need to Protect Vital Safety Net Programs," lays out key points and data that detail why it is critically important to protect programs that provide stabilization and support to low-income families, children, seniors and individuals with disabilities.

MLRI Advocacy Spotlight: Children & Families 

 On August 17, 2011, the Annie E. Casey Foundation released its 22nd annual KIDS COUNT Data Book, a national and state-by-state analysis of key indicators of child well being.  The 2011 KIDS COUNT report focuses on how our nation’s children have fared during the recession.  Its findings (summarized in the document below) are disturbing for the nation as a whole and provide important evidence for policy directions in Massachusetts. 

MLRI’s cross-substantive advocacy and deep expertise in multiple fields of poverty law enables it to have both a highly specialized and a big-picture understanding of the range of complex (and often interrelated) issues that adversely impact low-income populations and communities, impede family stability and serve as barriers to economic opportunity. As such, it is able to successfully advance comprehensive reforms that directly benefit low-income, vulnerable and underserved children in Massachusetts.  An overview of MLRI’S recent systemic reforms and initiatives on behalf of Massachusetts children are outlined in its recent report: "MLRI Child Advocacy: Achieving Stability & Opportunity for Low-Income Children in Massachusetts."